Sewing fun in Virginia and Baltimore

We've just come back from 10 days in America visiting my family spread across three states. My parents moved down from where I grew up in Pennsylvania to be closer to my brother and his family in Norfolk, Virginia a few years ago, so our first stop was down there to visit my immediate family. I absolutely took the opportunity to order a few fabrics online to be shipped to their house before we arrived, since I knew the in-person fabric opportunities weren't great down there. I have a limited space for my fabric stash (on purpose!) and that space is pretty full so I made a conscious effort to only buy a few fabrics that I had specific projects tied to.

We’ve just come back from 10 days in America visiting my family spread across three states. My parents moved down from where I grew up in Pennsylvania to be closer to my brother and his family in Norfolk, Virginia a few years ago, so our first stop was down there to visit my immediate family.

I absolutely took the opportunity to order a few fabrics online to be shipped to their house before we arrived, since I knew the in-person fabric opportunities weren’t great down there. I have a limited space for my fabric stash (on purpose!) and that space is pretty full so I made a conscious effort to only buy a few fabrics that I had specific projects tied to.

I was most excited to finally be able to try some of Sew Dynamic’s recycled activewear fabric!

Each yard of fabric uses 18 recycled plastic bottles, and even the packaging she uses to ship it are all recycled, too. The prints are only in limited quantities, so don’t wait around if you like them! I bought this colour burst border print to make a new cycling shorts & jersey set for my 100 mile Ride London race in August.

I also bought a few fabrics from Mood’s online shop since they have a decent activewear and garment selection. The first fabric I was drawn to on their site was this forest green interlock activewear fabric, but it’s actually the one I’m most disappointed in! It’s way paler than forest green, and far too lightweight for leggings (normally “interlock” is heftier in my experience), but it’ll make a nice base layer top for winter in a few months.

The peacock blue anti-microbial activewear fabric is JUST what I was after for leggings though, and I got the end of the roll so I got a bonus half yard too, yay! I also bought some yellow (not mustard as stated) tencel twill for a blouse, and a wonderful textured grey rayon twill to make the Paper Theory Zadie Jumpsuit.

It’s good I did order my fabric online, too, because we stopped in at a JoAnn’s and omg, it was cheap and nasty fabric city in there! Like, easily 90% fleece and other petroleum-based fabrics that just felt awful to touch. I made a bee-line straight for the zippers instead! Americans tell me JoAnns zippers are expensive, but at $3.50ish each for long, invisible zippers, they’re still half to a third of the price I pay in the UK so I always stock up when I’m over.

Little did I know, however, that Renee would take me to Stadham’s while we were staying with her in Baltimore! This place only sells zippers and buttons (plus assorted few other bits), and the zippers were like $0.70-1.50 depending on length!!

I didn’t buy any buttons as I didn’t have any upcoming projects that needed them (and I’m not a button hoarder), but I do appreciate a good vintage font, and the button boxes were full of them! I ended up buying quite a few zippers (plus a card of vintage covered snaps he charged me 25 cents for!), and the whole bill came to $11. Hence this face:

Good thing zippers are lightweight! You can also see the Type-A coverstitch binder I bought off eBay, too. I’m hoping it’ll be less finicky and bulky than my Type-B binder (the only kind I can ever find in the UK).

I mentioned we stayed with Renee and Jordan in Baltimore, and after their A+++ hosting when we were over a few years ago, we were super excited to stay with them again! Cuddling her senior chihuahua Linus was just a bonus on top of all the local knowledge, restaurant trips, homemade yoghurt, and finally getting to see her new sewing room loft!

She even organised a cocktail evening for a few local sewists so I got to catch up with Robin again and meet Carly, too!

But it wasn’t just a whirlwind of visiting and car trips – I did get some relaxation time thrown, in, too! I managed to read all of Folk Fashion on the trip, and made great progress towards the sock I’m loom knitting, too.

5 Comments

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  1. 1
    Kathy

    Sounds like you had a fantastic trip! Loving the fabrics and the fact you got a cocktail party thrown in your honour. I always buy my zippers from Jaycotts here in the UK. For example, a YKK concealed 22″ is £1.39. Massive bargain.

    • 2
      Bracken

      I had loads of problems with Jaycotts invisible zips. They kept breaking on me before I even got to wear the garment. very frustrating. I no longre buy from them.

  2. 3
    Chris Schwab

    If you are placing orders before your next trip, check out Wawak… fab deals on all kinds of zippers,etc. shipping costs I think are five dollars(maybe free if you order more than $100…)

  3. 4
    Bracken

    Absolutely love the recycled fabric. The loom sock knitting is also very interesting. I cannot knit socks on needles – does the loom make it easier?

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