Souvenir Fabric: Las Vegas

 I HAD to go to Heddy's fabric in Las Vegas.  Given that this shop is the big supplier for all the fabric for shows on the strip, it seemed like Heddy's was the go to place for lingerie and swimwear fabrics.  It was.  I only left with 3 lengths of fabric.  Believe me, it was hard to leave with just that much.  They had some gorgeous Italian cotton I wanted, loads of stretch lace yardage, plenty of knits, about 300 different kinds of 4-way stretch fabric in solids and prints, bridal fabrics, a wall of silks, a shelf of tweeds, and on and on and on.  If you like fabric--especially unique fabric--definitely check Heddy's out.

 

My first selection is this raspberry 4-way stretch lycra.  I bought a yard of this to make a bombshell swimsuit.  I'm half expecting to have enough fabric left over to make a bikini too.  I think this is 108" selvedge to selvedge.  

 

This fabric was hella expensive.  I paid $27.49 for one yard.  I'm planning to make a bikini similar to ohhhlulu's zooey pattern. I prefer bandeau tops, so I'll have to modify or draft a top of my own.  I almost bought a remnant of white lycra fabric for the contrast, but I really didn't need almost a yard of white lycra too.  I can quite possibly use the raspberry leftovers for the contrast if I want.   We'll see.

 

Look at the detail of this fabric!  I love it.  The glitter is weird.  I didn't see it coming off in the store when I was browsing, which is why I bought it.  I'm noticing some glitter on my hands after taking these photos though and this is disappointing.  I'm hoping it's just transfer from the cutting counter.  There was a guy buying glittery pink fabric for a custom dress next to me.  That guy was really cool.  He actually designs and makes costumes for some of the shows on the strip.

 

Another of my favorite rayon/spandex knits. This length cost me about $15 total.  The color was different than anything I've seen locally, so I grabbed it up.

 

I'd also had a hard time finding stretch lace locally.  I'm planning to make Butterick 6031 soon.  Heddy's had a huge selection of lingerie elastic, both foldover and picot among others.  They had many different colors available and I heard from another customer than notions at Heddy's are cheaper than those at JoAnn's.

Do you buy souvenir fabric or yarn?  Leave me a link to your FOs in the comments. 

Fashion Plate: There's No Business Like Snow Business

I totally blew off last week's Fashion Plate.  Sorry about that.  This week, I'm taking ModCloth's No Business Like Snow Business as my inspiration for a holiday-themed dress.  Should you be so daring as to wear white to a holiday party, grab a copy of Simplicity 4070 and a couple/few yards each of this stretch cotton sateen (gawd I love that stuff) and this white floral lace from fabric.com and swiftly put one of these dresses together!  I used the bodice pattern for my apron and it went together very smoothly.  I did adjust the bust lines slightly from the pattern, but that was easy to simply mark on the fabric and stitch along my markings.

If white isn't your thing, here's a red combo: 


Red stretch cotton sateen

cherry stretch lace

I need to go on a spending hiatus for a while.  I spent so much money over the weekend.  I work at the Gap every year for Black Friday and I spent all my profits and then some!  As the year is kinda closing out, I need to get a list of my goals for 2014--the primary one being to pay off all my student loan debt.  It's going to be tight.  I might have to go cold cotton or something!  I actually don't like diets or spending freezes of any kind because I find that deprivation creates resentment (yes I realize how weird that sounds given that I am me and I am resenting myself).  It isn't really resentment of myself in as much as it's resenting the budget and being so strict.  I find it easier to keep within my budget if I do allow myself to spend a little bit on trivial things.

How I felt the last week:

such work

many noise

most people

wow

 

Happy Tuesday readers!

