Aarrr, treasure me hearties!

So what is the result of 3 weeks in the US??  A booty of fabric!  I thought I would share my hoard with you all.

First of all, here it is in its entirety:

Yep, it fills the dining table.  Clearly I have a lot of work ahead of me...but I do have plans for all of it, long term plans admittedly, but plans nonetheless. I didn't just buy everything I saw that felt nice, believe it or not I was actually restrained!

This is the haul bought at The Loft in LA at US$2.50/lb.  It includes 5 yards of grey ponte, 3 yards of strip knit, 5 yards of wool blend black bottom weight and some light cream coloured georgette.  I believe this place is hit and miss, obviously I scored a hit with a purchase of 9lb of fabric!

Next up is my favourite piece bought, a gorgeous Ralph Lauren wool coating houndtooth bought at Mood in LA. I will definitely be doing a muslin before cutting into this, it is waaay too special.

But wait, it's not all fabric, I also bought some yarn at Bliss Yarns in Nashville.

and a book:



I also had a couple of great finds at an antique mall, two fab patterns, and a lot of vintage buttons!!

I love the great finds you have when travelling, so much nicer than your typical souvenir. Only problem is I have been away three times this year, so my stash is totally out of control!  But don't worry I have already made a start so look out for some finished items soon.  I am working on some winter items as the chill has really set in now.

Be back soon with some newly made stash busting items :)

MMM - Days 6-10

So far Me Made May is going well but I am definitely learning my wardrobe shortcomings and where I need to focus going forward.

MMM is also really good for getting me to blog some of the items I haven't previously blogged as I didn't feel they deserved their own posts.

So, onto what I wore and some things I have learnt so far:

Day 6

Skirt - Kelly skirt 

Top - Coppelia Cardi by Papercut, to be blogged soon 

From prolonged wear, I have realised this skirt is still too big around the waist and I really should have used a stiffer interfacing to stop the waistband stretching further. I have already altered this once and am not super keen to pick it apart again...hmmm hot wash perhaps?? BTW - the picture is taken at our gorgeous B&B we stayed at in Kentucky, a historical mansion. 

Day 7

 

My Lorna Suzanne cardi blogged here.
I love this cardi, although the collar means I can't wear it with any of my Banksia tops as collar on collar looks weird. The three quarter sleeve also limits wearability. I still love the pattern though.
Psst...check out the brekky, yum-o, this is what we got served in the morning at the B&B!
Day 8

Top - Colette pattern Sorbetto Skirt - BurdaStyle Denim skirt
I love this skirt and wear it loads, it seems to go with everything and makes a nice change from jeans.
Day 9
 

Skirt - Kelly skirt again from above Top - Hole-y moly Banksia
Day 10
Ok, so this day I kinda cheated! We went to Mammoth Cave on this day and the caves are really cold, so I wore long cargo pants and a thick jumper, not made by me at all, but practical and warm. I didn't pack for super cold weather and so didn't really have any much warm with me, besides what if I got my nice me-made things dirty? So we walked a lot and exhausted when I got to the hotel I changed into my Pjs which I remembered I did make! Not previously blogged as I didn't fancy posing on the internets in my jammies, but you get the idea!

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Whilst in London I had to check out the V&A Museum, bloggers seem to have meetups there all the time and I have always been super jealous.  I love old clothing particularly from the 18th and 19th centuries and the V&A does not disappoint.

The above dress dates back to the mid 1700s - can you believe this was all made by hand? It must have taken months - it really makes me think about my sewing and how easy we have it in comparison. I wonder what happened if you got sick of a garment half way through making it? I don't think they would have wadded garments!!

Look at the ruffling detail - just beautiful. I would love to make a garment like this, but I certainly wouldn't do it by hand. I just need an excuse to wear it!

I had to take a picture of the inside of this garment - if I made a garment entirely by hand, I don't think mine would be half as tidy!

And for you fellow knitters, check out these socks dated to around 300AD:



If you are ever in London, I thoroughly recommend checking this museum out, it has so many lovely items, not just fashion related too.

London Fabric shopping

I arrived to London early on Saturday to the coldest dreariest day I have experienced in a long time -there were even snow flurries!

I couldn't get into my accommodation that early so my plan was to head straight to Walthamstow.  I was a little tempted to give it a miss with it being so cold, but as I had purposely arrived on a Saturday to get to the fabric market I braved the cold and soldiered on. It was worth it, I came away with 16m of fabric!

 

The range was great and so cheap, the most expensive one I bought was £2 a metre - crazy cheap!



A couple of the fabrics are destined for the Sew for Victory challenge being held by Lucky Lucille. The spot above is actually pink, not orangey as photographed, with an aubergine spot and is reversible, I have visions of an Alannah Hill style trenchcoat.

The fabric shopping at Walthamstow is not as I expected, for some reason I expected to get off the tube and have a range of fabric stores in front of me. However you actually need to cross the road towards the pedestrian mall and walk a few hundred metres before you come to any fabric shops. They are not all next to one another as I thought, they are spaced out amongst other shops like discount warehouses, supermarkets, coffee shops etc. No matter how dodgy or unlikely they look from outside, go in, you never know what you might find. I found some of my fabric in places that looked far from promising on the outside. So much for my fabric ban, are overseas purchases exempt?

