Shopping with Bloggers!

Me and Rachel at Paron

One of the fringe benefits of being a sewing blogger in NY is that other sewing bloggers come here to get their shop on.  Yesterday's shopping outing with Rachel was such fun! Not only does Rachel sew up a storm, but she shares my love of baking and sweets! What could be better?

Marina of Frabjous Couture joined us for the morning. She's leading the Pimp My Skirt draft and sew along. Rachel and I - both participating - took full advantage of her expertise by picking her brain and looking at beautiful tweeds at Rosen and Chaddick for the proposed skirt. 

Tough w black on black, but check out that Guipure lace center panel.

Since I'm considering doing a Dolce & Gabbana + Susan Khalje inspired lace panel skirt (above) instead of the flounced Burberry Prorsum inspiration piece for the sew along,we headed over to Lace Star (now Fabrics & Fabrics) in their large new home on 38th Street.  It's the first time I've been there and let me just say WOW! They have stunning fabrics of all kinds. I would put them in the same league as B&J and Rosen and Chaddick for their beautiful selection. Better still, just about everything is on sale at the moment. They also had fantastic prices on silk organza. I hadn't planned on buying anything, but I succumbed to the temptation of this super fun embroidered linen which will become a pencil skirt for sure.

$12/yd orange on turquoise embroidered linen.

Marina had to leave us at Lace Star, and after a quick stop at Pacific Trimmings we needed some refueling. But soon enough we were back on the hunt and headed to 39th Street in search of fabric for PJ's for Rachel's other half. (I'll let her show you what she ultimately bought.)

One of the other perks of the Garment District is that, with so many stores, there's always a chance to find something new. We wandered into Beckenstein's Men's Fabrics/Fabric Czar, which I had never had an occasion to venture into before. In addition to selling fine suiting fabric, they tailor bespoke suits. The fabric they had was WAY out of our price range. BUT, we discovered a somewhat hidden shelf of remnants which were priced at $40 per 1.5 yard piece. Is this cheap? Well, no. But considering the original cost per yard of these fine wool suitings, it's an incredibly good value, and less than half of what Banana Republic charges for a wool/poly/viscose blend pencil skirt. I didn't buy today, but the danger of having an office so close is that I can easily come back.

The sun started to set and it was time for me to head home and for Rachel to meet up with family. So off we went. But we're planning on doing it all again the next time I'm in London. Yay!