The Fine Art of Buying Fabric

There is a wonderful little “boutique” fabric store in my area.  I take sewing lessons there on occasion, and the fabrics are beautiful and classy.  You really can’t get fabric of that quality anywhere else in all of Portland.  I want to support this shop so it doesn’t go away.  But…the prices are just ridiculous.

I bought this fabric from them a few months ago:

It’s a very nice Maggy London knit.  It attracted me because the pattern is on the diagonal.

When I purchased it from my local shop, it was over $15.00/yard.  I can’t remember exactly how much but $17.99 is stuck in my head.  FabricMart has the same fabric for $4.95/yard.  Even with postage, it would have saved me a bundle buying it from FabricMart.  Sigh…it’s very difficult to support my local shop when the prices are that much higher.

I’m making this Vogue top to go with the Marcy Tilton pants that I finally finished (more on that later):

I’m making the one with the criss-cross neckline.  I was inspired by this Pam Erny top from her blog:

The pattern I’m using says not to use diagonal prints, so we’ll see how it turns out. I’m taking Pam’s advice and cutting the sleeves on the bias so that they won’t have the diagonal look. I’ll post pics when I’m done.

I’m Back!

I finally got my new camera battery charger in the mail, so I can post pics of my progress of late, which isn’t much. I have about five unfinished projects right now. Unfortunately, when I get frustrated with my sewing, I tend to walk away. I’m sure I’m not the only one who does that.

I loved this Marcy Tilton t-shirt when it came out:

I made the view with the darts on the outside, except my darts go inward. I didn’t realize at the time how much it would bother me to have darts around my neck. Besides, you have to be very careful when putting in the darts, because there is a chance that the end of the dart, where the collar band meets the back, will cause a slight bump to occur on the back. I tried and tried to get rid of that bump, to no avail.

I got the collar band put in rather unsatisfactorily, and then realized that the sleeve has darts at the wrist. I just took a deep, drawn out sigh and walked away.

Lesson learned: Read all of the instructions before you cut out the pattern (probably before you buy the pattern). I really don’t want darts around my neck and wrists. That may sound silly, but I just can’t tolerate them, lol.

I’m sure I can alter the pattern so that it doesn’t have those darts, but I probably won’t.

Moving on…I did finish the Marcy Tilton skirt (Vogue 8561). It was so much fun to put together! There is a bit of quirkiness (ah, my dictionary says this isn’t a word…oh well) with the bias pieces, but if you have a relatively new pattern, the instructions will lead you through it fairly well. I understand that when the pattern first came out, they left out the instructions for the bias pieces (???), but now they are there. If you have an old pattern, you may want to check out Kathryn’s blog, as she has detailed instructions that will help you get through that part.

Here is my version:

I made it with a stretch denim that is a very dark blue with a camel stripe. I love it! This is the way I would like all of my garments to turn out.

Next up: Some Marcy Tilton pants that I have already walked away from. But I’m going to take a deep breath and walk back to them…any second now.