Meeting Shannon from MushyWear!!

Aloha peeps!  This post is full of "first time for me" items.

At Kaimuki Dry Goods

Saturday was very special because Shannon from MushyWear flew from Maui over to Oahu to visit me!
Yes!
Her write up of the day is here.

Shannon is warm, patient, kind, gentle, incredibly easy going, a real sweetheart.  And not only can she sew professional RTW-style garments, but she can pop the cover back on your side mirror when you, you know, knock it off when you try to squeeze your full size rental into a tiny parking space...but let's go back to the beginning.

I felt so lucky when I asked Shannon if she would be willing to come visit me on Oahu and she said yes. What a gift!

So here's how it all went down:  We had breakfast at my hotel and it was just so cool to finally meet and have loads of time to chat.  And I might have talked her ear off!  Like Shannon mentioned on her blog, we went to Kaimuki Dry Goods at the recommendation of Beth from SunnyGal--mahalo Beth!.  (Christiana, you asked about fabric on Oahu.  Kaimuki is pretty close to Waikiki, but not in walking distance.  I had a car so we drove but it might be possible that TheBus goes there (yes, the bus system is called TheBus). 


In the Hawaiian print fabric section of Kaimuki, with a minky quilt hanging in the window

Kaimuki is definitely the fabric store for fashion fabric.  All sorts of gems await in this store--an excellent selection of knits (and you know I love knits!), rayons, cottons, eyelets in patterns that we had never seen before, gingham galore, novelty fabrics, Japanese fabrics, and even a bit of flannel.  And they had loads of minky (while i've never sewn with Minky, I have a friend who churns out baby blankets as fast as her friends have babies, and she would die at the printed minky selection!)  I really enjoyed perusing the selection.  They even had cool patches, which I use for decorating underwear.  It's hard to find patches that aren't big and aren't too child like.  Also lots of good notions.    Definitely the store to go to for fabric on Oahu.  It is a bit pricy but it seems like high quality stuff. Everything in Hawaii is expensive because it's all shipped in.


Insert joke about "buying fabric with a moving truck in the background" here 

Next we went to Fabric Mart.  Now, this is Fabric Mart Hawaiian Style.  It's not the Fabric Mart that everyone blogs about (that Fabric Mart is in Pennsylvania).  If you need a Hawaiian printed fabric, then this is the store for you.  It was a bit overwhelming for me.  (Christiana, this store is maybe 10 min driving from Kaimuki.)




Then we went to lunch, also on SunnyGal's recommendation (and that is where I knocked the cover off the side mirror in a too-small space in a parking garage that had lots of inconveniently placed concrete poles.  Honestly, I'm not used to driving a full sized car and I really laughed at myself when it happened).

After lunch we were going to go to the North Shore to see the turtles on the beach and check out Haleiwa, but the GPS was saying it was going to take a hour to get there, so we went to Liliha Bakery instead,  which was highly ranked on Trip Advisor, to get the cream puffs.  We both got the chocolate ones, just one each.  We should have bought half a dozen and split them.  SO GOOD.  And this is when we were able to pop the cover back on the side mirror.  I didn't want to be doing that in front of the valets at the hotel, women driver stereotypes and all that.


Shannon was totally understanding about then stopping at the PO to ship my fabric back to the mainland.  (Long story short, Kaimuki doesn't ship).  Let's hear it for the flat rate boxes with the peel and stick sealant and for automated postal centers that let you ship anytime of day or night!   By then the Waikiki traffic was really crazy and slow going.  But we made it back to the hotel to sit on the balcony and eat the cream puffs and watch and listen to Waikiki before heading over to the airport for her flight back to Maui.   I swear I saw her flight leave, from the balcony of my hotel room.    I waived!

We covered so much ground: blogs, blog names, blog history, our own histories, our families, sewing, fitting, tv shows about sewing, etsy, Hawaii; it was great!  And throughout the day I showed her the tweets and comments I was getting on my blog about her--she's a sewing superstar!

Shannon even brought me two gifts:  a Maui t-shirt, which I wore on the plane today--it fits great and is super comfy--I know it is destined to become a favorite--actually it already is one--and an original MushyWear Made in Maui bag!!   I treated her to some wonder tape from Kaimuki, which she's never used before, and I want to send her some special fold over elastic.  :)




Love that label!!

Thank you Shannon so very much!  for flying over, for the gifts, and for spending time with me!  and again thank you to Beth for the recommendations, it was like you were there with us in spirit, guiding us to all that fabric!

So this morning I said goodbye to Waikiki,  flew to San Diego and am here for 3 nights....

but still, aloha!