Germany is the place to be in December

Well!  Tim and I were scheduled to return home to Seattle on Sunday, but our connecting flight to Philadelphia was canceled because of all the snow, and the airline told us we'd have to wait another 3 nights before they could fly us home. Here I was, so pleased that we had fit all of our activities, visits, shopping, etc into just under a week - I had it timed perfectly.  I was completely unprepared for this, not to mention that we'd both miss more work, need to rebook our hotel, have to extend our already busy catsitter, etc.  To top it off, Tim's suitcase didn't make it back with us on the return trip (yet - hopefully).  Such is life.  But really, if you're going to be stuck someplace in December (and you are the type that celebrates Christmas), let it be someplace in Germany, as they really know how to do Christmas right!  Some trip highlights:

Christmas markets are seemingly around every corner in Munich. Much is for sale:

handmade wooden Christmas smokers, pyramids, and ornaments...

candy and chocolate...

and Gluhwein, a spiced hot red wine, essential for keeping warm on a chilly winter evening. There is an alcohol-free version too (Kinderpunsch), but it just isn't the same...

We also visited the town where my mom grew up - Kirchberg an der Murr (near Stuttgart).  Her brother and a few other relatives live there, it was nice for Tim to meet my the German side of my family and have a peek into that part of my background.

This is my cousin Nina and I at the Christkindlmarkt in Ludwigsburg, a neighboring city.  It was about -10C (14F) that morning.

If you like meat, you will love Germany; there are butchers everywhere.

We saw this guy in a Munich subway station one night - he was wearing a loden green green Bavarian cape and had an owl on his arm.  He was fielding questions from all the fascinated people who gathered round and some people even pet the owl.  You don't see that every day.

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If you emailed me during the past week, please be patient while I catch up :) I will respond to you in the next couple days.

Black Friday fabric shopping

As I alluded to in my previous post, I spent my Black Friday visiting fabric stores. I met up with my sewing girlfriends Cindy (who visited me a couple of months ago) and Leslie for a day of fun.

First stop, Britex in San Francisco.  Britex offered their email subscribers a coupon for 30% off remnants on Black Friday. We got there right after they opened at 10 am and headed straight for the 4th floor. Even though we spent more than an hour there, we didn't buy much, each of us leaving with just one cut of fabric I think. I'm sure it won't surprise you to know that Leslie has a cut of Burberry plaid wool in her shopping bag there...

Next stop, Stonemountain and Daughter in Berkeley. Both photos the cutter took for us were slightly blurry, her arm must have still been quivering from cutting all of our fabric.  I think we were there for 2 hours. We were armed with Black Friday coupons for 20% off regular priced fabrics, plus there was great stuff in the 50% off sale section upstairs.

As you can see, I stuck to basic solids that should stand the test of time (if not in the closet then in the stash). Only the cotton chambray is from Britex, the rest is from Stonemountain.

Purple is one of my favorite colors, but I have hardly any purple clothes, so I made it a point to include some in my shopping cart. The silk/cotton woven is the same type of fabric I used to make BWOF 6-2008-120 (this is even the same color) and BWOF 7-2009-104 . It is truly the most divine fabric to work with.

Stonemountain had an amazing selection of silk jerseys, a few solids and close to 20 different prints, all priced at $20/yard ($16/yard with coupon!). I was very tempted by several of the prints - you know how you carry a bolt around the store with you while you "think about it". Ultimately I stuck with a solid, neutral olive color. At 60" wide, it was a steal.

I was also thrilled to find the "Home Sewing is Easy" print by Alexander Henry. It's based on a vintage sewing booklet (a copy of which I'm lucky to own), and I didn't even know the reproduction fabric existed until Sew Tessuti shared it with us. My plan is to use it as a ironing board cover. But now I'm thinking I first want to upgrade from my 14.5" wide ironing board to something wider (18"+).  Any suggestions?

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One more thing - in my previous post, I mentioned that I had found one of the Threads DVDs, Threads Industry Insider Techniques, at my public library. It is well worth watching, I highly recommend it. I can't wait to try out the pattern alteration to create a bulk-free collar. Also, Louise Cutting demonstrates the proper way to use a point turner, which was a real eye-opener for me! I always assumed you were supposed to just shove that little thing in the corner of your newly-turned-out collars (as is shown on the package in the link); Cutting's method is much more sophisticated and less likely to poke straight through and damage your fabric.

Italy trip - part 3 - sewing stuff

Of course I couldn't visit Italy without checking out at least one fabric store. A Google search led me to a NY Times article on Bassetti Tessuti, said to be Rome's largest fabric store. So that was my pick.

