Making sewing friendships

A few months ago, I happen to oversee on twitter, that Lauren and Clare where planning a trip to NYC. Being the polite rebel I can be sometimes, I asked if I could crash their party. During the time leading up to the  date, I was completely on and off about going, mostly due to finances. In the end, thanks to tax season, I was able to go (my Portland trip isn’t looking so good however). I also like to add that this was like a school/business trip for me. I can comfortable say, I purchased two fabrics that was just for me.

Ahem, Okay! Disclaimer: If I forget to mention you or left anything out. I am super sorry.

Shortly, after arriving in New York, I caught up with Clare, Ginger, Oona,  Jen, Kelli and Amanda at a super fun craft Happy Hour. As soon, as I walked through the doors, I was greeted by my gals Oona & Jen and was taken promptly to the bar. Start of a good night, right?   There was a fun times had at the event. I think  I was a lot more silly and chatty that night. I had a tons of energy that night.

The next day, I had a lovely breakfast with Clare and Jen. For some reason the couple sitting next to us kept looking at us. We were excited but I don’t think we were loud, so I guess that they were just jealous.

After breakfast, Clare and I went explored NYC until we met up with my new partner in crime, Amity. Then, Amity and I went to Sephora and I got made-over before heading over to meet Betsy to meet everyone else for dinner. There was a large group and I got to meet so many amazing women. It would appear that I was in the heart of Oona’s Fat Quarter Challenge. I think I missed part of that conversation, probably because I was too busy destroying the margarita pitcher chatting/eavesdropping on the other end of the table.  Lucinda and Devra got to witness my sneaky clever margarita behaviour. Oona witnessed it too when I thought she was not paying attention. There were a lot of people there, so I was trying to weave in and out of various conversation. After dinner, Amity and I headed over to NJ (Philly naive grumble) since we were roommates for the rest of the trip. Getting over to NJ was an adventure and we did not get to the house until like 3am, due to waiting several hours at Penn Station.

Saturday, was the big Meet-Up day. Amity and I  traveled back to NYC on a Gypsy Bus to go to Devra’s place for brunch. A whole bunch of my favorite people were there, aka all the ladies from my Fall NYC trip, and I got to meet some new favorites. I was a little star-struck when I saw Peter, who I really wished I got to talk to more. Plus, I got to hang out with Carolyn again (we met the night before) and not to get super gushy, but, YES, Carolyn = Awesome Women!!

Then, we all went to the big Mood MeetUup.  There was a lot more people there but I didn’t really get to exchange words with a lot of them. 😦 I did finally got to meet Maddie, which was delightful. There was more hanging out involved after Mood. However, after a while I got a bit sick and just need to take it easy.

Sunday, was my last day in NYC and I spent most of it with Devra, Ginger, Clare and Lauren fabric shopping and chatting over coffee.

Whenever, I leave NYC I fell like my heart gets broken. Seriously, NYC is one of my favorite cities. I feel more at home in NYC, then I do in San Diego.  I really love cities that have tons of energy, you can fell it flow through you (and I am not talking about the wind chill.) San Diego has a settle down, take it easy vibe, in my opinion and I am not one to really settle. Plus the amount of people in the sewing community that gets together is pretty awesome. So yeah, NYC is like falling in love and getting your hear broken. I met so many amazing people during my trip in NYC, that for a minute I thought I dreamt it. Weird huh?

The weekend after, I still was not done hang out with the sewing community. Christine Haynes had her Book Release party at Sew L.A. It was a lovely event with yummy food and drinks. I purchased Christine’s book for a friend, in hopes that he gets inspired to sew more. The next day, was a fashion district meet-up organized by  my dear friend Amity (Yes, we must hang out on ALL the coast). I got to meet more lovely sewing ladies too. Let’s see if I can get them all, Laurie, Laura, (I, of course verbally mixed their names up, thinking to hard about not doing that, looking like dork) Kathy, Kaoru, Jeanette and Angela. I really hope I did not miss anyone. We had a really good time. I hope we get to do this again. I really like hanging out with apparel sewist. San Diego if anything is more of a quilter community, so it gets a little lonely.

As usual, I did not take too many pictures while I was in NYC or LA because I was too caught up in the moments, but here some that I found on my camera. These shots were taken in NYC just before I was about to leave to head back home.

Lauren and I: I think my eyeliner matches Lauren’s hair

The Lady I traveled across the country to meet: Lauren. I promise you she doesn’t look high in real life. She is way more adorable than I could have imagined. I am trying to talking her into a West Coast visit. Starting in San Diego and working her way up the Coast.

