Fabric porn for the ladies, you’re welcome . . .

This fabric has been lingering in my fabric stash for a while. I’ve decided to stop being afraid of it and finally use it. This Anna Sui print was given to my by my beautiful friend, Paulette. She gave this to my last year? Or maybe the year before? I’m not sure what to make out of it. It’s beautiful. I’m pretty sure it’s a cotton.

 

I’ve had this purple wool houndstooth for a few years now. It’s a large scale print so I’m not sure how to use it. It’s also beautiful.

 

I have this beautiful gray wool flannel. It’s actually a darker gray than the top photo. I think I have two yards of this.

 

Ah, yes. Then there is this. It’s a wool/silk/mohair/linen blend. My ex-Mr. bought this for me in Texas when he was there on business. I’m not sure what to do with it. It’s a drape-y wool and it’s a brilliant blue. Have any of you worked with a blend like this before?

 

I really like KS3760 (do you know why it doesn’t show up on the KS website anymore? I know they are part of the McCalls/Butterick/Vogue Mothership bought them but it doesn’t make sense for them to get rid of patterns like that.

So, I’m trying to think of things for all this beautiful fabric. I’m going to save the blue one for something really special. I want to make another 3760 and I think I’ll use the gray flannel. It’ll be a nice workhouse dress. For the cotton blue/purple dress, I think I’ll make a summery-shift dress. I guess we’ll see.

Getting back on the hawsie . . .

Jeez, where the heck did I go? I did not, dear readers, drop off the face of the Earth. I’m finding that being a single woman with three children is taking a lot more energy and time than I thought it would. And thank you for the comments and emails about my well being! I’m certainly hanging in there. Some days my only goal is to survive but I’ll get back to the point of kicking ass and taking names soon enough. Enough about moi though.

I’ve always loved the kid clothes over at Chez Ami. They are super cute and, of course, I drool over the fabric. They also sell fabric but I had never ordered any of it. Well, right before Christmas I bit the bullet and bought some of the jersey and a bunch of rib knit. I bought everything from the clearance section so it’s pretty darn cheap (like $3.50/yard). It took a long time to get here but that’s mainly because I live in Alaska and UPS Ground and can’t ship to PO boxes and blah, blah, blah. I really, really, really love the rib knit. Don’t get me wrong either. The jersey is nice but it’s really hard to find good rib knit. I think this jersey will become a cute set of jammies for my girls and I’ll either use the green, brown, or teal rib knit to go with it.

 

I also have this black knit print left over from this KwikSew dress. I may use this up for kid jammies too. I’m thinking the pink or teal for this fabric.

 

My son is also lacking in the jammies department so it’s probably time to make him some too! I’ll keep you updated on progress now that I and back to the life of the living! For him, I will certainly use the KwikSew 3234 pattern I always use. It’s fits so well! For the girls, well, I don’t know. They love the Butterick 4910 but the KwikSew ones are warmer. I live in a cold drafted house so we’ll see.

Uh oh. Fell off the fabric wagon . . .

I've been really good all summer. Well, not today, folks, not today. I just went to Fabric.com and bought:



Two Matte Jerseys (can you say wrap dresses?),



three Cotton Baby Jersey Knits (I must be needing some color in my life),




two RPLs for work pants,






and a Slub Rayon Jersey Knit . Sounds interesting and I love the color.

I also got a swatch of this Orina Nylon activewear fabric. I wanted to see if it would be good for workout tops.

Remember that I get kickbacks from Fabric.com. If you click on one of my links and buy, I get a commission. Just want to be out in the open about that! I'll let you know how I like all the fabrics once I receive them in the mail. I just NEEDED fabric. I had an itch I needed to scratch!

Gotta love those friends!

