Yarn Crawl

Done!

I cut out all of my pattern pieces for the coat last night - main
fabric, contrast fabric, lining, and interfacing! It took me nearly 3
hours, but I am DONE and it feels good! It didn't have to be done until
class on Saturday, but I wanted to do it a little earlier 1.) to cross
it off the list, as it was hanging over my head and 2.) in case I needed
more fabric (which I didn't) I would be able to go back to Vogue on
Thursday night (the only weeknight they are open late between now and
Saturday.) Whew, what a relief! Pictures soon...

Bullet Point Blogging

I have sooo many things to say, but they are all over the place. So today's blog post will be delivered in the form of bullet points.

• The weekend fashion show was great. The high point was meeting everyone, and feeling like I had so much in common with everyone I talked to. I really enjoyed seeing some of what went on behind the scenes to put a fashion show together.

• Another high point was Sandra Betzina stopping me in the middle of the convention center after the show to tell me that I looked great in my dress! I was starstruck. For those who don’t sew, she’s a famous author/lecturer/teacher in the sewing world and was one of the judges for our fashion show.

• I decided to go for the Fashion Design certificate at COD (the school where I’ve been taking the clothing construction classes.) I’m really interested in this whole industry, not just the sewing and designing but the business side of it too. Not sure what I want to do with it exactly yet, but I want to open some doors in this area.

• I found my coat fabric at Vogue Fabrics – a forest green subtly textured herringbone 100% wool - $5.99 a yard! Jackpot! I also found a silk print that looks perfect with it, and a tweedy taupe and green flecked 100% wool for the contrast bits. I looked at the Bemberg rayon linings (thanks for the tip, Vicki!) but I wanted a print for the lining this time to jazz it up and they only had solids. But definitely when I make something that needs a solid lining, I will get that.

• Total cost for my fabric - $65 – for zero synthetics. LOVE.

• It did cost me another $20 for my buttons, though, but that wasn’t too bad for ten 1” (perfect) buttons, in my view.

• I finished the pieces of the Lucy chemise, and will have enough yarn to make the straps and sew it together. Yay!

• I found buttons for the Vine Yoke cardigan and will be sewing those on this week.

• On the Central Park Hoodie, I have the upper section of the back, the cap section of the first sleeve, the second sleeve, and the hood to do. I worked on this in a very erratic way due to missing instructions/mobile knitting/etc. I’d say I probably have six more hours on it to go, without the hood. Not sure how long that’ll take.

• I do need to get back to Mirepoix and steek the other armhole and neck. If I finish by the end of October, it won’t be over two years, at least.

• I have to cut out my fabric for the coat before Saturday’s class. Teacher is out on Saturday, but I want to walk in with everything cut out because then I should be exactly where everyone else is, despite missing last Saturday’s class.

• The new Sexy Knitters Club knitalong starts Thursday (October 1st already!) and it looks like Vivian is going to win. We’ll probably have two other designs to knit too, but I’ve been wanting to knit Vivian for awhile so I’ll just knit that.

• I was thinking I would use the Elann Superwash Chunky I have in stash for Vivian, but now I’m thinking of also swatching some blue Riata I have in stash. If I use Riata, that will be the last of it – I will have used it all. Amazing.

• Another yarn I want to swatch for Vivian is Tess Cultivated Silk & Wool – but I am a little short on yardage of the one color – gray (about 100 yards shy – though I always shorten the sleeves and sometimes shorten the body, so I may not need as much) and am over by about 200 yards on the other color – smoky purple.

• Does anyone else have an obsession with matching the yarn yardage as exactly to the pattern as possible, without going over? I really really hate having leftover yarn, so I do this.

Ahhh, I feel better now that I got all of that off my chest.

PR Fashion Show Pics

The Patternreview.com fashion show rocked - everyone's stuff looked fabulous and I met some really great people! I'll talk more about it tomorrow, but for now, here is the link to the 180 pictures Jim took at the show. There were some professional models there too to model the garments for those who couldn't make it to the show, and it was hilarious to watch them hamming it up for the "photographer". I think a few of these girls thought maybe this was their big break. They were actually very good, though.

Friday!

It's Friday again, and I have a big weekend planned - the Patternreview fashion show/contest is tomorrow, so Jim and I are driving there early tomorrow morning. I have to be there at 11:30 (Eastern) and so we're leaving at 5 am (Central) - that should be enough time to get to the Detroit area. According to mapquest, it should just take 4 hours and 45 minutes, so we should have 45 minutes cushion. The actual fashion show starts at 12:15.

