Three Days of Success

I had a wonderful time shopping downtown LA for fabric with Karrol and her daughter, Chloie, Jeanette, and Cat. There's nothing like spending time with people who love fabric as much as I do. We didn't stop in a lot of stores so I wasn't too tired when I got home. I usually wear myself out when I go. It was the stop and go traffic all the way home that wore me out.


Here are four of the five fabrics I purchased. Going clockwise, the purple/white floral is a linen/tencel blend and was the most expensive at $10/yd. Next is a beautifully drapy rayon challis that was $2/yd. Both of these and the last one I got at Michael Levines. The pink floral linen was purchased at Mikes for $4/yd and is the most beautiful quality. The print does look a little drapery-ish so it will take some thinking on my part to decide what to make from it. The last is a cotton single knit from the clearance section for $1.50/yd. There are always such great bargins shopping downtown. I don't know why I don't go more often.

After I got home on Saturday, I spent the rest of the day washing my haul plus several other fabrics I wanted to get cut out and sewn this weekend. I got four tops and a dress cut out and two of the tops and the dress actually got sewn.


This is the fifth fabric I bought this weekend. It's a thin poly/lycra knit. I just loved the print and knew they'd go with the long shorts I made a week ago. I used my TNT t-shirt pattern KS 2900 cutting the sleeves to a cap length and giving the crew neckline more of a scoop.


I was determined not to go to JoAnn's for anything during my sewing spree. I found this great decorative elastic with a piping along the edge in my stash and even though you can't tell in the photograph, the green is a perfect match for the green in the fabric. I sewed it on the neckline and sleeve hems using the zipper foot on my sewing machine and the trim came out perfectly. You can also see the varigated pink thread I used in the coverstitch machine.


For the other top I made I used some rayon/lycra knit purchased on a previous visit to Michael Levines with the Los Angeles ASG chapter. The pattern is one I drafted from KS 2900 when someone on PR asked how the RTW top could be copied.


It's hard to see the design detail in my model pose so here's a close-up. I've reviewed the pattern before but this time I did the binding a little differently and used short sleeves. I don't have anything much to wear with it yet so I'm thinking of making some linen pull-on pants to go with it. I have a darker turquoise linen that would match nicely.


Last but not least is the linen dress. This fabric was stuffed in a plastic tub in the very bottom of my closet. I was searching for something when I ran across it. The fabric has probably been in my stash for about six years and I think I purchased it from FFC. It's very off grain and it doesn't drape very nicely. I don't think the bad grain will be a problem since I folded the fabric so that it laid nicely, ignoring the straigt of grain. The fabric had been washed previously and I washed it again before cutting the dress out. The last time I sewed this dress, I was disappointed with the collar. The busy fabric hid my collar. Debbie Cook suggested I make a contrast collar so this time I took her advise. I was worried that with the white there would be show-through so instead of using interfacing I used a double layer of the white mystery fabric I found in my stash. I used spray glue to glue the two layers together and treated them as one. I'm pretty happy with the way the dress turned out even if I'm not thrilled with the fabric. I'm sure I'll get some use out of it.

I still have two more tops cut out and some red denim waiting to be cut so I'm going to stay at it for a few more days. DH is back home so someone can keep the kitchen clean. Now if I could only train the cat to pick up the hair she's sheading all over the house.