Okay, I'll be posting regularly again for two weeks. I'll actually start participating in the Jeans Sew Along too (gasp!). Look at this great fabric my friends gave me. This fabric is from Paulette. The blue/purple on top is a beautiful cotton woven. It's a very loose weave. I should have asked her what kind of weave it was but it's super cool and airy. The purple/black/green is a cotton knit from her stash. I was ogling it and she made me take it! Damn that woman! I think I'm going to try to squeeze out a knit dress. Maybe another Burda wrap dress? I wear that thing all the time. The bottom left (blue/purple/pink) is a polyester (right, Paulette??) lining fabric. I'll be using it for a lining on something too. It's just way too fun to hide under a skirt so it'll be a jacket lining or something.

Then Karen sent me this fan-freaking-tastic silk duppioni from her stash with matching vintage buttons!!! It's totally my colors with the burgundy, red, rust, and lavender. I love, love, love it. I may make it into a shirt dress like Karen suggested. Wouldn't a bias placket be fun running down the front??

Thanks guys! For the next two weeks, I'll be sewing and posting away!

Denim Feedback

I received my six yards of denim in the mail yesterday. I promised you a low-down on the ho-down and here she is. Here's the link to the stretch denims . . .

I love two of the fabric but dislike the third. I kept feeling it thinking, "Hmmm, this has got to have some polyester in it!" Well, I looked at the sticky label and duh it does. I should have looked closer at the online description and there in black and white it says, 80% cotton/ 19% polyester/ 1% spandex *head slap*. If only I had learned to read!! Anyway the 10oz and 12oz fabrics will work nicely for jeans. The 12oz fabric does not have much stretch to it but it will be enough to make them comfortable. I plan on washing them tonight so I'll update you on their washing/drying characteristics if there is anything weird. The 12oz denim is very rough and stiff. I think the hand will change with washings quite a bit. The 9oz is really drapey which is why I knew it was not just cotton. And the 10oz fabric is a good medium weight denim, exactly what you would expect.

As for the Jeans Sew Along . . . I'll start a thread in a couple of days over at PatternReview.com. No, you do not have to have the Jalie pattern. You can use any pants/jeans pattern. We can help each other with fitting and alterations.

Fun Fabrics!

Our local fabric boutique, Seams Like Home, is having a great sale. She's trying to clear out some of the older stuff to make way for the new stuff. I stopped by on my way to work and bought this stuff.

Silk suiting. It's so pretty. I bought 3 yards and I'm not sure what I'll make with it.

Here's a close-up of the weave. Too bad I don't like jackets because this one would be kick ass.

This is a cotton knit with a large scale print. It's grey, black, and red on a heathered grey. Maybe another Jalie Cardigan?

This is a wool/mohair knit. It's a very open weave. If you look closely, you can see my hand underneath. I'm not sure what to do with this one. Another Simplicity cardi??

I also bought some random buttons. They were 10 packs for a $1. I picked out several metal ones and some pink and yellow ones for my girls.

And, last but not least, I bought this KwikSew pattern. This dress is so me. I can see myself in the orange and green one.

Hawaii Fabric

I ended up going to Fabric Mart a couple of days ago. What fun! I've never been to a nice big *garment* fabric store. I've been to lots of large fabric stores but most of them sold quilt fabrics. This place had lots of everything. I ended up buying some very Hawaiin fabrics for kid pillowcases. I also bought some knit prints for kid jammies and a fun purple/gold georgette for me. More later. We are still in Hawaii but fly back to the frigid north tomorrow night. I'm posting via my iPhone so the formatting will be all wonky. I'll fix it when I get back to town but I just wanted to check in with y'all. :)

Merry Christmas to Me!!!

Fabric.com is having a bang up sale right now. I just ordered several (cough, cough) cotton/lycra knits for myslef. If you go to the Fabric.com Coupon Corner* they show you the current sales. I spent $58 but then got $10 taken off for the discount. I had one of those holiday $50 giftcards. I don't know about you guys but I've found that those are best to use all at once. If you use $40 of it and try to use the $10 later, they almost never work. What a great way for the credit card companies to make a killing. I left about $0.14 on my card but think of that much times the thousands of people who leave a few dollars on it.

