I had the pleasure of running around my old stomping grounds yesterday! I am currently in Portland, OR visiting my parents which led a necessary shopping trip to the Fabric Depot!
Now, I feel extremely blessed to have even the limited choices of fashion fabric that I do have in walla walla. Good ol' JoAnn's comes through pretty well now and again. But, walking into the Fabric Depot today, my knees went weak, I started salivating, and had an intense urge to just up and move to Portland so that I could have this amazing experience way more often.
I didn't even know where to start looking, but luckily, I had time to just browse. I ran into the Mood fabric collection, which I had only heard about via Gertie and Project Runway. I finally got to run my fingers over fabrics that I had only previously read about. Cotton Gorgette, Charmeuse, Chiffon, Cotton Lawn, etc. all wonderful!
I picked up several new pieces for my stash, and I might have some ideas up my sleeve for what to do with them. Along with the fashion fabric, I stumbled upon Bemberg Rayon Ambiance lining, which is just as luxurious as I had heard, so of course I had to get some of that too! Another find I am super excited about, is some silk organza. I hear it is very useful for stabilizing seams. 
While browsing around, I spotted a book that I've heard about many times and wasn't quite sure what it was all about; Fit For Real People by Pati Palmer and Marta Alto. I don't mind making muslins, but this book teaches you how to get away with not making a muslin and just fit the pattern tissue itself to you before making the garment. I leafed through the book and decided that learning to pattern fit will definitely be a skill worth knowing! This book looks pretty fantastic. It has pictures of fitting problems; a bump here, a wrinkle there, and it shows what fitting techniques will fix that particular problem. Genius for when you are the only seamstress in the house :)So, onward with the adventure...
I am over in Klamath Falls, and feel exactly as you do when I am in a "real" fabric store. Congratulations on you new blog and I know it will become a source of inspiration for you as you sew etc. I came here via Tilly's post.
ReplyDeleteI'm so jealous! My goal next time I'm in the City will be to go to a big fabric store. I was crushed that Britex was closed last time I was in SF.
ReplyDeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteThank-you for checking out my blog! It was so exciting for me to read a comment from you. Isn't it just amazing when you get to walk into a huge fabric store?! Thank-you for the encouragement, and hope to see you back here!
Montana
Min,
ReplyDeleteI know the disappointment! I wanted so badly to get to Britex when I was down in SoCal, but unfortunately my time schedule didn't allow for it! It was sickening to know that I was half an hour away from the glorious LA Garment District and couldn't go lay my hand on a thing! Girls shopping trip? Maybe? :)