Friday, July 5, 2013

My Fourth of July - Solo Sewing Studio Trip!

So, it's become my own little tradition to go to The Sewing Studio in Maitland, Fl for their fantastic sale :) Every year on July 4th (and January 1st) they give you 40% off your entire purchase, excluding things like sewing machines (but they are on super low prices too!), and I make it a point to go. Some will ask me, "What's the difference between them and Joann's?" To which I try to explain the sheer quality of fabrics and tools among many other things. This isn't cheapy quilting cottons and 100% polyester stretch lace. The Sewing Studio sells brands like Amy Butler, Robert Kaufman, Michael Miller and has a wide selection of very high end dress fabrics. Like $100 per yard lace, real silk organza and such. I love going just to look around :)
Anyway, enough preaching, let's get down to the fun stuff. Here's me trying not to look too conspicuous out in the parking lot when I arrived. I got there around 12:30 pm and holy cow was it packed!
Sorry for the blurry pic - I was trying to take it unnoticed. This was the line to pay! In all the years I've gone to this sale I've never seen it this long. To give you an idea about the scale - the register is up by that door the linoleum leads to. Yeah. I'm glad I wasn't ready to go just then.
The first spot I always check is the clearance bin at the quilting cotton section. Normally this bin is packed - it had already been pretty picked clean by the time I got there. I blame it on the nice weather - the last 2 years we've gone it was raining and the bin was much more full.
In my meandering I found what seems to be some new acquisitions - Amy Butler cotton voile, lawn and satine! They were heavenly to touch, but even with the 40% off I couldn't take the plunge. The gray satine at the front was $21.50 per yard! Yikes!
Anyway, so what did I come away with? Well I went over to their sale annex and found a mountain of material right up my alley. The shop recently bought out the fabric bolts from a garment factory down in Miami and they are selling it off incredibly cheap - between $0.50 - $3.99 per yard! Plus the additional 40% off! The only downside is there is no guarantee of the fabric content, but you can pretty much feel it and take an educated guess. I got 3 yards of a deep navy suiting material (left) for $2.39 per yard, 4 yards of a textured/printed royal blue thin cotton poly blend of some kind for $1.79 per yard (middle), and 2.5 yards of a linen textured orange-red-coral polyester. I honestly may had had a shirt at one time made from that royal blue material - I know I've seen it in ready to wear items before. These were just so cheap that they will be great to use for muslins and I won't have to be too upset if they don't come out just right. I almost got some of the linings - they were plain slick polyesters but they said Pierre Cardin and Lanvin all over them. How funny to make your own piece and put their name in it, right? But I was being frugal.
These two are both jersey. The black is a Robert Kaufman 100% cotton jersey that has a nice medium weight. I plan to recreate my favorite black t-shirt with this. I got 1 yard for $6. The crazy print was from the remnant section so I have no idea what it's made of but it was crazy and only cost $3 for the 1 yard that was left. I figure it will make a good mock up so I can test my t-shirt pattern.
This was my one acquisition from my favorite quilting cotton sale bin. It's a 100% premium cotton print called Rock 'n Romance by Art Gallery Fabrics. It has nice drape and isn't too heavy like lots of quilting cottons, so I got 2 yards and will make a top out of it.
No joke when I saw this fabric I let out a little gasp and grabbed it before someone else could. Not that it was crazy cheap - it was in the regular priced section - but it's just so me, for real. It's another 100% premium cotton by Art Gallery Fabrics called Splendor 1920 - appropriate, huh? I got 2.5 yards for $6.60 per yard but I just had to grab it. This will be a Banksia :) And I snagged several sets of 5/8" buttons to potentially go with it. It couldn't decide at the time and they were cheap.
These were the real justification for going today. My sister is getting married at the end of the month and I have had a hell of a time finding a dress that goes with her colors that I can get in time that would fit me. So I figured I would be ambitious and look at fabrics while I was there. For the first hour of my trip, I was convinced I wouldn't find anything in her colors (gray, blush pink, or gold) and I gave up. By chance I meandered to a corner I hadn't been through yet and found a rack that said "50% Off" and there were not one but TWO fabrics in my sisters color scheme! Hizzah! It's hard to tell in the picture but the left fabric is a light blush pinky peach colored polyester and it's thicker like a taffeta. There was only 2.67 yards left on the bolt, but it was 60" wide - just enough to squeeze a dress out of if I'm careful about cutting placement. So I grabbed the whole bolt at $3.15 per yard! The gray and mauvey-pink are Robert Kaufman cotton poplin rayon blends so they have a nice crispness with slight drape. I got 4.5. yards of the gray and 1 yard of the pink for $2.70 per yard! I got a little of the pink just in case we want to break up the gray a little bit. We will use these fabrics to make one of the patterns I have laid out there - maybe 2 if my sister can't find a dress.
I also snagged some random notions (machine needles, etc), a veil for my sister (hoping she likes it), and these 3 rolls from the bargain annex. The red is an Amy Butler cotton remnant of 5/8 yards for $2, the middle blue a random cotton remnant of 5/8 yards for $1.50 and the black a cotton fat quarter for $0.90.

All in all I did really well this year. I didn't go crazy like last time - granted last time I had all my birthday money to burn. This time I'm pretty broke to tell the truth, but I've been saving some of my Etsy store money just for this occasion. I feel like I left with all very well priced fabrics, some I absolutely love, and most with projects in mind. Now that my sewing room is more set up I might actually get around to making things this year :) I can't wait!

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