Video: My Sewing Studio Trip on New Year's Day

It has been quite a while since I attended the big Sewing Studio sale on New Year's Day, and this time I decided to take you along with me! Come and see the shop with me and then I shop you what I got and talk about plans. Click the video below to watch now.

 

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.

The Sewing Studio Trip July 4th, 2018

So as with every year for my birthday, I went to the amazing sale at The Sewing Studio yesterday. This year it was just me and my mom and we spent hours spending a nice chunk of money on fabric. This store just has everything you could want and you can wander aimlessly touching all the lovely fabrics.

This trip was so important that I even took a break from moving to go, lol. We had a great day, and as always I wanted to show the spoils.

This is everything I bought this year. The pile doesn't look as huge as other times, but it's because the fabrics I bought are thinner - certainly not less in quantity.

Let's start off with the cottons. They had several Birch Organics Sea Life cottons in their clearance section, so I grabbed a few for 70% off (I know!). I got 2.25 yards of Sea Snails, 2.5 yards of Eight Legs, and 7/8 yard of Here Be Monsters. The two larger cuts will be shirts and the other was just irresistible so I had to grab it :) The pink with the trees is a lovely Art Gallery poplin called Nightfall Mystical Woods Solar and it's a lovely light weight - this will be a shirt. Bottom left is 2.12 yards of Rifle Paper Co Sun Girls in Sky for an apron for my sister. Bottom right is 1.38 yards of Kujira + Star Sightseeing Sand Dollar by Cotton + Steel - no idea what this will be, but it's super cute.

Next up - deliciously drapey stuff. I got 2 yards of Telio Dali rayon poplin in the Birds on a Wire print. This will be a top. The bottom right us a designer remnant poly chiffon that is a navy background with coral flower clusters. This will be a skirt. And the pièce de résistance - I grabbed 3 yards of this beautiful Art Gallery rayon challis called Flowery Chant Subtle. It's just heavenly feeling. This was my big splurge of the trip and it will be a dress.

I only bought 2 knits this trip - crazy, right? The white is an eyelet knit - so cool! It's polyester, but II loved it too much to care. I grabbed 2.38 yards and it will be a top for my and one for my mom. The lovely floral is another splurge - I got the last 1.25 yards of this Art Gallery jersey called Sprinkle Peonies and it has gold metallic on it :) This will be a lovely shirt.

And some specialty cottons :) The top left is Telio Playtime cotton poplin in navy blue with amazingly bright oranges all over. I grabbed 4 yards and this will be a shirt dress. I can't wait :) Top right is Cote D'Zur cotton seersucker by Robert Kaufman. I grabbed 2 yards to make a shirt. Bottom left is lovely cotton voile called Botany Full Bloom by Windham fabrics. Isn't it awesome? This will be a top and I have some skirt fabric I think will match it wonderfully. The blue and yellow and 2 yards each and they are cotton voile for tops.

I went a little crazy with the fat quarters, but at least this time I didn't just grab willy nilly. I grabbed 6 fat quarters of Cotton + Steel Rotary Club telephone dials print, 6 of Cotton + Steel Trinket Whistles, and 4 of Cotton + Steel Fruit Dots Gum. I figured with that many I could make a really cute bag with each. I grabbed 3 other single fat quarters, 1/3 yard of a floral, and a 1 yard cut of gray with pianos.

And the notions. This time I specifically needed serger supplies (which I will talk more about soon). I grabbed 4 white cones of Maxi Lock thread and 4 gray cones as well as 2 packs of serger needles. Speaking of needles, I really stocked up. I've run out of my go-to size (universal 70/10) and last time someone else took them all, so I grabbed 3 packs as well as a pack of 65/9s. I grabbed a multi size pack of jersery needles and 2 different sizes of microtex needles as well. I got a refill pack of blue chalk powder for the Chalkoner pen since they didn't have an actual blue pen. I also restocked on frixion pens! They may a felt tip variety now and I grabbed one of each color available. I also got some awesome twill tapes. The larger one has acurate inch increments and I grabbed 10 yards there for waistbands and other places that need stabilizing. The thinner white and gold tapes are centimeters and I grabbed 6 yards each of these.

Check out that line - and this was halfway through the day when the line was much shorter. The cash register is up by the front door, lol.

And I took a picture of my favorite section - I spent a lot of time fondling these rayons, voiles, and linens. I was seriously tempted by some $30 per yard watercolor rose printed linen. Gosh that stuff was dreamy...

So that's my trip this time :) Like I said, the stack may not look as large, but it certainly is about my usual quantity of yardage. Also I had a fun day with my mom, which is always great. I'm so excited because now that my house is on the verge of selling (we are counting the days now!) I will have all my time back without any guilt of needing to fix things around my house instead of sewing. I anticipate quite a serge of new items being made very soon, and it's so awesome to finally feel that way. So hopefully I will be able to start making nice dents in my stash and at least sew up the equivalent of what I buy on each Sewing Studio pilgrimage :)

Anyone else do any heavy fabric buying this week?