Fashion Plate: On A Barrel Roll Skirt

Make This Look: ModCloth On A Barrel Roll Skirt by ellelittle featuring Bea & Dot skirts 

This one is so easy!  The inspiration is Modcloth's On a Barrel Roll Skirt.  The skirt featured on ModCloth is actually a 6-gore skirt, but why would you want to cut all those pieces (yes, more structure, blahblahblah) when all you really have to do is use Gertie's Gathered Skirt tutorial.  All you need is your waist measurement and desired length in order to cut your rectangles.  You can even add side seam pockets to her tutorial instead of using that giant patch pocket shown in the ModCloth version.  Way better right?  The fabric I chose is Kaufman's All That Jazz metallic.

September Stash Enhancement!

I bought some new fabric from fabric.com about a week ago and it finally arrived!  I didn't go too crazy.  I bought three yards of Michael Miller Eiffel Tower in Turf Green and one yard of a stretch lace.  The MM fabric might become a Chantilly or another Colette dress and the lace is to try to recreate my favorite underwear.  TMI?  Not sure.  I buy those underwear in triples because the lace always tears after a couple months.  So annoying.

 

And on Thursday night, I was gifted with a bunch of other fabrics from a quilter.  Some of the lengths are just too small for me to do much of anything with, as I'm not a quilter.  Some of the other fabrics were decent lengths.   Let's get to the haul.

This green and navy poly blend was 42" or 44" (can't remember).  It's already cut into a Hazel dress.  I just can't get enough of that pattern.  I think this was a 60" fabric, which is why I was able to get so much dress out of so little fabric.  I hope to sew that up this week.

This is actually a BLACK background.  My camera hates black.  There is maybe 1/2 yard here.  It will be a struggle to get anything out of this.  Maybe a tank top?

I think this is 40" of what appears to be a crepe back satin.  I like the dots, but this might have to become pillowcases.

This is a decent length of a poly blend.  I don't remember it having any stretch to it, so this fabric goes into the Danger Zone.  It's another black fabric.

I love this one too.  It's 30" of a home dec fabric.  More pillowcases?

More polyester Danger Zone fabric.  This one even comes with some holes in it.  I do have somewhere in the neighborhood of 52" of this one. 

I think this one was 60" of a polyester "let's pretend this is silk" fabric.  Not sure what this will be.  I might just list it on ebay and hope for the best.

 

About a yard of a purple dotted knit.  This could be PJs.  We'll see.

Random tiny bits of fabric for more pillowcases.  This is probably what the gifter had in mind with all these fabrics.  I do like the colors.

This is about 54" of knit.  It looks very childish.  I don't know any kids to make PJs for with it.  That's exactly what this fabric reminds me of.

A fancy stretch knit (dance type) fabric.  I could see myself making a slip with some lace detail out of this.

More weird "let's pretend this is silk" polyster taffeta stuff.  I hate taffeta.  I think it's 50" worth.

 

Getting new fabric is always fun, especially when it's free!  I know I won't be able to use all of it, but even just that green and navy stripe was worth the effort of picking the fabric up!  I got my serger last week and I successfully threaded it and sewed a project on it.  I don't like using the blades.  I might once I figure out the fabric feeding placement, but for right now, those things are lowered. 

 

I need to get busy sewing!  My fabric tub is overflowing now.  FWP?  It is nice to have a bit of a fabric stash built up because I can think of something I want to make and find something to make it with in the stash.  I also just hate letting that money sit there.  How do you get over that?  I know I have the money when I buy the fabric, so I really should just forget about it.  I just feel like what I bought is being wasted by just sitting there in the bin.  How do you get over the "stash guilt?"

 

~elle

Free Craftsy Course!

If you ever wanted to take a Craftsy course and just couldn't afford it or life got in the way, here's your opportunity to take one for free!  FREE!!!  Just click or type http://www.craftsy.com/classes to take you to all the classes!  It says "Free" instead of giving a price.  (Obviously if it doesn't say free, the offer expired or you already signed up for your one free class.)

This one about making sugar orchids looks really neat.

The couture dress class has so much great information for fitting and adjusting your pattern pieces.

I enrolled in the Jean-ius class several months ago and I listened to most of the lessons.  There is lots of prep work involved in this project, but that is all to ensure you get the perfect finished item.  I'm getting sized out of the market and haven't bought new jeans in many years.  I needed this class.