Clare & I

What an Bonus: Clare was such a treat to get to meet. Quite the sweetheart, great company and pretty darn funny.

Ginger and I

Ginger, is on my list of people I would blindly follow on an adventure. She is that awesome.

Devra and I

The last time I went to NYC, I got to meet the awesome Devra, but this time I actually got to hang out with her and get to know more about her. Which I am happy I did. She is unicorn and that’s pretty awesome.

Let’s be honest, a large portion of this community is pretty darn awesome. Jennifer made a lovely post here about it. I completely agree with her post. I am super glad I got to send time with the ladies in both NYC and L.A. last month. It was a great experience that I hope will happen again.

Now on to the treats. Besides fabric, I came home with some lovely spoils from NYC.

 

Host gift from Airbnb

At one of the Airbnb places that I stayed at, my host provide everything I could need for my stay. The yummy chocolate bar is the only thing I ended up taking with me.

Gift from Clare

Clare had asked if anyone wanted anything from GB and I was quick to think about Jaffa Cakes. We have an American knock-off call Pims, but I really wanted to try the real deal. I am a huge SPACED (tv show) fan, hence the request.

Gift from Oona

The lovely Oona, got me a late birthday gift. She knows I love cute Asian things, so this was a great gift. The page markers can be found all over my pattern books.

Gift from Maddie

Maddie stop by Mood for a few hours, which was a treat since I really wanted to meet her. Before she left the group to go home, she handed out some beautiful vintage buttonhole twist.

Non Jekyll & Hyde fabric purchase

Minus, the very top fabric,  here’s the fabric that I purchased in NYC that was not related to my school project. I have plans for all the above except the last one. No pictures of the Jekyll & Hyde fabric since they are just black or white fabric, which isn’t that exciting.

Well this post has gotten way too long and I won’t torment you all anymore, today. 😉

Devra inspired me to do a weekly post related to my school project, so look forward to that post coming soon.

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Roadtrip

A month or so ago, I was browser my twitter feed and notice that Leila from Three Dresses Project was coming to the California. Imagine the sound of someone slamming on their breaks. That was my brain. I need to know everything, so I could see her. Amity from Lolita Patterns was planning a road trip up to visit  and then meet up with SF/Bay area sewcialist, which sounded like a great plan to me.

Due to Xmas and other expensive that was not the plan for me, but I was determined to go.  I ended up going to SF for a day which started Friday afternoon. A $1 plus $1 service fee ride up to LA, in a very sweet Bolt bus. I had a couple of hours to waste, so I hopped on the metro and checked out Mood. I have never been to the LA Mood before. I will have to say New York Mood is my favorite, the 3rd floor alone makes it my favorite.

I rushed back to Union Station, which is good because there were a lot of Korean stores near by and I am going through an everything Korean phase right now. I grabbed a Cosmo and some food before catching my train. The Cosmo was not the best idea because I was getting very sleepy, very fast and I did not want to fall asleep on the train. I took the train to Santa Barbara and then switched over to an overnight bus. This is the part of the trip that the drink would have been perfect for. But no dice, because as soon as I tweeted about being the only person without someone next to me, a lady got on the bus at the very last-minute. This lady made me nervous most of the trip. I think she was a little crazy.

The bus arrived in Oakland a little before 6am, so I found the nearest plug to charge my phone and I took some cat naps at the bus depot before meeting up with an old friend from Philly for breakfast. After breakfast, I got on a very crowd BART train, sans Santa Clauses (SantaCon weekend?)  and caught up with the below lovely ladies.

 Karen,  Chuleenan , Daiyami, Kirsty, Leila, Loran, and Amity

Others not in Photo:  Erin, and Cindy (I think that was everyone)

OMG, Can’t believe I got to meet Chuleenan

Of course, we all went  fabric shopping and grab some food. It was great meeting people in real life and also being introduced to new people. Such a nice group of ladies. We split off into two groups, Leila and I had to leave SF and Amity was our ride.

So far in my  experience with meeting people from our lovely community, everyone clicks really well. I guess it makes sense, because our love for our craft brought us together. But sometimes, you meet people who just brings that to another level.  This does not happen often for me. I am pretty reserve when meeting someone for the first time and don’t warm up to people right away. However, Leila… different story entirely.

Perhaps we knew each other in our past lives or maybe we chat enough online that it was just natural (my bet is on past life). You would never have guess this was the first time we met. Leila is adorable and such a sweetheart. Yes, I do have a secret crush on her, don’t tell. And yes, I kept trying to steal her petticoat right off her. I can’t wait for next year, I will put aside extra money on top of Xmas funds, so I can have a proper visit with Leila.

