Fabric, Two Ways

Even though I didn't make it to San Francisco for PR Weekend this year, I thank all the ladies for sending their mojo eastward while they were busy drinking mimosas and buying fabric.

This weekend, I sewed for myself for the first time in ages.  I just haven't felt like it; it's not as though I've put personal sewing aside to work on the crafty sewing.  But Saturday afternoon, with a pile of work on the table, reproaching me, I pushed it aside and went to the fabric shelves.

They've been neat and tidy ever since I got my new shelving unit.  Even when the rest of the room looks like someone's been dumpster diving, the fabric shelves have looked good.  Fact: they still do, there's just one roll missing.  (I have to be neat somewhere, I guess).

A while back, before I left work, Andrea showed me this free pattern she'd found, the Tessuti top.  I was a little skeptical - it looked a little shapeless.  But some of the examples she showed me were cute, so I downloaded a copy of it which has been sitting on a table in my living room ever since.

Andrea got down to it and made the top almost immediately, and it was way cuter in person.  It doesn't have a lot of shape, but it doesn't make you look shapeless, if that makes sense.  And don't we all occasionally need something cute that drapes but doesn't cling?

Friday night I taped the pattern together, and considered my shelves.  There were a few fabrics that called out to me, but I chose this NY print (purchased at Mood a year or two ago, I believe in the company of Elizabeth).  It originally was going to be a dress, but I decided that the knit was too soft and t-shirty to successfully make it as a dress.  And I hate when I make something out of a fabric that I love and it just doesn't last.  This didn't have dress staying power, so I decided to use it for the Tessuti top.  Since it's only one pattern piece front and back, I could use a large swath of the print  uninterrupted.

I only changed one feature about the top - I absolutely hate just turning edges under and stitching on knits.  There's too big a chance that it's going to ripple or stretch or do something unspeakable that will make me not wear it, or have to cut around it and end up with a bigger neckline.  So I made a binding, which went on quickly and looks much cleaner to my eyes.

There was a good bit of fabric left over.  Considering the size of those single pattern pieces, I was surprised.   KwikSew t-shirt?  Tank top?  I thought about making a tank to wear under the Tessuti, so there would be no inadvertent flashing, and I had figured out I wanted to combine my leftover print wtih a solid aqua remnant that I had, but when I looked for the fabric, it wasn't there.  (Actually, I can't find any of my knit remnants, not just the ones I recently gifted to Andrea for her super secret project).

So I decided to go for a top that I've made before, but not for a while - KS 2694.   I wasn't sure if I'd have enough fabric, but I went for it, and somehow I did.  Even enough for sleeves.  Once again, I banded the neckline instead of turning it under.

So there you have it.  One fabric, two completely different looks, and two tops in one weekend from someone who hasn't sewn for herself in about two months.

Now if I could just find three spools of black thread, I could coverstitch these babies and call them finished.

Pattern Review Weekend - The Fabrics

I can't talk about a PR Weekend without talking about fabric.  It's as essential as the friendships that are made and the friends who are re-encountered year after year, having aged not a bit, but whose wardrobes have expanded exponentially.

Since I had just been to NYC recently (remember the trip with Mario, when I wasn't going to buy any fabric and Kashi basically knocked me over the head and when I woke up there was a UPS box on my doorstep full of goodies?), I didn't plan on buying much.

Except for a few specific things.

You see, I had a few gift certificates.  Yes, a few.  Back at Christmastime, two of the lawyers I work with gave me gift certificates to Mood, always welcome because the stuff I generally fall for in Mood isn't the stuff I can afford, so other people's money is always welcome.

Also, at Secretary's Day or Administrative Professionals Day or whatever PC term we want to use these days for throwing a gift at the person who cleans up your messes all year long, Andrea convinced my lawyers to chip in for a gift certificate to Metro Textiles.  I'm only sorry I couldn't convince her bosses to do something that imaginative.

So I had other people's money to spend.  And on Friday, I chose to start out - where else - at Metro Textiles because I wanted to hit up Kashi while he was fresh and before the store turned into a total trash heap.  There were about 10 of us there right after he opened, and I think we did him proud.  I know I did.

