Thursday, June 10, 2010

Stashoholism Confessional: Internet Edition and Excited for Montreal!

OK, so admittedly I just bought yards and yards and YARDS of fabric at PR Weekend Philadelphia, but one of the few things of which I had a specific need was more cotton batiste. I use this to line/underline everything in the summer (winter needs something slippery that won't stick to tights) and I am almost out.

Vogue Fabrics 5-2010


The best price I found was at Vogue Fabrics. $3.50/yd is less than I pay at Chic Fabrics in NYC ($5/yd). It is a little stiffer and coarser than the batiste I've been using, but I haven't pre-washed it yet so hopefully it will soften up. I ordered 10 yards so I'm still contemplating the best way to pre-wash. Just tossing the whole length in the wash machine results in a wrinkled mess, but pre-treating it by project ends up with wasted length. Dilemma.

04-2010-105 Since I was making the order anyway I just had to check out the rest of what they had on offer. I loved the gray voile with polka dots. They are textured somehow, but not on the wrong side of the fabric so I'm not really sure how to describe them. They're not really applique. The fabric has a subtle shimmer to it that I just love. I don't wear white blouses because (1) there is too much danger of looking like a waiter (and I absolutely NEVER wear a white blouse with a black bottom because of the waiter factor) and (2) the real reason is pit stains. So a gray is a nice stand-in. Vogue Fabric's website photo showed it as a very pale gray but it is in fact a lightish/mediumish gray, which suits me better. It will be the double flounce 04-2010-105 blouse from Burda's April issue--the link is to the French version of the site, who knows how long it will exist. At $3.99/yd, this lovely fabric was a bargain! I wish I'd gotten enough to make a longish flowy skirt. We are thinking of Turkey for holiday this year so I will want some longer but very cool dresses and skirts to wear there so as to fit in more with local mores.

Fabric.com 5/2010

And yet, I still had an itch that was not scratched. An itch for cotton prints. An itch for orange. And so I visited fabric.com, which I really, really try not to do. I mistake "free shipping" for "free fabric" and go a little bit nuts (and even if there were free fabric, do I really need more?). The cotton lawn print is what drew me in. With red and orange it will match two of the skirts in my endless combination. However, I guess I was not really familiar with fabric.com's photography practices. What I thought would be a Liberty scale delicate paisley print turns out to be ginormous salad-plate sized paisleys. I had intended the fabric to be the Burda 05-2009-105 peplum blouse, as seen on AllisonC (LOVE! It would be easier if Allison would just give me hers.). But I am not feeling it with the large scale print. I could actually just return the fabric, but it is not in my nature to give up fabric. So now I'm thinking a quick and easy McCall 5884, with or without short sleeves.

I saw *two* women on the same day in that fab shade of mustard and was like, "Why don't I have a mustard dress????" At $1.95/yd, this fabric was the place to start. I am excited about making it into the Vogue Cynthia Steffe 1151. I ordered 4 yards and I wish I'd ordered more, because to get a firm double-knit texture I'm going to double the fabric and I think I'd like both a tee and a skirt of this fabric in addition to the dress. Maybe I can underline with knit lining and save some fashion fabric. I love the color of this, but beware that as a poly-cotton knit with no lycra it doesn't have much stretch; it's a light to medium weight.

The teal will be a skirt, the two polka dot knits tops (the orange and teal polka dots don't exactly match the orange or teal skirts I have planned, but I think it will still coordinate). I just loved the purple cotton "London Calling" lawn and don't have a set idea for it yet. BTW, fabric.com calls the lawn 100% cotton, but it definitely has a little bit of lycra in it. Which I consider a good thing, but would be a surprise to a quilter. Also, I wouldn't really call it a lawn either, as it is quite substantial and opaque.

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I leave for Montreal on Monday! I'll be spending the week there before PR Weekend and I am really looking forward to some vacation. I've never been to Canada! Unfortunately, I have been traveling 3 of the past 4 weekends and have sewn nothing new for the trip. I'll have to wear something I've already worn to the cocktail party. The only thing I hope to finish before leaving is a computer bag for my adorable turquoise Samsung N150, but even that is up in the air because it will require a lot of hand sewing. After my nightmare of a trip last weekend (flight from DFW to DC cancelled; after 7 hours in the airport I managed to catch a flight to Philly and took the Amtrak home, arriving well after midnight and 15 hours after leaving my hotel in Dallas, didn't get my suitcase until last night, four days later) I am a little wary but hopefully the travel will be a little easier this trip!

So perhaps I should hold off on fabric buying for a while until I actually have sewn something! I think most of our shopping in Montreal will be higher end. Luckily I am cheap and expensive fabric isn't too tempting.

28 comments:

Mikhaela Reid said...

I wear the top I made from the orange and teal polka dot fabric you just bought all the time (including yesterday!). At first I was disappointed in the quality of the fabric compared to many rayon knits but now I love it... great for summer tops and it seems to go with everything. And I also bought it with the justification that I needed to reach the free shipping threshold.

Trudy said...

I love all of your fabric choices. The expensive fabrics don't hold any temptation for me either. I'm a sucker for the free shipping, too. I do that with Amazon. I have to buy one more book so that I can get free shipping.

Have fun in Montreal.
Trudy
www.sewingwithtrudy.blogspot.com

TracyKM said...

To prewash the cotton, why not fold it in half or thirds lengthwise (so it's only 5 yds long) and baste it together along the selvages? Would that work? I know if I were to cut it down into smaller lengths it would forever come back to haunt me when cutting out pieces.