Visit to Christchurch

SPOILER ALERT - this post is not sewing or knitting related, so feel free to skip it :)  However I am sure it is healthy to see I do other things too!

Last weekend I went back to my hometown of Christchurch for my Mum's birthday. I hadn't been back since the quakes of February 2011 and I really wasn't sure what to expect and was prepared for a pretty sad and depressing visit.

Things have definitely changed, most of the CBD is now demolished so it feels a little surreal, but on the flip side what they are doing to cope with such a radical change is quite inspiring. The city is now has a "container mall". Where there were once buildings are now loads of shipping containers painted up, windows installed and generally done up to look pretty funky actually.

Here is the cafe where we had breakfast:


One of the banks:


The red arrow shows where the five storey building I used to work in was once located.


The poor landmark Christchurch Cathedral:

The city is pretty much in limbo at the moment whilst it is decided how to rebuild, where and what requirements buildings will need to meet. So many buildings are still to be fully evaluated and may still be demolished in the months to come. It is likely the rebuild project will take 20 years.

Despite all the obvious demolition going on and very little construction, it still felt like people were getting on with it and doing the best with what they have. After all my initial intrepidation I was pleasantly surprised and it is likely I will go back now with little hesitation.

It was calling me...

Ok, I left the Garment District and the Meet-Up with this feeling that I didn't do the district justice and my full undivided attention, no offence to the lovely ladies that I met on Saturday, it's just that I felt there were several stores that I neglected and that I simply must return.  So on the Monday (as Sunday it is closed) I did just that.

Spandex World

So much lovely trim to adore

I am not sure how one approaches these many stores with any sense of logic, however I just went from store to store popping my head in to see if they were of interest.  Many of them were fancy dress fabrics for weddings, formals and the like, so not really to my interest.  There were loads of fabulous trim shops, but for these I think I would prefer to have a project in mind. 

 

I was seeking some basic fabrics to make my summer wardrobe. I found success at A& J Fabrics which had lots of good basic cottons, drills and denims.  My purchases were the below stretch drills that will be perfect to make shorts/capris.

Of course I had to head back to Mood, as I only spent about an hour and a half there previously as just needed more time!  I met the lovely Noel who looked after me.

I bought the following fabrics:

From left:  Dusky pink wool (ok this is for winter, but was so soft I couldn't resist), coordinating light floral cotton voile, taupe rayon print

This is enough fabric for me at the moment and I shouldn't have to buy anything now for ages.  I can now fully plan my summer wardrobe and will start sewing this week. Don't you just love fabulous new textiles?? 

Now I just need to start saving to return to NYC next year to make my purchases for my winter wardrobe....I wish.

NYC Meet Up

I was lucky to be in NYC last weekend and was able to attend the meetup arranged by Ginger of GingerMakes.  There were eight of us in all, Kerry from Kestrel Makes and Finds all the way from Scotland, Mika, Ginger, Cindy, Janice, Marina, Kelli and of course me from Australia.

We started off on 39th at Parons which has a fabulous array of fabrics ranging from simple cottons, to wools, sateens, silks.  Many of the fabrics here are ex-fashion houses of Europe and so there was some lovely tempting options.  I chose to start slowly and wait to see what other treasures arose, grass is always greener you know! 

We then headed to Chic Fabrics where the stack of fabrics was overwhelming, somewhere under this pile is their cutting counter:



Kerry and I perusing the many options (I bought some of the black daisy print in my hand).  BTW - this is my hastily made Hazel (will blog this soon), hmmm...nice bra strap, must fix that!


photo courtesy of GingerMakes

We then headed across the road to Gray Line Linen where I could not resist a red polka dot print linen, and for me a bargain at $9.50/yd, linen is expensive in Australia and we seldom see prints.

All this shopping made us hungry, so a yummy pizza lunch was next on the agenda.



Then it was off to the much acclaimed Mood Fabrics.  Did it live up to the hype?  For me, MOST DEFINITELY, it was like my own personal heaven!  This place was amazing, first of all, check out the range of zips:



The infamous Swatch

The top floor is mostly wool and cashmere, the middle floor dress fabrics, cottons, silks, jersey etc and the bottom floor home decor.  I was pretty overwhelmed by all the choices and found it really hard to restrain myself from buying everything that was pretty.

I managed to restrain myself and only bought a Marc Jacobs cotton print and a gorgeous floral silk jersey.

From left to right: Janice, Marina, Kelli, Cindy, Ginger, Mika, Kerry, me.

Loving the Marc Jacobs print, I hope I bought enough

My purchases for the day:


Clockwise from top left:  Marc Jacobs eyelet cotton, Floral silk jersey, polka dot linen, heart print silk rayon, daisy print cotton.

I had such a fabulous day, these girls were lovely and it was nice to talk fabric and sewing for several hours and not get any rolling of the eyes or general signs of boredom that I might get from my IRL friends.  I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone else makes, being there for the fabric purchase makes me feel like I have been a part of the process!