Friday 18 April 2014

Shopping Instead of Sewing

And now it's the Easter holidays! The last 6 weeks for me have been crazy.  I have done a little bit of sewing but it's for someone else and not blog worthy.  I have been doing a lot of reading and trying to remember lots of long words.  That memorising thing isn't really working, something I will have to work on because exams start in 5 weeks, but the rest of uni has been great.  I'm understanding things that I have seen nurse's do before and baffled me and every time I go to work I feel like uni is making me better at my job.  I am still not doing any nursing care don't worry. 

One thing I did get to do recently was go to the Alannah Hill/Danger field/Gorman factory outlet after I read on sewnbyelizabeth that they sell fabric there! She forgot to mention buttons and notions! I bought some fabric but I am most excited about the buttons. The fabrics are up the stairs in the far right corner.  The rest of the store can be a bit full on but the woman who served me was lovely and made me feel at ease in an instant.  She cuts the fabric, makes small talk, does her calculations, sticks the bill to the front of your bag of fabric and you pay down stairs with everyone else. I spent about $120. 


Firstly some fabrics that were labelled Alannah Hill.  The spots I think is a lining.  It is very thin and slippery but the hand is crisp and I imagine easy to sew.  I think I will be using it as a lining one day.  The floral just looks like Alannah Hill to me, yes that's why I bought it, but it was labelled 100% silk and is so soft and fluid.  It was $12 a meter.  In my world that's a bargain. 



These fabrics were labelled Danger Field and they do look it.  They remind me of my misspent youth.  The outlet had a lot of really amazing wools, lots of different weights and textures, not that many colours though.  Lots of black and plaid, one brown and few "prints" that aren't really prints as the pattern is weaved in. All of the wools I saw were marked at $10 a meter.  This black was the cheapest at $7 and I think it is a blend of some kind. But all of the others were either to heavy and blanket like or too light and pashmere like for what I wanted. I don't think this plaid is a wool either but I liked it in the store.  


How cool are these buttons? Almost everything in the button box were things you wouldn't see at a fabric store.  None of these cost more the $1 each.  The huge black ones that are actually black fabric with metal rims were $1.  Pearl buttons that just scream Alannah Hill. Yes those are clasps covered in red satin, they had pink satin ones as well but I passed. And little metal looking textured buttons.  

I will be going back to this store again.  I'm still planning tops with sleeves but I am also obsessing about winter coat sewing.  My anniversary with the BF is coming up and he wants to get me either a stethoscope or a pair of heels but I am trying to convince him sewing patterns make good presents. I am thinking about the Rigel Bomber.

Awesome boob friendly bomber
I have a new sewing machine to show off too! I'll try and get good day time photos of it soon.