Sewing Studio Trip & Haul

 

I have a tradition every New Year's Day and 4th of July that I go to my favorite place - The Sewing Studio in Maitland, Fl - for their big sale. On these days each year, they mark all their fabric and notions 40% off - even if it was already on clearance. Was I lacking in fabrics to sew? Not at all, but I did have a few things I was looking for and I always wait until this sale to stock up. My mom was sick this year, so I went all by myself for the first time ever.

I had a lot of fun and I was there for several hours. I bring a backpack to carry around my purchases while I shop, lol. So here is what I managed to bring home this year.

One of the first things I found were these ADORABLE Little Women Riley Blake quilting cottons. I grabbed a charm pack of this line of fabric a year or so ago because it was just so cute and I love Little Women. I have never figured out what to make with that charm pack, so now I have about 2 yards of each of these prints to go with that set. These were all in their clearance section, so they were a major bargain. 

Next in the sale knit section, I was greeted with a bunch of Art Gallery cotton jersey prints :) I grabbed 2 yards of the red floral and the green floral to make t-shirts. I'm trying not to mentally allocate all my cute knit prints to being Gable Tops, but who are we kidding? Then I grabbed the rest of their bolt of white Laguna Jersey from the clearance as well. I got 6 yards in July and I wished I had grabbed more - who can't use a bunch of white cotton jersey? So this cut is 4.5 more yards. Then at the end of my trip I found this Robert Kaufman cotton jersey that has hydrangeas printed on it. I grabbed 2 yards of this as well. 

The top right cut in this photo is an Art Gallery quilting cotton from the clearance section. It's only 1.3 yards, but it was so pretty and I knew I could make a very basic t-shirt out of it. The rest of these floral prints are all Japanese cotton lawns from Kokka. This is the first time I've seen these at this store and they were just so inexpensive PLUS the 40% off, so I grabbed between 3 and 5 yards of each of these. I'm excited to make some button up shirts and dresses with these. The fabric is so beautiful and light - perfect for Florida.

The navy and brown pieces are pinstripe linen - I grabbed 2 yards in navy and 2 yards in brown. These are a medium weight and they will be skirts. The olive green is an imported worsted wool suiting and it has the loveliest drape. I grabbed 2.5 yards to potentially make a skirt, but I could make a dress instead. We will see. The bottom corner is probably my biggest buy of the trip - both in the deal I got and the quantity. 

This is a shot poly taffeta that I randomly found in the silk and poly section. This had a very old clearance sticker on it for just $2 per yard, so it was $1.20 per yard with the discount. There were some imperfections here and there, but most of them just looked like lines that got pressed into the roll that I think will steam out. They had 12.25 yards and I bought it all knowing I could use this for a historical dress. They used shot silk in the 18th and 19th centuries, so I could do anything from a Robe à la Française to a late Victorian bustle gown with this fabric. My children were amazed at its color shift - it reads mostly blue, but at some angles it is red, which actually comes off a burgundy tone. Very cool stuff. This will be a big project some time in the future, but I'm thrilled to have got such a good deal on the fabric to make it a possibility.

And finally the boring stuff, lol. I grabbed some 2 inch wide elastic because I want to recreate my favorite pair of Soma leggings this winter. I grabbed 4 yards of black and white. I also stocked up on twin needles, including one that says it's an embroidery needle, which sounds intriguing. There are 2 spools of white rayon thread from the clearance (they are hard to see in the picture). Then I grabbed this nifty stick on thimble to try out since thimbles always seem to fall off my fingers when using them and I get annoyed. 

So that's my haul this time :) I had a lot of fun and I really was very well behaved. There was so much more that I wanted to grab, lol. I didn't get a single piece of Rifle Paper fabric, for example. I plan on grabbing some in July though. So this starts my ban on buying fabrics for the next while. I probably will not buy any until the July sale, to be honest. Are there projects I want to make that I need different fabric for? Or course. But I have SO MUCH fabric on hand that I need to use. I'm working on getting all these fabrics washed and organized and then deciding what I want to make up first. 

I also made a reel of my trip over on Instagram if you want to check that out (@showandtellmeg). Have you ever been to The Sewing Studio? It's definitely the best in Central Florida.