Surprise: Fabric Shopping in LA

I was in San Diego for a work conference but after the conference ended Thursday afternoon, I took the Pacific Surfliner up to LA.  Friday was a full day of fabric shopping with Rachel and Jeanette.  Sherril was going to meet up with us too and couldn’t make it.  We missed you Sherril!

This was my first time in LA's fashion district so it was all new to me.

The day started at 9am at the FIDM Scholarship Store.  I first read about this store on Dana's Made blog in this post .  Such a neat shop!   A wall of fabric in the back for $1 and $2 a yard.  Lots of clothing and jewelry and random stuff like Christmas socks, makeup cases, etc. The employees were all wearing their FIDM Santa hats and now I kind of wish I had bought one to wear at work the week before Christmas.  I bought two pieces of fabric and a boatload of costume jewelry.  The last Friday of the month is 20% everything, and since they're closed TG weekend, it was 20% off during my visit.  

See the sign hanging from the ceiling?  It's pointing to the Fabric Room.

Next we went to the FIDM Museum but they are in between exhibits now.  They let us in to the gift shop where I did a little Christmas shopping.

Next we went to the holy land, Michael Levine Loft, home of $2.50 a pound fabric.  It was pretty amazing.    Boxes full of fabric remnants, then bolts of fabric along the walls.  The windows were open as we pawed through the boxes.



Action shot

Rachel and Jeanette

Mmmm hmmm.

At one point the store was quite full of people.  They let us cut fabric off the bolts ourselves, and if you wanted to cut the remnants smaller you totally could. 

Look at all of that turquoise knit fabric for $2.50 a pound!

Here I bought a little over 11 pounds of fabric.  Turquoise ponte knit!  Brown ponte knit!  Spongy black knit!  It was all good and fun.

The guy running the loft was super super nice and he even took pix of us .

I bought 2 bags, Rachel bought one bag and Jeanette scored with 3 bags.

Then it was time for lunch and then on to some more shops, including the owner of EmBe Fabrics who is vying to be the Kashi of LA. 

"Don't worry about the price!  How much you need?  2.5 yards?  $10."
"A yard?"
"No, for the whole thing!"


And then this store, Button and Trim Expo. 

I think it may have surpassed Pacific Trimming as my favorite notions store.  I was looking for stretch lace trim.  Pacific has maybe 20 spools of stretch lace trim.  Button and Trim Expo has an entire wall of stretch lace trim, all along the right side, almost to the very back of the store (all that lace in the back is the non-stretch lace), in all sorts of colors and widths.  They also had an amazing selection of FOE for 25 cents a yard.  

Yes, almost this entire wall is stretch trim lace, all the way til the second to last column in the back!

And then we went to Michael Levine’s regular store.  In the back they have a bargain section.  Er I bought even more fabric.

We wrapped the day up at a fancy French pastry shop.   J  What a great fun day with Rachel and Jeanette.  We chatted all day long about fabric, fit, patterns, PR Day, etc.  Thanks for meeting up with me!  And a special thank you to Rachel for driving us around and also shipping my fabric home for me.  J

Then I went back to SD for….well, you’ll see…next post!

Be well!

Luxe tote bag, version 2

Thanks for all your well wishes for my birthday and your comments on my aloha pajama birthday top. I'm wearing it right now (and no, the chakoner chalk did not come out in the wash!)


On Sunday afternoon I rewarded myself for packing early for my work trip by making a new luxe tote bag. Somehow I thought this would be a stress-free tote, bwah ha ha ha ha.  It's a companion tote for my briefcase style tote I sewed last month, pictured below.

Companion tote above, blogged here.


Black vinyl (with and without holes): Kashi's (Metro Textiles) in NYC from the June trip with Velosewer.
Piping and straps: Pacific Trimming in NYC
Peltex: Joann's
Interior pocket zipper: Gosh, that cheap store we went to in SF for PR weekend 2013 that was selling zips for 25 cents
Interfacing:  Fashion Sewing Supply online
Interior Lining:Knit fabric from Gwen Couture during my visit with Elizabeth in San Diego Interior Pocket lining:  Yes, I know, I know, I know...that NYC subway fabric from The City Quilter in NYC

The pattern:  I decided to knock off this bag that Antoinette sweetly sewed for me for my birthday.  It is the *perfect* size.  Somehow I messed up the measuring and my bag came out taller than hers, but it's still lovely.


Antoinette's bag that she made for my birthday


Cutting corners, literally....

It was fairly straight forward until I got to the Peltex.  Looking back, I should have just put the peltex in the bottom of the bag, inside the lining, and called it a night, but nooooooo..I decided to Peltex the whole thing...which does make the bag stand up all on its own, but was really difficult to sew.  My machine bed was MOVING while I sewed it...I felt like I needed three hands to get it under the presser foot (one to raise the presser foot higher than normal, the other two to shove it under the foot).


I learned a few things this time, mainly to have the shiny side of the vinyl against the feed dogs to prevent shifting. Add to always sew top to bottom to prevent further shifting, which is how I got the pic above... (also I used my wonder clips, thanks to Jacqui for another round of 10!)

Look at how stiff it is!

It was pretty serious.

Here's a closeup of the piping. It's actually a black cord wrapped in silver (I know it looks white in the pic) lame with a black, hole-y vinyl encasing it.

There are two pockets; one for my cell phone with my very last worded fabric label, sob!

The other side has a zipper pocket

This alphabet fabric from Gwen Couture is pretty amazing.

Ok, it's only my 2nd zipper pocket ever, but it's my best one, ha ha. I felt very satisfied with how it turned out.

