Happy Hands at Home

Long ago, I sewed all my daughters' clothes, 
and pretty much all of my own.
My Mom had sewn ours, and her own, so I followed her example.

Image: Karen, of The Graphics Fairy

And then I discovered that if you give merchants foldy green paper,

they give you fabric that is already sewn into garments.

Son of a gun.  Who knew?

But a few years ago, I bought a killer sewing machine.

A Babylock Symphony.

And my daughter Anne has used it more than I have.

Bad Cass.  Bad, bad Cass.

After romping through the fabric shops of New York's

Garment District with Anne, weekend-before-last, I was inspired.

Time to fire up the needles and threads, and go all creative again.

But since I'm too lazy to romp back into NYC again,

I hit up Fabric Warehouse in Rahway, New Jersey.

Holy monkeys, what a lotta stuff.

Most of the offerings are home dec fabrics, but there is

a goodly section of fashion remnants -- suitings, challis, knits ....

The suitings called my name, plus they are crazy cheap inexpensive.

Here, in my car, a quick (and bad) phone shot of my treasures.

L to R, a black and cream speckly tweed, a multi-color loose weave,

and a brown and black tweedy fabric (my favorite among them).

I'm feeling the cold weather looming.

I'll have to test the fabrics to determine fiber content.

Could be just about anything ... but I bought stuff for 3 jackets

for 27 bucks.

Sweet.
As long as the faric doesn't melt in the rain.

Now, let's see if I get these sewn.  I'm still promising to finish up

some simple draperies for That Old House ... so what I need to do is
get over my lingering fear of my fancy sewing machine,

and put my foot to the pedal and go.

The sun just came out.  Good omen! -- Cass

Visit Linda at Coastal Charm for Show and Share!  -- Click here!

Feeding A Fabric Addiction, Garment District Style

I have a few weaknesses.
(Stop laughing, Howard.)
Among them:  fresh blank notebooks, good pens, yarn,
china, books, other people's old furniture, and . . . fabric.
(I left out chocolate, and onion dip.
Umm... not together. Unless there are anchovies.)

Having a daughter whose livelihood involves fabric means that I sometimes get a fascinating glimpse into her world -- a world of narrow, packed fabric shops and specialty stores that feed the fashion and costume industry in New York City, and beyond.

Below, Anne, in her natural habitat, in a fabric shop on West 39th Street in Manhattan's Garment District.

Not all the shops are this overwhelming.  Some are more so.  And some are more spare.

Anne lives and works in Washington, DC, now.

A benighted city without a garment or fabric district.

(You have to watch where you walk; fabrics at your feet!)

Can you spot Anne?

(And more material overhead.)

(With walls and walls lined with bolts of endless color and texture.)

Good fabric stores are like crack to me; I want ALL the fabrics.

I want to bring them home with me and gaze upon them.  So much potential.

Anne is a theatrical costume designer, and after two post-grad-school years

of freelance designing in and around NYC,

recently accepted a full-time job as a costume designer and teacher in DC.

Currently designing and building costumes for a production of Moliere,

meaning 1660s clothing, she could not find all of the fabric she needed locally.

So Columbus Day weekend, she Amtrak'd it home to Jersey, and her familiar city fabric shops.

(Need buttons? Some shops have aisles and aisles of them.)

On hearing of her plans . . . "Please, may I come with you?"
And I did.  And it was glorious and such fun!
5 days later, I am still basking in the glow of whole blocks of specialty shops.

(Got trim?)

(Need a little bling?)

Anne found the specialty fabrics she wanted, as she knew she would.
New York City always comes through; you can find anything.

The little specialty shops have not changed much in generations.  The names of the owners have changed, but the shops are still catering to a niche clientele that knows what it wants.

You may be offered a better price to seal a deal,
it is wise to be an informed consumer,
and ... something that I find charming ...   receipts are still written out by hand.

Okay, once more . . . Where's Waldo?  Oops, I mean Annie!

And, no, we did not go to Mood.  

But W.38th, W.39th, W.40th Streets, and 7th Avenue?  Oh yeah.  Oh yeah ....

I even got a bag full of $1 and $3 necklaces at a place on 7th.  

Cheaper than Goodwill.  :-)

Bonus:  It was lovely having Anne back home for a few days.

And, she made gluten-free, grain-free pizza for dinner on Sunday.

Yum.  I do miss that child's cooking!

I hope your Thursday isn't as wet and blustery as ours!  -- Cass

And now, a Linky Party!

It's Treasure Hunt Thursday, at From My Front Porch To Yours.

Click here, my pretties!