Too cute. Can you tell that sleepy?

After, departing from Leila, I got a message from SW airline, saying my flight was delayed. This was a good and bad thing. Bad, because I didn’t really want to get home late but good because I got to hang out with Amity and her husband. I adore Amity as well, which is obvious. Right? You don’t plan on doing road trips with just anyone. Amity and I went back to the hotel, where I could lay down for a little before we tracked down a food truck (which I heard had amazing food). Eventually I had to leave and head to the airport. Of course when I got halfway to the airport, I get another message about my flight being delayed again. I didn’t leave SF until after 10pm (original flight 7pm) Smh! I was very upset at the airport as they kept pushing back the departure time. I could have been hanging out with Amity and her husband. Grr. But that is okay, I can get to LA for a few bucks now and see Amity more often.

I also got a $100 voucher (more than the price of my flight. Yay for savings!!) from SW so I can visit other blogs. There are a couple of bloggers that I MUST meet.

 Have you met sewing bloggers in “real life” before? How was that experience? Do your non-sewing friends think you are weird for meeting people from the internet?

Guest Post at Lolita Patterns

Hey everyone, I just finished another Sugar Plum dress during my crazy birthday weekend (Apparently I am always sewing dresses for my birthday, I was told). Check out my guest post at Lolita Patterns to read about all the details of making my second version with a FBA.

P.S. I Love You Part 2

Oh joy, today is a pretty good day. This is my 100th post, its October which for me means my birthday month and I got my Draping: The Complete Course book in the mail.

So this post is an continuation from yesterday.

So, Saturday, the day I had been looking forward to for a couple of months.  Let me tell you, that day was one of the best days of my life. I got to meet the most beautiful, amazing, talented, brilliant, super down to earth women. I spent most of the day on Saturday with Oona, Wanett, Ginger, Heather, Sallie, Jennifer, Devra, Kelli doing what we all love, Fabric shopping. Here are some photos of the lovely ladies I spent the day with.

During the planning of my trip, I was really looking forward to meeting Ginger and Wanett in real life. They proved to be more awesome than I could imagine. Jennifer, I was just introduce to via Ginger because I was looking into a place to sew while on vacation, but things got a little crazy on my end so that did not happen. I was very happy to find out that I would meet her anyways.  I had recently started following Heather and Sallie and thought it would be super cool to make sure I was up in NYC the same time. As soon as Heather mention Korean BBQ, I knew this lady was someone I wanted to hang out with. Devra and Kelli were completely new bloggers to me and they were such sweet women and now I have new blogs to follow . Check them out, amazing work. All these women, I am so grateful to have met, seriously. This was one of the best days of my life thanks to them.

Photo taken by Jennifer at Workroom Social

Okay, so yes, I picked up more items from some of the other shops, that wasn’t the specific fabric I desired. I think I had just about given up on finding my special fabric before going to Mood and settle on some other printed fabric.

At Mood, I mostly aimlessly walked around, touching fabric and talking to some of the ladies from the group. Then, I remembered the lovely red-headed lady from the day before. I searched around a little for her before asking another staff member where she might be located. When she came over, she immediately told me she was looking for me and that she had something for me.  Then, she showed me not the specific fabric I was looking for, but better. I was elated. (Sorry, I will share the fabrics in another post.) So now I could be done shopping, right?

WRONG!! There was another fabric that I had spotted the day Oona and I had went to Mood. The fabric was seriously weighing on my heart, until I could not take it anymore. I stormed around the store looking for it. Did not see the fabric anywhere. I saw the fabric draped on a dress form in the very back of the store taunting me. I found a staff member as fast as I could to point me in the direction of the fabric. I would have taken the yardage of the dressform, if it came down to that. She took me to some other fabric that was draped, so I almost grabbed her and dragged her over to the dress form in the back. Note: Who ever drapes the dressforms at Mood, is evil and needs a raise. The lady found my dream fabric immediate and I was happy for the rest of my time at Mood. It did hurt to buy it because it was $25 a yard, but I think of that fabric all the time now. Again not to be revealed in this post.

Eventually, some of the group went our separate ways and long hugs and sweet goodbyes were given. I really wish I had taken more pictures, but sometimes you get distracted by the moment and that’s what happened.

Heather, Sallie, Jennifer and I  had quite the adventurous evening. Wine & Cocktails(me) before enjoying Korean BBQ.  YUM

Then we headed over to the High Line. I was supposed to head back to Brooklyn at this point but the description of the High Line had me intrigued. Glad I went, the High Line is one of those things that causes me to fall madly in love with cities. If you are ever in NYC, please visit the High Line.