But there were so many layers to sew together at this point...aboveI'm about to attach the lining to the bag but haven't turned it right side out yet.

Here's what it looks like, all done.  

The patch pocket is not flush because I sewed it to fit my cell phone....


Sooooo..normally one would topstitch the top edge or understitch the lining to keep it from poking out but there were SO MANY LAYERS, it just wasn't going to happen, and I was running out of steam sooooo...I left it as is!  And the world didn't stop turning!

pockets!

With Izzy:

Extra bonus points if you know where I am (work conference) based on this photo taken from my hotel room:

Be well!

Aloha Birthday Pajama Top with Lots of Good Feelings

Free time is running in short supply these days, and my goal is always to reduce my self-induced stress.  So for my birthday this year I decided to sew up my Aloha pajama top using a McCall's pattern that I've used a million times (slight exaggeration).

The fabric is from the Robert Kaufman "Aloha Flannel 2" line (yes, 2) in the color of Sunshine.  :)

And I really love the color.  It is a bright, warm, happy yellow that generates good memories and good feelings.  I purchased it at Kaimuki Dry Goods while in Honolulu this past May.  I picked it up while shopping with MushyWear, and we went there based on SunnyGal Studio's recommendation.

Here's when I bought it!


I decided to take loving shots of the pajama top like it was an epic piece of work, like jeans or a lined coat.  Kind of a like a little joke to myself.

This is the first pj top I've sewn since learning how to use my serger (I know!)  All raw edges were serged.


I actually sewed the side vents--never have before

I actually drew the stitching line on my V-neck using the blue Chakoner (and um, yeah, it hasn't, um, come off yet, but I'm thinking it will come off in the wash).

I know it's big and shapeless and has no detailing, but I love it.



I wear my pj tops with at least one layer underneath.
It's just how I roll.



And I actually ironed the flannel all during the process.  Ironing flannel, I don't even know who I am anymore.

So this pajama top took me three weekends to sew--that shows you how short my free time is lately.  I finished it about 2 weeks after my actual birthday....close enough in my world of "less self induced stress".

Also yellow for my birthday: the last of the Princeton Farmers Market flowers:

These lasted two weeks! Gorgeous.

Yellow yellow yellow.

Happy happy happy.

Relieved relieved relieved.

I have a big adventure coming up this week.  It's a work trip....with some sewing fun at the end.  You'll see!

Be well!

PR Day NYC 2013

Sept/Oct:  Awareness that PR Day "little black dress" party in NYC was coming up, but on a weeknight, which meant I can't attend.

Tuesday:  Deepika sends out reminder about PR Day.

Wednesday:  I read Tuesday's email reminder and realize the party is on a Friday night.  Hmmmm...Friday night...

Thursday: Look at hotel prices...not bad...

Friday: wake up at 5am, read email from velosewer asking if I will attend the PR party in NYC.  Hotel prices still not bad.   Get dressed wearing my LBD.  Get to work.  Realize that I already have bus ticket.  At that point I decide that yes, I am going to this party!  I email my RSVP (which was due days before), book hotel, leave work early and quickly pack, make a dash for the bus stop and 2 hours later was at Elliott Berman Fabrics for the event.

And what a neat event it was!!  Hosted by Matthew and Eugenia from Elliott Berman fabrics, I'd say about 40 peeps were there, including 2 folks from Vogue Patterns (including the editor in chief of Vogue Patterns Magazine), Lisel from Oliver + S and Lisel + Co patterns, many many many sewing bloggers (Carolyn, Oonaballoona, Clio, Claudine among them), and of course PR founder Deepika.  What was really awesome though was seeing all the new faces I had never seen at PR events before and getting to  chat with them about fabric and techniques, and how cool it is that we even have a resource like PR.



The welcome

Deepika and me

The runway show

The wine bottles (love how the dress on the label is red and not black)

The PR Day carrot cake

Even international model Cathy Lane was there--she even recognized me. Apparently Peter had told her all about me...and Peter had finished her dress just minutes before the event started.

So there were four contests: making an outfit from scraps, a trivia contest, a "guess what fabric this is while you're blindfolded" contest, and the LBD contest. Elliott Berman generously gave loads of designer fabric as gifts--some of it was even 2014 fabric. And Lisel also generously gave out her brand new womens patterns as gifts too.

During the trivia contest....anyone with a bag was a winner!

I won second place in the LBD contest! I was really surprised. Really, really surprised. Did I mention, I was surprised?  Thanks to all who voted for me!!   I blogged about my dress here.  It's McCalls 6518.
Cathy won first place and Mary took third.

Lisel and me, and the pattern of hers that I won: The "everyday skirt". Her womens patterns are digital so the grouping of patterns she gave away were specially printed for us! Yay!

I used my NYC subway zipper pouch as my bag for the night, with the addition of Connie's tape measure keychain as a handle, it was perfect!


Here's the fabric and pattern. The fabrics are silk and suiting; and Lisel's pattern:

Then Saturday I did all the shopping I intended to do at the end of August. I spent the most time at Pacific Trimming and Chic Fabrics. Chic is like my Metro/Kashi substitute on the weekends. I also spent some time at the City Quilter.

I know you are jealous of that polka dot FOE.

Get your 2014 New Year's Eve glasses now.

Big sale, always, at Chic.

Inside Chic.

I love these closures at Pacific Trimming; have to figure out how to incorporate them into something one day...


The City Quilter

Here's hoping these zips are the answer to Lynn's motorcycle jacket prayers...

Overall, a fun event.  Thank you Deepika for founding Pattern Review, I'm not sure where I would be as a seamster without your site!

A little souvenir for Izzy....

Be well!