I HOPE SEWING CONTINUES AS A FAMILY TRAIT....

Well, I finished up my summer vacation this afternoon after arriving back in H-O-Tgeorgia! But I must say that it was an extreme blessing to be able to spend 11 gorgeous days with my family in upstate New York where the living is easy - mainly because you don't have to crack a sweat! Every minute of my trip was GREAT, and although I didn't take a sewing machine with me much of my trip was still sewing related. I did pack a sewing kit with things I knew I'd need if I did sew - so I was ready when the occasion did arise.

My 16 year old niece Auriel was more than ready to participate. We did a Walmart and Joann's run and ended up with three pieces of fabric each from that trip. Arrie had taken her first design and sewing class during the school year and was ready to go with a new Hillary Duff McCall's pattern that she picked out. I'll tell you this kid was really gong ho. We started cutting and sewing on Friday afternoon and sewed well into the night. The end results that night were two completely finished dresses.

I shared a room with her during my visit, and when I woke up on Saturday morning to find her already up and gone, I dashed downstairs to find that she had already laid the pattern out for her third TNT dress. I was shocked because it's rare that you find today's teenagers so enthusiastic about sewing. She listened and followed directions so well. So within a 24 hour period she had constructed three dresses from this pattern, and was well into new detailing by adding contrasting fabric. I really think she has mastered the use of bias tape as well along with understanding laying patterns following grain lines. We are all so proud of her - and look forward to continuing to encourage her with her sewing. Here's pictures of her hard at work, and also of her dressed in one of her designs ready for Church on Sunday.




This time part of my vacation included a day trip to NYC. Can imagine how long I had longed to get to that garment district. Me and my two (none fabric or sewing) sisters took on Manhattan, and as you can probably guess, soon had to go our separate ways; with them going off to shop for their shoes and me on my fabric quest. So with list in hand I was able to find Mood Fabrics, Ebad Fabrics, Spandex House, Metro Textiles and several others that I can't remember names of. I picked up about 7 really nice knits from Metro Textiles at an extremely nice price. At Ebad Fabrics I picked up some really nice light weight English Wools, gabardines and several rayon pieces for blouses. All of the fabrics selected were geared toward my fall and winter sewing projects. I was also able to pick up a few sewing notions and some foldover elastic that I had heard about but was unable to get locally.

All and all I had a successful shopping trip that ended abruptly when it started raining cats and dogs. I do look forward to being able to shop in the garment district again soon...and think I will now that I know it's a doable trip.

The first store I saw was Ebads, so I made a mad dash to get in. This man was soooo nice and the store was soooo small as a lot of them were. I can't remember his name, but this salesman gave me some super deals on woolens. My sister Pat just barely had time to snap this for me as she was backing out the door (lol) thus the dazed look on my face - didn't have time to pose for the picture(hehehe).

No picture of Spandex House (which was highly organized by the way). I was a little dazed when I went in there (kept remembering my first and last spandex experience which was surprizing and a little less spectacular than expected). So I didn't make a purchase there.

This was a project runway bulletin board posted at Mood where I think the fabric was beautiful but the prices gian- orous. I tho ught, "how can project runway contestants shop here on the $40.00 budget that they sometimes get". (lol) So I had to leave all of the wonderful fabric of Mood right there in New York. (Afterall, New York or not, or like it or not, I was still on a budget and had to go there with some sence)

It was sort of hard getting pictures taken because I was traveling alone so I didn't get very many while there. And pictures of buildings - no way, I really wasn't there for the architure - but instead had a one tracked fabric mind. I found Metro Textile just as the big, bad, dark rain storm came up, so this was the last store I could visit. Naive, as I thought those kinds of thunder boomers only happened in Georgia. But I couldn't go to New York without getting my picture taken with Kashi at Metro Textiles (wouldn't have been a good trip without it).
I was so suprised that a lot of the stores were so small an narrow. It's not hard for a Georgia Peach to be overwhelmed (lol), but I think I did a good job and used good financial sense because I still need to get the fabric home. Next time I'm only taking one outfit so I can pack all my fabric. I don't have any pictures of it as it's being shipped to me later this week. Good trip, Good experience!