Sewing and Stitchery Expo 2014

Well, what do you know. It's happening in my neck of the woods.  Puyallup, which is just 40 miles south of Seattle.

I originally intended to sign up for some classes, thinking I'll go at least 2, if not 3 days of the Expo.  But it turned out that I could only go on Friday, and I had to be back to Seattle by 5:30.  So I decided to just go for the day and enjoy it and not cram up my day with classes. My friend, Jillian, and I headed down south after we dropped off our kids to school Friday morning!

I knew I mostly wanted to look at fabrics. One of the first booths we found was this Billie's Designer Fabrics. It's a business from Chehalis, Washington. About 100 miles south of Seattle, a small town.

OMG! They had the best stuff.  All quality, designer and designer grade fabrics, at an amazing prices.  I asked them if these were the "expo special" prices. They said, the discounted ones are, and it shows the percentage but it also listed their regular prices, and that IS their regular price at their store.  AaaaaaMaaaaaZiiiiing.

I've found a hard-to-find (why? I don't know. But it's true.) cotton/poly/lycra medium weight knit fabric in black/dark gray. I squealed and bought 5 yards of it, and so did Jillian. I will make the Style Arc Linda Pants again with this fabric for sure, and there is plenty to make some kind of a jacket/cardi/top.  Here is also a remnant 2 yards of Ana Sui polyester knit in chocolate brown. Beautiful. 

Here are the ladies at Billie's Designer Fabrics busily working. Cutting, calculating, answering questions, etc. I ended up buying a couple of more remnants, plus I found Ana Sui stretch woven I once bought and  LOVED but the project I used it flopped (sob, sob) and I couldn't find it anymore. It was here~! Bought some so I can finally make pants with it.

What a great shop. Seriously.  I saw some things here that I've previously bought elsewhere for more than double the price.  I highly recommend these guys.  If you are still going to the expo today or tomorrow, be sure to visit them in the Pavilion.

There was this The Wool House from California.  Absolutely gorgeous wool fabrics! I wasn't in the market for this type of fabrics right now, so I just oooo'ed and ahhhh'ed over their stuff, and moved on.

My friend Jillian is newly enrolled in the fashion design program at Seattle Central Community College. (yup, they have a great program there)  She's been wanting a good dress form.  She found one here, and took one home! A full body one with the legs!

We were all given a good size pink bag at the gate. I didn't have any problem filling it quickly.  haha.

I would say that it's definitely quilting and crafts heavy as far as the vendor numbers are concerned. 

Do you see the Hawaiian quilt patterns on the wall there? I love those.

These were way too cute.  Felted pin cushions.

Gorgeous fibers for weaving.

Incidentally, I have just bought my first lingerie patten the night before. It's Gertie's, Butterick 6031.

So, when I found a vendor with all kinds of little things, I was thrilled, and bought these.

Then, there was MarcyTilton.com booth.  Breathtakingly beautiful fabrics. I am a HUGE lover of knits. They had knits, knits, and more knits, and all so gorgeous. 

Cool Combos were also SO fun. I almost bought some, but had to exercise self-control -- decided not to get any UNLESS I had specific plans for the fabrics I was buying.

I felt like a kid in a candy store.  A women in a fabric store~!

More fun bundles of beauty!

It's so nice to see actual garments sewn with the fabrics they sell. They had the Butterick and Vogue pattern catalogs there also, so you could see the patterns that these are made of.

I find it fascinating how the two-dimensional translates into a beautiful three-dimensional garment. I usually have such a hard time picturing that in my mind.

I ended up buying these two fabrics.  Both knit, of course!

Absolutely gorgeous fabrics.  Everything they have is. All the staff there were wearing their own creations of the fabrics offered there.  Beautiful and inspiring.

Then, there was the style show by the Tilton sisters! These Style Shows are so much fun.

Wow, hey, I have just bought the pattern for this outfit the night before also! Can't wait to make mine. 

It's hard to see, but the sleeves have an interesting cut line. It's Butterick 5961.

This one was apparently made with a painter's drop cloth!  Expand your horizons-!

What was most amazing was that at one point, three different garments made for three different sizes using different types of fabrics, but from the SAME pattern were shown side by side. They looked completely different, and each beautiful! I was actually so mesmerized that I forgot to take pictures.  That was so inspiring and educational.

The best part of the day was that I met up with three other RTW Fasting sisters at the Style Show.  We've only known each other online for the last couple of months! It was great to meet them in person. We are all doing RTW (ready-to-wear) fast this year, dedicating our attention to sewing our own clothes rather than shopping already made garments. (We still shop fabrics~!)

Chris, me, Beth, and Leslie. All from Washington State, but from different areas.

And with the ever so inspiring our sewing celebrities, Marcy and Katherine Tilton.

It's good for me to RTW Fast. It forces to me to practice more garment sewing. I'm loving it.

