Happy Fabric

Required shopping trips to pick up fabric can be stressful due to digging through bolts, seeing scary prices, and general exhaustion.  However, that all melts away when I find something that strikes me.  I feel giddy and I get really pumped to see what will become of my selection.  I walked into the heart of the garment district with Angela to make a stop at Mood.  I split off in search of something at M&J Trimming - no luck.  That store is amazing, but I think the help isn't up to the standard of Mood experts.  Saw the Korean parade on my way.  Running into random events in the city is always so fun!

 Korean Business Leader's Council of New York float

Marching band with interesting uniforms

Young band with a row of boys playing what I assume is a conch!

I met back up with Angela and she was not happy after leaving Mood.  The high prices really turned her off.  We kept walking and found Textile Kingdom which might be a new favorite fabric store!  It has low prices like TrueMart without the weird hours and somewhat unhelpful help.  TrueMart serves its purpose being within a block of our school and it works for cheap small cuts of fabric needed for experimental assignment drapes but it doesn't always have quality fabric like Mood and I swear they don't always know what they are talking about - almost get the feel they would try to make the sale by lying about fiber content or something.

Textile Kingdom was a good mix of helpful salesmen and reasonable prices.  They made me laugh because every fabric we looked at, they would say, "This is beautiful wool, $8 a yard, I give to you for $7.  This is great crepe, $4 but I give to you for $3."  You get the idea. Anyway, I really got excited because I found this cream and deep orange checked wool that was so different from most fabrics I was considering for my dolman sleeve project.  Finding it really made me happy - like finding a personalized treasure!  Then I found a nice sueded-feeling rayon in a brick shade.  It reminded me of the color blocked silk shirt craze of the early nineties.  It was so soft and I left feeling better in general.  Fabric can do that.  Angela was super pumped with some great (cheap!) finds as well.

Back to school to work on my bodice and skirt for the dirndl skirt dress.  I finished what I needed to and jumped to pattern making homework.  Our assignment was to make a draft, pattern and muslin of a creative long sleeve.  I had a funky idea but I was pretty excited to give it a try.

 

 The sloper

Making the draft - added width at the bottom and a curve to make a nice bell look at the wrist

The pattern gets a little more complicated.  Have to add seam allowances, markings for where each piece matches, where to sew, etc.

The crazy looking sleeve in paper!  I wanted a a break where the elbow would bend and splits above and below on the front of the arm.