I wear a lot of long-sleeved knit tops so I bought some cotton/lycra four-way stretch knit. I bought it in heather grey.

. . . and light blue . . .

. . . and a blue print . . .

. . . and a black print . . .

. . . and a sassy red.

I also bought a plan cotton interlock for a pair of my sons jammies. He'll love these!

Fabric.com is one of my sponsors. I do get a kick back if you buy something through that link above. I do not put this stuff on here to get a kick back. I put it on my blog so you can revel in my fabric-ness. :) If you would rather buy but not kick back to me, then just type in Fabric.com and find the Coupon Corner from there. Just want that out in the open. Happy holidays!!

Hawaii bound again!

That fantastic man I'm married to is taking me to Hawaii again! We are going Outside* in January. But, this time we are going with another couple and bringing the kids. I wasn't so keen on the idea until he told me that the nanny is going too. We are splitting her costs with the other couple that is going. It sounds extravagant but the tickets were only $300 and we were renting a house anyway.

To prepare for this trip, I've decided to make the girls swimsuits for Christmas. They will each get two. I went to my local fabric boutique, Seams Like Home, and found this pattern and bought my elastic. Swimsuits are really fast to whip up so I should hopefully have these four done by the weekend. I'm planning on two full suits and two, two-piece suits. I still have a bunch of swimwear fabric from last year. Blogger is not letting me link right now to that post but I will later.

While I was there I also snagged two yards of this fantastic ITY jersey knit. It's it fab? It's a rather big print. Did you notice that it's not purple? Maybe I'm coming out of the purple phase?

*Outside is the term that Alaskan use for the rest of the United States. We also call it the Lower 48 but that doesn't include Hawaii. You often hear Alaskans telling other Alaskan, "Oh yea, we're going Outside for the holidays." Then they say You Betcha and wink. No wait, that's just Sarah Palin.

Chanel Jacket Progress and Denim

Here's a picture to prove that I have not given up. The flaps are on and the lining is in. I still have to hand stitch the sleeves and hem. I will slipstitch down the flaps because they keep flipping up. As you can see, I ditched the zipper idea a while ago and decided to go with hook and eyes. Hopefully tomorrow you'll see the whole thing presses, hemmed, and done.

Looky, looky who just got eight yards of denim from the Fabric and Notions Coop. There's a beefy red, a shiny brown, and two blues. At first, I didn't think the brown and blues would work for jeans because they are a tad on the light side. But, after washing them, I think they might work. I think the brown would make a great faux-leather pair of pants.

I've been feeling a bit stomach flu-ish so I'm not going to attempt anymore sewing tonight. When I get tired, I start to make stupid mistakes.

Another Houston Trip

This is my husband's last trip to Houston for a really long time. But, I did score in the fabric department.

Green polyester crepe? He got it in the remnant bin so he's not sure of the fiber content. It's really pretty and drapey. The right is a microsuede. It's kind of like a moleskin but so much soft.

The left is black Sofia knit. The right is a beautiful shirting material. He wants me to make him a dressshirt once I master the David Coffin book.

Left is a 4-way stretch knit. The right is wool challis? I've never heard of challis. Can I wash it? It's beautiful and drapey. I love it. It is so much more beautiful than what the picture shows.

Two duppionis. The left one is a dark burgundy and the right is a checkered one. Very cool.

The left fabric is amazing. It's superfine wool jersey. It's amazing! It's sooooo soft. I make have to jump onboard the Pattern Review Cardi Sew Along. It would make the most amazing wrap. The fabric on the right is wool, silk, mohair , and linen. Does my husband know quality or what? It just looks blue in the photo but it's got texture like you can't believe. I'll have to be doing a lot of thinking before I do anything to that one.

He bought me two boucles because I specifically requested them. They are perfect. He so knows me. He totally gets me. I'm so lucky.