I decided to enroll in Shoot It! for my free class.  It's normally $49.99, so I thought it was quite the bargain.  I should be able to listen and watch and put the lessons right into practice.

Go get a free class!  Have a great week,

~elle

Wednesday Woecakes! Or the things I'm lusting after

Who here loves ModCloth?  ::me!me!meee!:: ModCloth is just filled with inspiration if you are a sewist/crafter/lover of vintage things.  I saw this dress and I absolutely love it!  It's so much fun.  I love the swiss dot details on the mesh.  I love the starfish and shells embroidery.  I love the illusion neckline.  I love the pleats.  I would be seriously tempted to drop $125 on this dress, except it doesn't come in my size. :(  That's okay, though.  There are plenty of patterns that have this neckline going on (Simplicity 4070 comes to mind) and the skirt is easy enough to replicate.  I'll be ready to make my own version when the right fabric comes along!

Seashell We Dance

Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing

To be honest, I'll probably have purchased this book by the time this post goes live.  Just sayin'  Have you been to Gertie's blog? If not, don't.  You will fall into the abyss. (Kidding, kidding.  There is tons of great info on the blog.)  The book is packed with couture techniques and 10 patterns for wardrobe essentials, updated from the 1950s version for the modern lady. 

The Sophia carry-all bag by Amy Butler

Another design I love.  I think I would make this in a really fun Michael Miller or Alexander Henry print.  I do love those pin-up girls.

Pin Ups Aloha Girls

Yeah.  The root beer float.  I stopped drinking soda a few years ago.  Every now and then I crave root beer hard.  I might break down and have a glass at the superbowl party this weekend.  We'll see.  Speaking of the superbowl party, I'm making bacon cheese twisty things and maple cheesecake cupcakes with candied bacon.  The latter is only if I have time.  I have a basic cheesecake ratio that I use and I'll have to tweak my recipe a bit when I add the maple syrup.  I'll probably end up adding flour when I add the maple syrup to keep the right consistency.  Hey, potential new recipes for you guys to look out for!

Happy hump day!
~elle

Sew Bi-Weekly Update and Souvenir Fabric

It's Monday again and time for another update on my sew bi-weekly progress.  I decided that I'm not going to do the red challenge for February 11th.  The whole point was something red for Valentine's Day.  I just made a red skirt.  I don't have any more red fabric in the stash.  I decided my time was much better spent making my blue silk dress truly fabulous.  There are portions of the dress that I couldn't reach with my sewing machine when I was understitching, so I am going to go back and hand stitch those areas.  If I don't understitch those sections, the lining will poke up from the silk and I really don't want that happening.  I'm using a smoky grey bemberg rayon to line a bright turquoise dress.  It just won't look right!  I'm also trying to create something couture in a way.  The fabric was quite expensive and I don't want to waste it by creating a sub-par garment.  So--onward!

I also want to share with you all the fabric goodies I brought home with me from Nicaragua!  I looked for fabric shops in every country I was in and Nicaragua was like Mecca.  There were fabric shops everywhere I looked!  I picked up bunches of fabric.  Let me show you all of it!


This is the first fabric that caught my eye in Granada.  The store I bought it from has ready-made dresses (mostly for children) that people can purchase.  I was walking towards the market in Granada and BAM!  fabric store.  The fabric is an embroidered cotton.  I picked up 2.5  yards for 65C per yard, so that's about $6.75 total.  Bargain!  I think I'm going to make a fun summer dress using the borders as my hem and bodice top.  Maybe.  Do you have any pattern suggestions for me? 



I found this embroidered cotton at the same shop.  It just has a subtle allover circle pattern embroidered on it.  I only picked up 2 yards of this fabric because it was quite expensive at 100C per yard, or $8.25.  This fabric is destined to be a summer dress.  (I live in Florida.  I'm allowed to have a bazillionty dresses!)



