New York Fabric Shopping Spree

As you saw from my last post, I was lucky to have some NY shopping experts with me and although time was short and we only visited 3 stores, they were all different shopping experiences and close enough to each other that I recommend visits to all of them if your time is short too. For full reviews of these stores and many more in the garment district do visit LindsayT's blog, she also has some great articles and maps too, all handily referenced in the sidebar.

Here's where we went and what I bought....

First stop was Mood Fabrics of Project Runway fame. This is a large, but well organised store, a great place to go if you have a good idea of what you are looking for. Or you can be like me and wander around till something jumps out. I only bought 1 piece here, a peacock inspired cotton print, not cheap for a cotton, but gorgeous quality.

Next up was Elliott Berman Textiles. Lots of lovely designer fabrics here at very reasonable prices. They also have swatches of a large range of their fabrics at the front of the store so you can shop those if you find it easier. This was a very relaxing shopping experience, we were the only customers in the store at the time. I'd decided to focus on fabrics that are difficult to get in Hong Kong - knits - so that's what I bought here - 3 pieces.

Sensible

Loud

Crazy (this is an Elie Tahari if I remember right)

Finally, Carolyn took me to one of her favourite spots, Metro Textiles. This is a relatively small store, but manages to cram a lot in. If you know what you want the owner can probably dig it out for you, but it's kind of fun to dig around and see what you find and the prices are good. Here was where I stocked up on some basic knits and a couple of extra impulse buys.

Plain knits

Printed knits

Mystery (to me) fabric for jacket, silk print, border print cotton

You know this all looks quite restrained to me now, but it weighed a ton! It's fortunate for me that the US regulates airline baggage by piece and not by weight.

It is baking hot and extremely humid in Hong Kong now and I really need to make some summer tops and dresses so hopefully most of these won't be in my stash for too long. Stay tuned!

Older and Richer in Fabric

Well I am back from my fabulous trip to celebrate (?) my 40th birthday in New York and Bermuda.

As you will know by now I met up with Carolyn, LindsayT and Elizabeth in the garment district for a spot of fabric shopping. The time passed all too quickly but it was fun and frankly it probably would have been dangerous for the wallet and my suitcase packing skills if we had had any more time.

I will show you my purchases in a separate post but let me tell you the walk back from the garment district to my hotel felt a lot longer than on the way there.....

A few more pics;

Oops, looking like I am being stabbed in the head by the famous garment district needle.

Historical Dockyard in Bermuda wearing the much worn Burda 02/2009-124 dress which really will fall apart soon.

One of Bermuda's beautiful beaches - freezing water though!

On our hotel balcony before going out for my birthday - in the one dot dress from my last post!

Burda 05/2010 105 - The One Dot Dress

First thank you so much for all the comments on my last project! Can you believe I have made something else from the same issue and also cut out a jacket from June's issue - things are really looking up.

For some reason decent knits are quite hard to come by in Hong Kong so when I found some great navy knit fabric I grabbed it. Not very imaginatively I instantly thought of this pattern.

This dress pattern is rated only one dot and I promise it is the easiest dress in the world to sew. For anyone out there still a bit nervous about trying a Burda magazine pattern this is the one to start with. There are two pattern pieces plus 2 rectangles for the skirt. And for those of you with a longer attention span than me I think you can make this dress in less than an hour (even less if you can cut neatly and don't bother finishing the hems).

I cut my skirt pieces wider than the pattern suggested because I thought the magazine version looked a bit tight on the model, but actually I think I added a bit too much so I have more gathers at the waist than I would like. I also added quite a deep hem on mine to get the slightly shorter length I wanted.

This will get tons of wear over the summer and I will definitely be making it again when I find the right fabric. As well as being super comfortable, I think this pattern can work for day, dressed up with jewelry and heels for night and even as a poolside cover-up.

It's a winner - make it!

I took these pictures just as the sun was going down and as I was beginning to be eaten by some kind of flying insects so they are a bit rushed, but I couldn't wait till tomorrow to share this one.

(A quick edit following some comments - surprisingly the dress isn't too gappy under the arms, I don't know why, it's a mystery I know - perhaps in a very thin very drapy silk jersey it might be a problem, but my fabric sticks out a bit so nothing shows. It fits well on the shoulders, no slippage at all.)

Burda 05/2010 129 Blouse

I was finally shamed into finishing off my top when my cat made a bed out of it! So here is the finished product after extensive use of a lint roller to remove cat hair.

I always have trouble choosing buttons but settled on these dull (in colour) metal ones, they have a shank on the back so the front holes are purely decorative.

The buttons helpfully came in 2 sizes so I used smaller ones on the lower pocket flaps.

The usual old pose - and yes that is a matching skirt. Originally I pictured making this fabric into a shirtdress and then decided separates might be more versatile, I plan on getting some plain grey washed silk for matching coordinates and of course white will work too.

A closer view of the top and a different pose! Although this top has cutaway shoulders, on me at least it is just about wearable with a normal bra - it would be quite easy to widen the shoulder a bit though if you prefer.

The skirt is Burda magazine 07/2008 - a mix of 113 & 114, minus pockets - really simple, wide yoke, side zip, pleats in front and darts in back. This is the tech drawing of 114 - 113 is slightly longer without the topstitching and waist tie.

I added a deep hem facing and rows of topstitching as shown in view 114 to "sportify" it a bit and tie it to the top.

Thank you for all the encouraging words, I am OK about turning 40 really, my 30's were better than my 20's so I'm just going to assume the trend continues.

I wore the knit top from my last post yesterday and it drove me nuts all day as it constantly slipped off my shoulders - forwards, backwards and sideways! Thank goodness I was wearing a tank underneath. It felt very cool to wear though (as it should with all the ventilation going on) so it can remain in the wardrobe for now to be worn at home.

Also in the "now worn in real life" category is the black print Cynthia Rowley dress with the sequin trim I added. Katharine smartly asked if the trim meant that it was no longer machine washable. Well I hadn't even thought of that, but no way was I going to hand wash it so I bunged it in the machine and crossed my fingers and it was fine, remembered not to put it in the dryer though, that might be a step too far.

Moving on....here's what I am working on now, BWOF 05/2010-129 top.

I just have buttons and sleeve edges to finish, which knowing me will take weeks!

The eagle eyed among you will see that I left off the top pockets. This for once isn't due to laziness, but because I did an FBA and then they just wouldn't sit right. Also I don't have a pointy bit on the end of the placket. This is because I didn't read the instructions before cutting out and didn't see the separate tracing lines for the left and right placket band - I blame the new pattern sheets for that (NOT my aging eyes!).

It's been a while since I got straight onto a Burda magazine pattern, hopefully this is a good sign!