My first gift is a very special one, because it’s from all of you!
I recently received a Google Adsense payment, and I always try to spend these exclusively on sewing supplies to feed back into this site. The last payment bought me four Patrones issues and some Spoonflower knits, for example! But I’m trying to pare down my fabric to fit in my tiny sewing room, and I already have more patterns than I can sew, so I thought I’d spend the windfall on some really nice interfacings from Fashion Sewing Supply!
You bought me:
- 2 yards Pro-Weft fusible interfacing, Natural
- 2 yards Pro-Weft fusible interfacing, Black
- 2 yards Pro-Tailor Deluxe fusible Interfacing, Dark Grey
- 2 yards Pro-Woven Fusible Interfacing, White
- 2 yards Pro-Woven Fusible Interfacing, Black
This should be enough to keep me in interfacing for a year years, and this stuff just feels incredible – the Pro-Tailor stuff especially feels so silky soft! I can’t wait to try this stuff out…
For my birthday, I received some sewing books that I requested!
Leather Fashion Design
Els turned me on to this book with her fantastic review of it a few weeks ago (seriously, go have a look!) and I thought it’d be a timely book to have what with all the leather I’m working my way through from NYC!
It’s a total wealth of information, from the tanning process to different animals’ skins to choosing a pattern to cutting the hide to construction techniques… And now I really have to investigate what “cold tape” is as this book loves it for stabilising seamlines!
Here’s part of the “how to sew a leather coat step by step” section:
But the most useful part of the whole book is a conversion chart for changing fabric requirements to leather sq ft and back again!
I bought Pattern Magic for myself back in January after I saw the English edition for a good price, and then I received the second book for my birthday!
This draped dress is my favourite from the first book:
And this flip-turned top is my favourite from Pattern Magic 2 (though I also love the entire “A disappearing…” section!)
I really want to flex my drafting skills a bit more so I think I want to tackle these as part of my general Spring/Summer sewing plans. Thankfully Neighbour Helen isn’t moving away quite as soon as I’d feared, so hopefully I can get some assistance from my drafting mentor in making these, too.
And in related Japanese-fashion-and-Neighbour-Helen news, we’re off to meet up with Nadia and see the Yohji Yamomoto exhibit at the V&A tonight! I’m so excited to see this collection, and I made sure to wear my Yamamoto jacket I made from his free SHOWStudio pattern! I wonder if anyone will notice??