The last fabric I picked up at that shop is this poly/rayon/cotton mystery blend.  I'll have to do the burn test on this guy.  I think it's a poly/cotton blend, but I'm not certain.  The blue is actually a bit deeper than the color my camera picked up.  This will probably be a summer dress too.  :D I bought two yards at 50C per yard, or $4.25 total.  Even though I didn't make it to Costa Rica, I still managed to bring something home from there--this fabric!



Some of you have probably guessed my color palette by now.  I bought this at one of three (three!) fabric shops along a three block stretch on the main street in Masaya.  I was told that it is hard for the shops to get natural fibers.  You will see lots and lots of polyester (which I think is pretty icky) and very little cotton.  However, I managed to snag 2 yards of this for 60C per yard, or $5.

I saw this dark blue denim at another fabric shop in Masaya.  I passed on it the first time because it was 75C per yard and only 75% cotton (at least that's what I heard).  I thought about it overnight and decided that I wouldn't be able to find denim anywhere in the states for that cheap and this would be good for practicing making jeans with.  I just purchased (for 19.99!) and started watching the Craftsy class Jean-ius.  It looks so complicated, but I have such a hard time finding jeans that fit and my favorites are getting worn out.  I bought 4 yards of denim from that store for a total of $11.50.  The denim ended up only being 70C per yard.  They might have given me a discount because I bought so much of this next fabric.

This is 5 yards of a deep, dark blue suiting.  I love the slight texture it has.  It claims to be wool, but I don't know I believe that.  I'm pretty sure it is just a nice polyester (again with the ick!, but I'll line it with bemberg and be okay with this).  I'm shooting for a jacket and pants with the 5 yards I purchased for 100C per yard, or $20.  Ouch!

That's what I did on my vacation.  Fun times and fabric shopping!  Using today's exchange rate, I spent $56.43 on fabric.  Don't even ask me how I managed to get all this fabric back home.  That is a whole different story.  It involved lots of prayers and shifting things around in and between my backpacks (I bought a small one in Belize to use as a daypack).

Can you believe another month is almost gone?  I think I'm on three months of blogging now. Hopefully I won't run out of things to say!  That will probably never happen.  I talk to everyone like my best friend.  If you ever meet me, you will find that out pretty quickly!  I'm off to work for a bit now and then thread the needle.  I need to get this silk dress finished up.  It is looking fantastic!  I can't wait to show you guys.  Have a great week!

~elle

Keeping busy

Last week was crazy for me!  Obviously it was Thanksgiving here in the US, but there was so much more than just that going on.  First, I had to take a continuing professional education course about 70 miles away.  Second, I started doing the online course as the first step towards the PADI scuba diver certification.  I finished that on sunday after several late nights of reading and studying.  I've been emailing with a dive instructor in Cozumel.  It looks like I'll be getting certified there!  My travel companion and I also picked up a third to go with us.  The other guy lives in Texas and he is a big scuba diver (hence the push for me getting certified).  This guy is a big planner like I am, so he and I are constantly emailing and talking on the phone about our plans.  Communication is good!

And third, I worked the overnight shift at the Gap on Black Friday.  It was madness and so much fun.  It's my one day of retail work every year.  I always meet some great people.  I managed to snag some pretty great deals myself.  I got two half-sleeve shirts, a red long-sleeve shirt, two shelf bra tank tops, and a black boatneck tee, all for under $30!  Woot!  I took advantage of my employee discount. :)  (Looking at the exposure on some of these pictures, I really have to work on that.  I think my white balance is off or something.  I know my camera doesn't like artificial light. It's a work in progress!)

I also zipped over to the Columbia outlet store after my shift ended (at 7am) and scored a really amazing jacket (it's a great green color with blue and lime accents) for under $50 and two pairs of shorts for my trip for $10 each.  I had previously purchased a North Face rain jacket for my trip to Central America, but I wanted to check out Columbia to see if there were better deals to be had.  I dropped the $100 North Face jacket in the mail for returns yesterday, so net shopping expenses on Black Friday--$0.