My Sewing Studio and Joann's Haul

I had a lot of fun on the 4th of July at the Sewing Studio sale. I ended up getting pretty much every sewing notion that I could want along with plenty of fabric for some of my new patterns. I have discovered that it is much harder to shop for specific types of fabric for specific projects. Before this year, anytime I would go to this mega sale I would just buy a yard or 2 of this and a yard or 2 of that with no specific project really in mind. Plus I would always be attracted to quilting cotton, a habit I am trying to break since it's not really the best fabric for clothes.

Anyway, here is my huge pile off the notions wall:

I was very lucky as some of the items I got were the last ones the store had - even my mom didn't get some of them :) I made off with:

• French Curve/Design Ruler - it says it's 4 rulers in 1
• Clothing Shaver
• 9 1/2" Scissors
• Seam Roll
• Clover Tracing Paper
• Saral Tracing Paper
• Pressing Cloth
• Ball Point Needles
• Braza Bra Strap Tamers
• 1/2" Bias Tape Maker
• 8 1/2" Pinking Shears
• Chakoner Fabric Marker
• 2 Chakoner Refills in White
• Clover Fabric Marker 
• 2 Clover Refills in Pink
• Mini Seam Ripper
• Invisible Zipper Feet
• 200 Glass Head Pins

I was thrilled that they had so much of what I needed. I was especially surprised that they had the Chakoner marker - I had looked all over the internet for it and I could only find 1 random shop that even carried it and it would have cost me about $25 with shipping and all. I only paid $11 for the marker and 2 refills! Also, I have heard good things about the Clover marker too so I decided to pick one up while I could - it was the last one. So I will test both out to see which one I like best. I mean, for 40% off what have you got to lose? I'm doing the same comparison test with the tracing paper. I'm taking the Couture Dress class on Craftsy and Susan Khalje recommends waxed tracing paper which is really hard to find, so I finally just bit the bullet and got these because it's all I could find.

Anyway, now for the more exciting stuff - the fabric. I made quite a detailed list the night before the sale to make sure I knew what patterns I wanted to make and what I would need to make them so that I wouldn't have to haul around a bunch of patterns. I even took pictures of them on my phone so I could have a visual :) I know, I'm ridiculous but it really came in handy and it was so much easier than carrying all that extra stuff around which would have been near impossible in there.

This is my slightly random pile - most of this was from the sale areas so it was super cheap and I knew I could do something with it. I grabbed the silk organza at the bottom for the Couture Dress class since it's normally $16 a yard. The black gingham was a remnant piece of about 2.5 yards and I plan on making the Picnic Blanket Skirt that Tilly and the Buttons made. The green you may have to look at for a minute to see what it is - it's Christmas trees! It took me a minute to notice the trees - I just saw a damask-like bright green in the sale bin and grabbed it as fast as possible. I know it's silly, but I think it will make a cute Christmas dress and there is a little more than 4 yards so I know I have enough. The next is a blue and lavender floral print rayon that just had such a nice drape and I will make a dress out of this 4 yard piece (I haven't decided which pattern yet). The blue, black, gray and white stripe stuff was just so neat and it's out of the remnant section. It's about 2.5 yards so I may have to make it a skirt if I can't squeeze a simple dress otu of it. The brown, yellow and pink and the cream and pink geometric prints are Amy Butler cottons from the sale bin and there is about 2 - 2.5 yards of each. I'm not sure what I will make exactly, but if all else fails they will make cute Sorbetto top. The last in the line is a rolled remnant of a beautiful black wool. It's Donna Karen and it's 60" wide which is why I justified buying a piece that is only 1.25 yards long. I'm sure I can get a nice skirt out of it.

This is a really nice hounds tooth printed wool and I knew it would make a super cute Beignet skirt. I also grabbed a cream colored silk habotai for the lining.

This was another remnant piece that just felt so cool and I knew it would make a nice basic item. It's some kind of a silky but thick decorator fabric that is a dark blue-teal with black lines to make a checked pattern. I will be making this into a Meringue skirt from the Colette Sewing Handbook. I grabbed some black silk habotai for the lining, but I think that may be too boring so it might end up with a bright color inside.

I also managed to snag some zippers and buttons for projects that are already planned of in the works (sorry these pictures are so blurry). The buttons on the bottom and the gray zipper will go on my Shirt dress from the Simplicity 1880 Sew Along hosted by A Fashionable Stitch. I'm still working on it - hand basting and underlining are officially my 2 least favorite aspects of sewing right now thanks to my fabric choice for this dress, but I did make progress on it this week. The teal zipper will go to my Couture Dress whenever I get around to actually making it. The other zippers are for the meringue skirt and such like.

So, after spending a bunch of moolah at the Sewing Studio, we decided that wasn't enough so we went to Joann's :) I was mainly excited about their thread sale which was 50% off all of it. I have discovered it is really difficult to find light weight jersey that isn't printed for a baby, but I did manage to find a little. Here is my Joann's stuff:

That teal print with the flowers is 2 yards of jersey that I will use to try my hand at my own t-shirts from my Design-It-Yourself Clothes book by Cal Patch. I'm really excited to finally try m y hand at my own patterns now that I have a french curve ruler. I also grabbed a yard of a nice white muslin to use for the top part of the Ms. Eliza Bennet Shirt. I will be re-purposing a cool vintage sheet for the bottom portion :) I also grabbed some teddy bear eyes for a gift I'm making for my soon to arrive nephew. They didn't have noses! I have to find one online. And of course I grabbed some thread. I got thread for my shirt dress, my couture dress, some of my other projects and then I grabbed 3 rolls of silk thread just to have for hand basting. I mean, you really can never have too much thread :)

I also grabbed this lovely feeling silky polyester to make a Taffy Blouse from the Colette Sewing Handbook. Originally I wanted to use the white with black dots as the main fabric with the black as a trim, but luckily I noticed that the white had some pulls in the fabric already and I knew it would be a headache forever, so I switched it and the black base with the little white dots will be the main fabric and I will make bias tape out of the white base with the black dots for the trim.

So, there you have my crazy sewing related shopping day I had on the 4th of July. I was fortunate to have very kind benefactors for this trip - I spent all money that was given to me for my birthday just for this shopping excursion. My parents, my in-laws and my grandmother all contributed to the fund and my sisters and husband bought the books and patterns :) I still have a bunch of other patterns I didn't find anything suitable for yet, so maybe I will have to go back to the Sewing Studio on New Years Day for their next 40% off sale :) We had a bunch of fun and scored some crazy deals - what a way to celebrate your birthday!