Rose said...

wow! you got some great stuff. Re: prewashing: have you considered folding the 10 yard length into thirds (or 2 yard lengths), running a basting stitch (make certain it's a basting stitch) at each end, near the folds (you probably could run 1 line of stitching down the center, with the grain). And ry laundering and machine drying it like that? I've done this and the downside is that I have to iron/press the length to make certain that it's dry before storing ( I remove the basting stitchs). I think that it helps get rid of a lot of the lint. I'm interested in seeing what others suggest.

Auset's Stitched Treasures said...

So you've been looking in my shopping cart? I fell in love with the mustard knit and place it in my shopping cart. I guess It's been six months since I've bought any fabric. I'm due for a little splurge, aren't I? That's what I told myself last night while in Joann's. I only bought one piece of fabric, but that's how it starts. Love what you've purchased. Can't wait to see your fabulous creations.
Angela

Little Hunting Creek said...

Beautiful fabric! I love it all. I may have you just do my buying for me :)

Clio said...

"I mistake "free shipping" for "free fabric" and go a little bit nuts..." - nice to know I'm not alone in this.

Montreal is a great town - have fun!

Anonymous said...

Have you tried the permanent press setting on your washer/dryer? I don't usually have too much trouble with bedsheets when I use this setting (because I think it's silly to iron bedsheets, but still don't want wrinkly ones). I also use this setting to wash pretty much everything, and my dryer has a wrinkle-free setting (which means that it tumbles them every so often for a couple of minutes until you take them out) and it works surprisingly well for if I'm busy and can't remove stuff from the dryer the instant it's done.

I'm excited to see what you do with the little flower print you've got in the bottom fabric picture. Even though the paisleys are larger, the little flowers will still help break some of that up when you actually go to use it, I think.

Rebecca said...

I made the Cynthia Steffe dress and love it. I blogged about it too :) Your dress will look really cute in mustard.

Eugenia said...

I do think that it's very important to be prepared with a huge selection of fabric on hand - you never know when there is going to be a sudden fabric shortage! Seriously though, I love your new fabric purchases - you have such a great eye for colour. Of course, I especially love the London Calling cotton lawn!

Uta said...

Why have I never thought of lining with batiste for summer? Thanks for the idea. As to pre-washing: Maybe putting it all in a pillowcase for washing will reduce the mess a bit? Have a nice trip; I've read lovely things about Montreal!

Reethi said...

My sewing this week is a cocktail dress for Montreal - and I really wish I had an existing one to use as well. Ah well!

Gail said...

Say hello to my friends at Jalie. You have some great fabric in your stash BTW.

Victoria said...

Great fabric finds! I too have been going crazy with the fabric buying as of late. But what can you do, when it's on sale you've got to take advantage of it! Can't wait to see what you whip up!

SEWN said...

ooooh, I have that floral cotton print. HAven't used it yet. I love your grey voile! Great haul. I'm so jealous of you, going to the other PR weekend. JEALOUS!!!

Anonymous said...

'I mistake "free shipping" for "free fabric"' = HA!

K.Line said...

You're going to love Mtl. It's one of the best cities in the world.

ELMO said...

As always, I love seeing what you've purchased. That pearl grey cotton voile is lovely, and the McCalls pattern with the necktie so cute, please make it in the short sleeve version, I think it would look great on you.

Marie-Christine said...

Two layers of too-soft knit won't give you a firm knit, no way. They'll give you a too-thick too-soft knit :-).

AuntieAllyn said...

I know you'll have a blast in Montreal . . . I'm envious!! And as for vacationing in Turkey, I would highly recommend it, especially Istanbul . . . one of the most fascinating cities I've ever visited! For the full experience, you really have to go to spend an afternoon at one of the Turkish baths . . . nothing like it anywhere else in the world!

McVal said...

Great fabrics! I could dream up a lot of things to do with those!
For the moment tho, I need to sew a girlie duffle bag tonight for a little birthday party tomorrow...
Always too much "have to"!
Good luck!

Alex said...

You have tons of lovely dresses. I'm a little nervous about the cocktail dress part as I've only ever sewn one dress and it's a shirt dress, and far from cocktail like, and I'm not a good enough sewer to do one. Looking forward to meeting you, I've been lurking and reading your blog for awhile now.

Isa said...

I am reading your blog since few months and I really like what you are sewing. I'm impressed with your talent, you always find the right pattern who match with your fabric. Bravo ! By the way, I'm a french canadian from Québec (Montreal)- so sorry for my english !- I'm sure you will enjoy your trip in Montreal, it's a great city.

LaKaribane said...

Ok, the internet ate my first comment. I was going to say that I bought a total of 8 yds of Vogue Fabrics combed batiste last year. I agree with you that it is the perfect lining of sundresses.

I was even considering buying the bolt. From memory: 40yds for $114 + cheapest shipping $12.68 = $3.16/yd. Pretty good price, right?

Not sure how to fit a bolt of fabric in a suitcase but I'll think of something, LOL!

And I love the fabrics you got!

Karen said...

Hello! I love your blog and am amazed at how much you get accomplished! I have a question from a few or several weeks ago. You said (I think) that you don't like to use interfacing on tops. I'm a newish sewer and would prefer to skip that step but am not sure when that works and when it doesn't. Do you have some suggestions for me?

Mary Beth said...

As a Vogue Fabrics junkie, I recognize some of those prints. They are the best in the Midwest!


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Kathi said...

Have fun in Montreal - it sounds like a lot of fun!
You have a lot of projects planned. I know the feeling!
I look forward to seeing your laptop bag. What sort of hand sewing are you doing? I try to do as little by hand as possible!

STL Mom said...

I'm going to Turkey next week - I'll let you know if people frown at my knee-length skirts. Or maybe I should make myself some long skirts ASAP!