To Los Angeles and Back!

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We had an absolutely wonderful time in Southern Cali last weekend. The weather held up beautifully, and it was great seeing the family. We managed some thrift-store shopping and managed to get to a fabric store. Michael Levines, to be specific. It was thrilling. And horribly (wonderfully??) overwhelming. I've never seen so much fabric in one place. Yes, Britex IS amazing, and so very much fun to visit. One just needs to have a lot of $$$$ to get anything worth while there. Their fabric is WAY on the expensive side. At least if you want anything nice for clothing. And their quilting cotton fabrics aren't as wonderful as say, Eddie's Quilting Bee.

Not that I'm suggesting one works for Eddie's. Just go be a customer. It's better for one's health. ;)

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At any rate, Michael Levines was amazingly awesome. Check them out if you're ever in the Fashion District of Los Angeles. You'll be happy you did. I certainly was. And thank you, dear sister-in-law for putting up with the time it took to find my lovely fabric. It was very nice of you! :D

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Speaking of fabric--and I actually was--I did manage some finds. The three I'll show you are all for my "top-secret" Isabella Dress. Which I will be showing/talking about very soon. Guess it's really not too much of a secret though, right? Ah well. C'est la vie!

All three fabrics are cotton voiles. I absolutely love working with them. I, of course, need to line them, though. The first dress I made with a voile I lined with a cotton lawn. And that worked beautifully. So I'll probably go ahead and do that with these three, as well. And now, without further ado...drum-roll, please!!

I love the lacy leaves on this one. And the little butterflies. And even though you can't see them in this photo, there are teensy-weensy little-tiny ladybugs throughout the print. It's going to make a great dress. I will most likely line it in white cotton voile.

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This one sort of speaks for itself. It's pretty basic, but the red is fantastic. It's just a good over-all floral print. And will definitely make a good dress; also lined in white cotton lawn. I will more than likely purchase the cotton lawn from Dharma Trading Co. It's where the lining fabric for the original dress was purchased. I think because it's PFD (prepared for dying) it's probably the best quality I can find--that I can afford.

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Now here's my last purchase, but most certainly not my least. I'm a Asian fabric addict. I absolutely love anything asian. The history--especially Japanese textile history. The fashion and the people. And I'm about as "white" as they come. Born in the U.S.--Scottsdale, AZ, to be precise to a couple from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. So, to make up for this "heritage" I soak up anything and everything Asian. Hence the fabric above. It's lovely. And the only way I'm going to be able to sell it to someone--as opposed to keeping it to myself--is if I know they'll love it as much as I do. It'll be hard. Yeah.

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So...The rest of the fabric purchases were much less exciting, but not at all less wonderful. They just won't photograph well, so I won't be posting pictures. I purchased two different single knits, each one for my husband. He's commisioning a couple of t-shirts. See, he's 6'6" tall...very tall, actually. And it's nearly impossible--without an exhaustive search--to find t-shirts that fit him well. So, I make them. The first ones I made, though, are starting to not fit him anymore (they're shrinking a bit), so it's time for some new ones. We found a red-y, chocolatey brown, and a drab olive green. They'll both look good on him, so there ya go!

Oh! And I also purchased a 1/4 yard of black cotton voile to repair a dress I've had for about four years. It was eaten by a rose bush at my mother-in-law's a while ago, and I'm just getting around to fixing it. I hate mending. In fact, I hate it so much, I will actually pay someone to do something I'm perfectly capable of doing. Go figure. I'd rather make myself a new outfit/ensemble than repair/mend one I already have. Even if it's something I love. I'm pretty pathetic some times. ;)

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Alright, then. I think that's it for this post. I'm still working on the dresses from the last post. Well, I'm working on one of them, really. So, maybe tomorrow you'll get to see photos. Hope so! I'm super excited to show them off.

Have a great Thursday night, everyone!

au revoir,
~j.b.