The title of this post isn’t just savvy shopping advice, but a literal comment, too, because I’ve been spending your money, dear readers! I got another Google AdSense payment through and I always like to spend these on sewing things to help cycle everything back into the site. I thought you all might appreciate seeing what I bought with your money, which I feel I spent rather well!
StyleArc pattern purchases
After the roaring success of my Marita dress, I knew I had to buy some more StyleArc patterns, so I created a WishList and waited until there was a monthly free pattern that I really liked. I didn’t have to wait long, though, as any purchase in March comes with the free Ivy knit top (bottom right in my photo). I really like the look of this top and know it’s one I’ll actually wear (as opposed to February’s freebie, an elastic-waisted skirt).
I had to play around a bit to optimise shipping costs from Australia, and eventually I settled on buying three other patterns: First was the Marie jacket, which is for ponte knits and almost exactly like an All Saints leather jacket I bought years ago and love (also, Stacy Sews made this already and it looks awesome!). Next, I really wanted to try their trouser block, and I like the lines of the Jasmine Pant, and it didn’t look to be identical to anything I already owned (with my archive of pattern magazines, that’s no easy task!). And finally, I really fancied the Sunday zip jacket and figured it might be good for either lounging or running, and I’ve never seen the thumb hole extended sleeve in patterns before.
The patterns haven’t arrived yet (well, they do need to be traced in my size, packaged, and shipped all this way!), but they took up about half the payment, so I decided to spend the rest on some fabric!
Fabric purchases
From Left to Right:
First up are my purchases from Tissu! 2m of Elastic net trim, which I thought would be awesome as cutaway details on running gear, 1m of Aubergine “silk touch” lycra, which is just perfect for lingerie sewing and thin running tops, then 2m of Tissu’s fantastic Black supplex lycra (which I really cannot believe is still in stock!).
Then we’ve got my purchases from a new-to-me lycra company in Cheshire, Funki Fabrics, who also do custom print lycra! Omg, let me say that again: CUSTOM. PRINT. LYCRA!
Anyway, besides that, they also have the motherlode of crazy-ass printed lycra, and as I’ve stated before, you simply cannot be too loud when it comes to running gear. So I bought a bunch of samples to test the base lycra and print quality, plus 1m of Tribal white on black and 1m of their black supplex, because I hadn’t seen Tissu had restocked at this point, and I figured I’d get 1m even though it’s twice the price of Tissu. Frankly, the supplexes are almost identical – both very good quality! The tribal print lycra is one of their print-on-demand items (which is why they can offer thousands upon thousands of different prints) and the lycra they use as the base is really nice stuff, good weight and quality, very smooth without being “shiny”, and perfect for tops, bottoms, or also swimsuits. I’m also interested to see how it washes up!
The Funk Fabrics order actually took me a bit over the AdSense amount, but hey, who’s counting?