For car knitting, I'm bringing the Central Park Hoodie (done with both fronts, 2/3 done with the back) and possibly the green Pima Tencel chemise with me (done with front and both bra cups, 1/2 done with the back. Still don't think I'll run out of yarn as I have almost 2 full skeins left.)

In other news, I just finished reading the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, and I have to say I liked it better than either The DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons. I was surprised to see that the consensus star rating on Amazon was only 3 out of 5 stars. I won't say any more about it, but I thought it was an excellent book. I started reading it on Wednesday afternoon and just finished it now - a sure sign that a book is good!

I'll also be shopping for fabric this weekend for my trench coat, cutting out the pattern pieces either this weekend or during next week and setting up the voting threads for the SKC's next knitalong over on Ravelry. It'll be busy!

So lucky

Just had to share this - Jim's office is in the vicinity of the Chicago
location of Vogue Fabrics and also Fishman Fabrics. So of his own
accord, he went there on his lunch hour yesterday, to preview or
"snoop-shop" the fabric for me for my trench coat! What a guy. How did I
get so lucky?

On top of this, he also even offered to go back with a camera and take
pictures, but I said it would be hard to see the true colors in a photo.
He said there really wasn't anything that caught his eye, but that Vogue
had 100% wool fabrics for $9.90 a yard (which he knew was a good price!)
and that Fishman's had some fabrics that were $40-something plus a yard.
He not only does this pre-shopping for me, but he knows good and bad
prices without any pre-prompting! He really listens to everything I say.
Again, how did I get so lucky??

Gotcha...

Obviously, you all have waaaay more sense than I do about picking fabrics, as it seems to be the general consensus that I should NOT pick this fabric for my trench coat.

Got the message loud and clear - this is one of the things I really love about blogging - there usually *is* a general taste consensus, despite what people may tell themselves. I think I am going to go with a plain fabric with a paisley print charmeuse lining and possibly I can find a contrast fabric (or the charmeuse in some way) to accent the main color on the outside (some combo of pockets, cuffs, collar, belt.) Thanks!!!!

Got it!!

Obviously, you all have waaaay more sense than I do about picking
fabrics, as it seems to be the general consensus that I should NOT pick
this fabric for my trench coat. Got the message loud and clear - this is
one of the things I really love about blogging - there usually *is* a
general taste consensus, despite what people may tell themselves. I
think I am going to go with a plain fabric with a paisley print
charmeuse lining and possibly I can find a contrast fabric (or the
charmeuse in some way) to accent the main color on the outside (some
combo of pockets, cuffs, collar, belt.) Thanks!!!!

Duvet Cover or Jacket? You Decide

OK, I went to the JoAnn Superstore and Hancock Fabrics, and I did not find ONE THING that I really liked for the jacket. There was only one wool I only kind of liked at JoAnn's, and it was $25.99 a yard. So, I'm either going to Vogue (as originally planned) or revisiting the online shopping thing.

I was looking at Fabric.com again and didn't find anything I liked on the apparel side of the house (where I usually look) so I decided to look at home decor fabrics on a whim. I actually liked many of these better!! I thought for a minute about spending the $14.99 a yard for the Amy Butler Nigella Twill, but then thought better of it (even though I was going to spend that for the Lavender wool - but that was for wool - something about cotton doesn't seem worth $14.99 a yard to me.)

Anyway, look at these fabrics - I think the first one is more "me" (it says it is shades of cranberry, cocoa, white and black) but I also like the second coppery/spice one.

It says it is "medium weight cotton" - printed on cotton duck. I always thought of duck as being very heavy, but it does say medium weight, and I read elsewhere online that duck comes in ten weights. The only nagging feeling I have is that it somehow reminds me either of a duvet cover or a Thanksgiving turkey. Thoughts??

On to Plan B....

I got an email from Fabric.com saying that my main fabric is not going to be available in the quantity I wanted. I only *need* 3.5 yards for the coat, but I ordered 4.5 for "wiggle room" in case anything got messed up, because the site said it was a special purchase and you couldn't reorder. Now I get this email saying "You ordered 4.5 yards and we have 3.5 yards in the following pieces: 1.5 yards + 1 yard + 1/2 yard + 1/2 yard." Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

So I am just going to cancel the whole order and try to make it over to Vogue the day after the fashion show (or Haberman Fabrics, in the Detroit area, after the show on Saturday, but I'm not counting on having time to do that.)

Love This...

Did you see this yet?

Loving it....