Tuesday, October 09, 2007

I are a grown-up now

One of the reasons I become stuck in sewing is, I tend to pick a lot of the same sort of fabrics over and over. Lots of us do that. In my case, it means using sturdy cottons, for they are easy to work with. And unless they are imported, they are pretty darn cheap. This is a habit acquired from my mother, who like garment sewing, but did it mostly for economical reasons and did not enjoy a special challenge (knits, for example, did not fare well in our 1947 Kenmore).

So it became my mission during sewing week in San Francisco to look for fabrics that are, honestly, more grown up than I typically choose. I needed to find yardage that co-ordinates with some "orphan" garments — those items of clothing you own that don't seem to really go with anything else you own. I have two pretty great blouses made of cotton/silk voile that I bought at Morrissey in Sydney two years ago, but they have no mates. Here is what I found at Britex.

I need to point out that the fabulous acid yellow plaid is not for a skirt. It's for a jacket. My photo's not great, but maybe you can see the fabric is shot with metallic thread. I will wear some kind of bright pink blouse with it and I bought some olive botton weight fabric for a skirt. This was quite a major purchase. I are a grown-up now. I think.