Sunday, November 25, 2007

Thanksgiving week notes

Blogland has been busy this past week! I am slowly catching up with reading everyone's posts, and trying to get back into the sewing groove myself. I spent the past week in the San Francisco Bay area, here are a few notes:

1. My niece was born on Tuesday :) About a week earlier than expected. This meant that Tim and I were able to meet her in person and spend her first Thanksgiving with her. I'm not posting any paparazzi photos of her at this time, but take my word for it, she's adorable.

2. My sister-in-law, who is also a seamstress, took me to a couple of wonderful stores in Berkeley. Fortunately I brought the Butterick 5316 pattern (my new years eve dress) along with me on this trip just in case an opportunity like this came up :) (Little did we know during this outing that in another 24 hours she would be in labor. Good thing we went fabric shopping when we did.)


Our first stop was Stonemountain and Daughter. Okay. I want to move to Berkeley and get a job working in this store. The fabric selection is amazing! I wasn't able to decide on any of the silk prints for my dress, so I settled on a solid silk charmeuse in a jewel tone purple. Although I had promised myself I'd stick to fabric/notions for the new years gown, I couldn't resist picking up a little something else. They have a great selection of knits - I was drawn to this black/white/mustard print.


Next stop, Lacis. What an incredible selection of trims, ribbons, beads, lace, embroidery, millinery supplies, etc, much of it vintage. My primary goal here was to find trim for the shoulder straps of my new years eve gown. I selected this silver rick rack style trim, and I also got enough to use as a belt. My SIL told me there is a special room of laces, trims, etc in which you must be escorted and wear gloves to protect anything that you touch. She got lace for her wedding veil here.



3. Remember the two knits in my recent post "One Sunday, Two Garments"? Well, I like the two garments so much, I decided to morph them. I used the Burda 8771 dress pattern and replaced the collar with the cowl neck from BWOF 10-2005-114. The fabric is a camel color wool jersey that I got a couple months ago at the Pacific Fabric Outlet. I made this right before we left for the trip, and here I am modeling it at a walkway in the Oakland Airport on our way home on Friday.

My sewing machine is going to be ready to pick up from its regular checkup/cleaning on Monday. Since the shop closes before Tim gets home (and we have just one car which he drives to work), I reserved a car with Flexcar so I can pick up my machine in the evening. There are two vehicles parked a few blocks from my house, and they just switched out the minivan for a Mini Cooper! Look out, Seattle.

21 comments:

Adrienne said...

I LOVE your dress!!!!! Glad you had a good weekend!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fabulous trip--love that purple silk. That is so cool that your baby niece came early so you could meet her. You look so chic in your dress.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful visit with the family. I think all of that shopping made the baby think she was missing out. Congratulations on your little niece. Your BWOF dress is adorable and you look so cute in it.

Stephanie said...

Your NYE dress is going to look awesome on that fabric/trim combination. That jersey dress looks great on you. I must get my hands on that Burda pattern.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the new addition to your family. This is my first time writing a comment to your blog, but heard your interview with Adrienne a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed very much. I love the fabric and the purple is great, and would be wonderful with the pattern you chose.

C. Dishmont said...

Congrats on the bundle of joy!! I have 6 nieces, what a joy.

Can I tell you how exicted I am about your purple fabric... and the trim is fire!! Can't wait to see the results.

renee said...

What a cute dress!! I love that Butterick. Both their evening gown retro offering this season are awesome. I just need them to go on sale again. Congrats on your niece.

Anonymous said...

congrats on your baby niece arrival, I love your new fabrics, especially the knit OMG, you can send that one my way, lol. And your dress looks so cute, love the cowl... NICE

ifthisistuesday.wordpress.com said...

Beautiful trim and fabric, & I'd LOVE to go to Lacis. I've only ever ordered from them, though.

narcissaqtpie said...

love the dress! I am dying to get my hands on some wool jersey. I need to get my butt out to SF to see my baby sis (& go fabric shopping!!)

yaiAnn said...

Isn't Stonemountain AMAZING?! I'll be over there in two weeks. And thanks for the link to Lacis. I never knew it existed!

Cindy May said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kitty Couture said...

Congratulations on your niece! How fantastic that you got to meet her in person :)
Your dress is fabulous. Great, great look.

Tany said...

Your dress looks awesome and the fabrics&trim are divine! Congratulations on the birth of your niece!

Leslie said...

ooh, congrats on your niece! I'm glad you had a good time, can you believe I've never been to Stonemountain? I think a trip is in order this weekend. :-) Love the purple charmeuse, what a great color for you.

Carolyn (Diary of a Sewing Fanatic) said...

Isn't Stonemountain & Daughter just amazing! I still have pieces from my trip there 2 years ago. And like you said Laci's is just amazing...the amount of vintage trim is just astounding.

Glad you had such a wonderful holiday and love the morphed dress!

Berry said...

Nice morph, I like the colour of your jersey fabric. What a busy and full of emotions holiday (congrats on your niece) you had.

Nancy Winningham said...

Beautiful dress pattern - and that trim is to die for.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on becoming an aunt!
Your fabric choices are wonderful, and I love the finished dress! Can't wait to see more!

007gurl said...

What a great dress! Congrats on the baby.

Melissa said...

First off, congrats on your baby neice! Love the dress, it's perfect! And great fabric finds too - sounds like a great trip! :-)