 

Conveniently the store was located just a couple of blocks from the flat we rented.  I saw it within my first hour of being in the city :)  I waited a couple of days to actually go in though.  They are doing some remodeling on the exterior, as you can see.  The main entrance was closed, but there was a boy hanging out whose job it apparently was to guide us to the side entrance.

 

Exterior window

Inside, the store is huge.  I think there are 7 different rooms, divided mostly by weave or fiber type.  Oh, the bolts and bolts stacked up to the ceiling of fine Italian shirtings and suitings would make any seamstress swoon!  It would be the perfect store to shop at when you have something specific in mind, they seem to have everything.  I didn't take any photographs inside because there were about 3 salesmen in each room, more sales staff than customers, and I didn't feel comfortable asking...

I spent close to 30 minutes looking through the various rooms to try to pin down what I wanted.  Frankly, the prices were higher than I expected.  Most of what I saw and liked, nice cotton shirtings, for example, were 20-30 euros per yard.  That translates to ~ US $28-42/yard.  This probably helped prevent me from going crazy buying up everything.  Also, it makes me realize that the Italian fabrics that are being offered at my local fabric shop or our favorite online retailers like Gorgeous Fabrics or Emma One Sock are priced very reasonably!

 

Ultimately I ended up choosing this animal print rayon jersey, it was 13 euros/yard (US $18/yard).  This is the teal colorway, and they also had purple.  Am I imagining things, or did EOS have this for sale recently?

Let me tell you about the sales process, because it was different than anything I've encountered before.  First you select your fabric, and one of the salesmen in that room will cut it for you on a counter in that room.  And when I say salesmen, yes, they are all men, I didn't see any women cutting fabric.  Then, he writes up a sales slip with your name, and escorts you down to the cashier area.  There are a few women sitting at a counter and they are separated from you by a glass partition (dangerous job?) and he gives the sales slip to one of the women and puts your fabric on a counter behind you.  She types the info in to a computer and then another woman calls your name and you pay her.  Then you get your receipt, and you take it to the counter where your fabric is, and another gentleman cross references your receipt with the fabric and bags it up for you.  Phew!

  

 I picked up the September issue of La Mia Boutique; like Burda and Patrones, it has a fashion-magazine type of layout with pattern sheets included to trace.

 

You can buy La Mia Boutique at any ordinary news kiosk like this one.  Can you imagine if it were that easy for us to find sewing magazines in the US?! 

Some pictures of the garments...

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

Maternity

 

Plus size

Italy trip - part 2

We spent the second half of our trip in the Amalfi coast area, it's about a 3 hour train ride south of Rome. Now I felt like our vacation was really starting!

We stayed just outside the town of Amalfi, one of the many picturesque towns dotting the coast.

View from one end of our hotel room balcony...

...and the other.

We had breakfast on the terrace in the mornings.

We sampled the local specialty, limoncello.

Bouganvilla grows everywhere. We tried to grow this in Seattle once but it died over the winter.

We spent some time sunbathing, the weather was perfect.

We saw several wedding parties, including this couple getting their pictures taken on the church steps.

It's fast and easy to take a ferry (or bus) to the other towns along the coast.

Our favorite town was Ravello which is nested high up in the hills...

...with breathtaking views.

While in Ravello, we visited Villa Cimbrone...

...and then bought some local ceramics. Then the rest of the day I was agonizing over the thought that we got ripped off, but Tim convinced me we weren't.

We kept seeing the city waste people in Rome sweeping with this style of broom, it reminds me of something out of a Grimm Brothers fairy tale.

All in all a great trip, but I'm always so glad to be back home too.

Italy trip - part 1

Well I've been back home for a few days now and just trying to get back into my normal sleep/work/relax schedule.

We spent the first half of our trip in Rome.

We rented a studio apartment, it was very cozy and had lots of art and books.


This is the small courtyard where our flat was located. It was in the Campo de Fiori neighborhood, if you're familiar.


This daily produce market was just a block away; we got fruit here in the mornings.


Piazzas everywhere.


A fountain outside Galleria Borghese; I thought it was going to be just another museum but the art and sculptures were spectacular, I highly recommend it.

 
No tourist trip to Rome would be complete without a trip to the Colosseum...


...and St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

 
Of course we ate gelato daily...

 
...and pizza a couple of times.



I just had to snap a pic of this - it's a shop that sells yarn and lingerie! I saw a couple of places like this.

Up next - the Amalfi coast, and sewing stuff!