On Saturday I took a trip out to Goldhawk Road with neighbour Helen with a strict list on my iPhone and an even stricter budget! My brain and eyes start to glaze over whenever I enter a fabric store so I have to come prepared with a list now to keep myself focused.
My list was mostly pretty boring – lots of linings (I got a few metres of a silk/cotton woven mix in both black and white for underlining some thin dress fabrics, and finally got some stretchy nylon tricot to line my Vogue sheath and test it for bridesmaid dress lining suitability) plus very cheap but very drapey viscose knit for birthday and bridesmaids dress muslins. The only real fun on my list was some luscious silk jersey for my birthday dress and a nice knit to make James’s sister a dress, and well, both ended up being silk jersey!
As they were cutting my dark turquoise silk jersey, the lady at Classic Textiles warned me their silk jersey will be going up in price to £18/m (once the current £16/m bolts are gone). And Fabric World across the street have black silk jersey (only black) for £10/m as a one-off right now, too. Consider yourself warned, Londoners!
So since I’ve already got the fabrics and the patterns paired, here they are for your visualisation (though they’re not quite the next things in my queue, I’ve got to juggle some muslins and draping in there first) –
Pattern bonanza!
When it rains, it pours! Within a few days of each other, I suddenly went from new pattern famine to feast! With my Burda subscription turning up early combined with a Vogue sale good enough to pay international shipping for, plus a co-worker hitting up the Swedish newsagents, it was all too good, frankly!
These include:
- March Burda WOF (love the strapless cover dress but YAWN on the rest)
- Vogue 1020 knit wardrobe pattern (the gathered side top and flounced skirt look particularly useful)
- Vogue 1117 Michael Kors sheath dress (nearly bought some green wool/cashmere suiting for this but didn’t want the entire 3.9m left on the bolt!)
- Vogue 2973 Montana biker jacket (on Clearance for $5 but my god it looks tough! The jacket alone has 24 pattern pieces!)
- Butterick 5243 Maggy London knit dress (So cute and also on Clearance! I can’t believe this is going out of print so soon, it’s the first Butterick I’ve actually liked in about 4 years!)
- And not pictured, Patrones 288, which turned out to be a Ninos. Oh well, there’s some cute kids shorts and tops in it and I’m sure it’ll get used eventually
And in other news, I finished the nude sheath dress this morning! I was handstitching the lining to the seam allowances and zipper tape in hospital waiting rooms this morning and got all sorts of smiles from people. Sewing in public just makes people feel good I swear! I picked up some taupe upholstery thread for the topstitching while at Goldhawk Road (the shop that stocks the haberdashery has moved it upstairs and expanded! woo!) and I love the look!
I can’t wait to show this dress to you, it fits like a glove and I’m just so proud of it!
And your uplifting thought for the day – neighbour Helen hadn’t been back to Goldhawk Road since her fashion school days and was amazed at how the area has grown! She said that 15 years ago, there were really only two shops, as compared to the ten or so there today, so it’s fantastic to see these shops doing well and branching out into ethnic fabrics (Helen said there weren’t anywhere near as many batiks, African embroidered fabrics, laces, etc back then)! It’s not all doom and gloom for sewing shops!