 

And, therefore.......

I do have plans for all the fabrics I bought today. Really. Promise.

I label all my fabrics as soon as I bring them home. I write down the fabric content, the yardage, the price, where, and when I bought it. I attach the tag with a little safety pin.

All in all, a great day at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo.  I'll be better planned and organized next year so that I can take some classes!

McCall 6841 v. 2 Pink

I basically love this pattern. I'm also discovering how tricky it is to choose just the right kind of fabric for this drapey design.  My first version was made with rayon/poly jersey knit which was so thin, and it was difficult to handle. So, I wanted to make it with a bit thicker fabric.

I chose this magenta pink knit. Appropriately finished right before Valentine's Day. This fabric came from my friend's late mother. I don't know the exact fabric content. Definitely a stretch knit. It feels like it has a little wool, and synthetic material. It's definitely more stable than the rayon jersey knit I used before, but it isn't as thick as sweatshirt weight.  Especially since I couldn't confirm the fabric content, I did my usual swatch wash test before I cut the fabric.  It came out without any shrinkage from washer/dryer.  So, I guess its wool content is very low and it's mostly polyester.

I usually use my main machine for sewing garments, but since I knew I either didn't have to finish seams or I'd serge them, I took out my Featherweight, Esther for this project! Just a straight stitch machine was all I needed.  Giving my main machine, Bernina 1230 a little break.

Since it was an easy fabric to handle, it went very quickly.  Soooooo, here is the learning moment. The fabric, this time, was a bit too thick (ugh!) so that the drapey design could appear rather stiff depending on the angle.

Like here.  See?

Mmmmm. What do you think? Do I look like I'm going to carry a baby in this built-in sling?!

It is still very wearable.

Love the dolman sleeves.  But I forgot to make them longer! I'd like the sleeve length to be just a bit longer, maybe by 1, even 2 inches. Well, NEXT TIME! 

This garment is made of only two pieces of pattern. A front and a back. With the drapey design, the front is a very large piece and it is hard to see where the sleeves are on the pattern piece. (Really. At least to me. It's like a gigantic puzzle piece!)

So, this leaves me with the feeling of wanting to make yet another one ~! Until I get it right -- picking the right weight fabric for this design, so the finished garment will truly shine.

I like the top. I wore it on the Valentine's Day Eve. 

Besides, I got to have a sewing date with Esther, my Singer Featherweight 221-K.

Experienced garments sewers out there, share with me your secrets, tips and wisdom on how to pick the right fabric for the design you are sewing--?

Style Arc Susan Top, Done.

I quite like it. It was very simple. I used size 6 - turned out it's very fitted. If it's RTW, I'm a size 4 ~6 petite. My hip is on the size 6 side, and waist and up is size 4. I'm 5'1", so everything is toooo long for me. But I didn't make any length adjustments on this pattern and it is perfect for me. The fabric I used is rayon/poly knit, on the thin side but not too bad. Wasn't difficult to handle.

I love the scoop neckline.

Here is how it lays on me.  No make-up, no head shot!

I serged the seam on the neckline, so the seam allowance was rather narrow. But it pressed easily and nicely. Faux coverstitch on the neckline. My serger doesn't have a coverstitch function. I simply stitched twice, paying careful attention to sew the second stitch as close to a clean parallel to the first stitch as possible.

The side seams lined up pretty well!

I really love the design.

After two knitting projects in a row I recently finished, I was definitely ready for sewing.

I can't wait for the remote control for my phone camera to arrive. I ordered it almost two weeks ago, and it's still not here! (ooooo, bad lighting here...)

This was the last bit of stitching before the garment was completely finished.

Lavender colored thread. Again, faux coverstitch finish.

Oh, here is the shrink test I do. Unless I'm sewing something that has high cotton content, and I'm quite confident the shrinkage is close to none, I don't preshrink fabrics. I want to enjoy the new and crisp fabric feel at least for the first time I wear the garments I make! So, here is my compromised solution.  This fabric I used was 50/50 rayon and polyester with just a little bit of lycra.  I was pretty confident it wasn't going to shrink if I washed in cold water, and line dried.  I was, however, curious how it did in the washer and dryer. So this is what I do. I cut a small piece of fabric from the scrap ends and measured the dimensions. In this example below, it was 4" x 4". I also cut another piece, and sewed a little on it. I put both in the washer and dryer to test.  No shrinkage. Washed and dried beautifully! Now I know I can safely put this top in the dryer.   I usually do the test before I cut the fabric. If there is shrinkage, then I'd put the entire fabric in the wash/dry to preshrink before I cut it.

Here is my Micky modeling the Susan top.

Ooo! It's comfy and I like it!

This is a very nice basic long sleeve tee shirt. Extremely easy and quick to make. I think I will make a few more in different colors to add to my wardrobe. Happy sewing, everyone!