I got 7 fabrics from Kashi, most of them 2 yard cuts.  The prize, at least to me, is the fabric at the top right.  The underside is fleecy, but the top feels almost like a close-cropped fake fur, and the leather texture is printed.  It's soft and cuddly and drapy and strange.  I love it.  It was the most expensive piece, and it's going to take up a crapload of space in the workroom, so I'd better decide what jacket it wants to be soon.

Other than that, I went knit happy, as I always do at Metro.  The second photo, left, is two knits, different prints but exactly the same colors.  I couldn't resist, and I'd love to find a way to mix the two that wouldn't make people dizzy.

Third, my loud purchase of the weekend.  I loved the orange/brown tones of the print, but the solid was the perfect contrast orange, so I had to have that as well.  I also had to have the wonderful faux tie-dye stripe, if that's what you call it.  Blues and greens and browns and ivory.  Mine.  Lastly, I got two yards of a black cable sweater knit, and four yards of a wonderful soft heathered gray knit that I intend to use for around-the-house clothes.  (My lounging clothes are just . . . beyond awful.  My flannels have lost their fluff, my sweatshirts have holes, and face it, sometimes I'd like to still look decent when I'm at home).

From there, we went to Mood, where Meg was a very gracious hostess and turned us loose on the store like a bunch of ravening wolves.  Having money to spend, do you know I wandered that entire store - three floors - and couldn't find something I wanted.  Or something I wanted enough to make me turn away from the other fabrics I considered.  Finally I went downstairs to their lowest level, where the leathers live, picked out a gorgeous supple olive green lambskin, and plunked the roll on the table. The Mood guy asked how many skins I wanted, and I said, "$125 worth."  Except then I saw the Persian lamb and had to have one of the honey-colored skins for a collar, so I scaled back on the green.  There's enough of it, that's all I care about.  And it's a less "sticky" color than pictured; it didn't photograph well with the flash.

After Mood, we broke for lunch.  After hitting Metro and Mood that quickly, and that hard, it's a wonder we weren't broken.  But after a restorative glass of wine and some fish and chips, we were off again.

I've lost track of the order here, but I know we hit up Pacific Trims, my favorite trim store in the Garment District.  I know there are others, and I've purchased from them, but there's something that keeps me coming back to Pacific.  But this time, all I got were two lengths of chain for two upcoming (eventually) jackets.

I haven't been to Paron's since they moved.  It's bizarre - it looks like they picked up the old store, gave it a good shake, changed the light bulbs and put it back down.  It doesn't have the narrow side Annex anymore, but there are a good selection of half price fabrics in the back  Of course I did not find a half price fabric.

One of the things I had been looking for at Mood was a moss or olive green boucle.  For yet another jacket.  At least count, I have three boucles which are still awaiting jackethood.  But I needed another.  And Mood didn't have the exact thing I pictured, which is how I ended up with leather.  Oh, the hardship.

But Paron's, they had the exact stinking green fabric that I wanted at Mood.  I waffled.  I showed it to every PR woman in the store, and everyone, everyone, said I should buy it.

Isn't it nice when your friends validate the choice you've already made?  So I bought 2 yards.  And in real light, without camera flash, it's beautiful with the Mood leather.  If I wore leather skirts, I would step back from the green leather jacket idea and make a leather skirt.  I'm still vaguely considering it; I just need to find a "me" skirt that would look good in leather.

Which means both boucle and leather will go into the stash, to marinate for however long it will take.  Maybe I'll take down one of those other boucles; I can hear them talking up there, on the high shelf.  They're plotting an avalanche, and I'm afraid the new one will just jump right in and help them.

So that's PR Weekend fabric.  There will be a full Weekend recap, but my camera died as soon as I walked into the workshops on Saturday, so I'm still waiting on a few photos from others, and I'm still digesting some of what I heard that day .

Moral of the story: if you have the opportunity to attend a PR Weekend, be it in your area or across the country, DO IT.  You'll get so much more from it than it could ever cost.