PR Day 2014 in NYC: 13 Years of Pattern Review

The Empire State Building last night

Even though I live 80 minutes by bus from NYC, it is still fun to play tourist, stay at a hotel, turn off the lights and look out at the Big Apple.

The hotel I stayed at last night was 2 blocks from the ESB, so I had to get thisclose to the window, point my phone way up high, and shoot.


My selfie with the ESB.

Looking straight out the window, just the base of the ESB could be seen.

But I digress!

I was in the city for Pattern Review's 13th anniversary party.   I decided to take the day off, do some shopping first.

Tomasa and I met up for lunch, then hit up Kashi's.

Has Kashi ever taken a bad photo? I don't think so.

I don't know the name of the other guy who works at Kashi's, but Kashi was telling him "this picture will be on the internet tonight!"  Sorry Kashi, it was about a day later.  I didn't take a pic of my pile of fabric!

I bought my dress fabric at Kashi's at the end of sept with ATP (dress is yet to be blogged--it's my second version of V1351).
I wanted to get more of this fabric, but it's all sold out. Later at the PR party I found out it was Mimi from Shop the Garment District who bought the rest of it!

Zipper pull selection at Botani.

Next was a stop at Botani's. I had to go there after hearing about Botani twice in one week at the end of September.   Kenneth King, in his leather class at the ASE, said Botani is where you get your special hardware. In the same week, Peter bought rib knit at Botani. So I had to check it out.

The girl with the ponytail (middle) is my favorite!

Back at PR weekend in 2013 in SF, I bought a slew of zipper with decorative pulls for 25 cents each. I've run out of the 7" ones and if anyone knows where I can get more ready made zippers with decorative pulls, please let me know! The zippers at Botani are built from the ground up, so they wound up averaging almost $10 each.

Tomasa choosing buttons to match her purple and gray stripe from Kashi

Then it was time to head to the Financial District for the McCall Pattern Company tour, led by Kathy Wiktour and Meg Carter.  It was really cute because Kathy remembered me from the ASE.  "Oh Kyle!  What are you doing here?" she wanted to know.


This is the best room on the tour--all the fabric swatches are organized along one wall and notions are organized on another wall.  .  They make sure the home consumer can purchase the fabrics and notions.


This room was pretty special too--it's the photography studio!

The Shoe Wall, and accessory area  (The Shoe Wall deserves capitalization, don't you think?)

This table has all the "on loan" accessories and shoes, whereas the rack contains their own items.

And here's where they take the pictures

This gives you an idea of the size of our group

Overall it was really neat to hear about the process and see the process the patterns go through from start to finish.  Producing patterns is a massive undertaking, larger than I ever imagined.  And what I think is great about tours like this is it shows that people are behind all of this.  Yes, it's a corporation but real human beings (who have feelings too!) are doing all this work and I'm grateful that they let us visit their offices and see what it's all about.  Also, there were goodie bags with a pattern and Vogue Patterns magazine inside.  Thank you McCalls!

Then it was time for the PR party at Elliott Berman.  The theme was dressing through the decades.
There were games and prizes....


Charades guessers (Peter's rendition of a pin cushion was excellent)

Balloons and a disco ball

Wine through the decades

Delicious PR chocolate birthday cake (real buttercream and chocolate shavings, yum!!!)

Tomasa and me (the topstitching on her Vogue jacket is gorgeous!)

Peter in his hot-off-the-sewing-machine dress shirt and me

Deepika in her pretty stretch lace PR Summer Street dress and me. As always, thank you for founding PR Deepika!

Today I shopped....


Colorful elastic at Pacific Trimming

I am going to contemplate this elastic selection some more. These would make great exposed waistbands.

The fabric I bought at Paron's today. This will be made into a dress.
I bought a few other things as well but they shall remain unphotographed for now.

The ESB in the dawn's not-so-early light.

Be well!