The rest of the evening ended up being just as exciting, except my memory starts to get hazy when we got a late night bite and I really can’t recall the ride home. I do recall being internally upset about my dessert and espresso. Not that it was bad but more like, I don’t want this yet stuffing my face all the same. However, I think that the food is what saved me the next day. I was completely fine, minus slight tiredness and being grumpy because I was leaving.

I was definitely bummed going back to Philadelphia, tho I did cheer up when I saw my hotel room. Oh, how could I forget about the cookies on arrival to the hotel. The Murphy Bed was pretty sweet, along with the view.  A couple of friends came by to visit before I crashed hard for the evening.

All in all a very good trip. Already thinking about going back next year, after Portland, Oregon. Yes, I am planning a Portland trip, and popping my head into Seattle.

Here is a link to other pictures from my vacation if you are interested.

I plan to have a couple more post this week, which includes sharing the fabric that I purchased in NYC and a secret project that I had worked on earlier this year. So stay tuned.

Tweet

I recently decided to join twitter. Okay, that is not entirely true. I already have a personal twitter account but I did not have one for my sewing blog. So what I really did was make another account for SewTell. Feel free to add me here. There seems to be some fun things happening and I don’t want to miss out. I made some awesome friends in the sewing community and I want to make some more. Yes, I am being greedy.

I have been working more on my sloper. I sewed up a muslin for it last night (posted on twitter). I have one of my sewing machines at my new apartment. Sadly I forgot to pack my feet for that machine, so I ended up sewing the whole thing using an invisible zipper foot, while standing. Yes, standing. Was not fun.

Oh yeah, I have a new apartment. I signed the lease on the 16th and I have been living there since last Tuesday. I am also still at my old apartment which is currently being used as a “work studio”.  I’ll probably post a little more about it in another post.

Has anyone tried sewing using the wrong “tools” and has not completely failed using them?

Anyone else using twitter? Any suggestions on who I should follow?

Have a great day everyone.

Promaballoona – The only Prom worth going to

Last weekend, I went up to LA to attend the lovely Ms. Oona’s birthday prom, Promaballona, at Sew LA. It was a great time and I met a bunch of nice people. It was an adventure making it up to LA.
Of course last week had to be a busy week (this week too), but I was determined to get my dress made in time. Despite making this pattern 3 times before it had to be a pain in my behind. But I’ll get back into that a little later.

Let’s take a trip back to memory lane.

I never went to any of my high school proms and I honestly don’t regret it. I was a bit of a misfit in high school. I did not act like the majority of the students. I hung out mostly with my own little group of misfits. I was the token black girl in my group in a mostly black school.  I would get shit for not acting, dressing. talking like the other ‘popular’ black girls at my school, but I could not be bothered with conforming to the masses. I always marched to my own drum, still do to a degree. I have more fun that way. Not everyone at my school, outside of my group was a pain in my butt, but there was enough that I did not want to go to prom. I wasn’t asked either (I think), so honestly no reason to attend.

I did however, go to my college cotillion, which was a good time. I went with my best friend at the time, whom I was crazy in love with. I thought I looked very cute and I thought he was looking good up until you notice the footwear. Him and I tore up the dance floor that night. We stayed friends several years after and had a nasty break (friends the whole time). It’s amazing how you can out grow someone.

God to have that body again. And I thought I was fat, silliness.

Now back to present day…

I was planning to visit Oona before she went back to the East Coast and I happened to pick the weekend that she was going to celebrate her birthday. And so happened that Sew L.A. decided to throw her a party. I knew then that I HAD to make a promaballoona dress. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Did not want to have to do any fitting. So I decided to do a maxi dress and just find a fancy fabric to pair it up with. I found this slinky knit purple ombre fabric at Yardage Town.

Apparently, my brain escaped the building while working on this dress. I randomly clipped into the shoulder, so if you look closely you might see the black interfacing through the holes. Then I started sewing it a different way then I had intended. I was planning to have the seams closed, but the seams are opened. I put interfacing on the neckline and arms to keep the fabric from flipping over. When I got to the end of sewing the last side seam, I realized that the dress was not even, so I started to rip it to see what was going on and that’s when I got the idea to make a side slit.

I took this picture right after I finished sewing the dress. This is my favorite picture of me in this dress. The shots of me at the party… MEH. I look too big in those pictures.

Click to see Photos from Promaballoona.

Let me share with you a life lesson. Don’t party hard the night before you are to travel and don’t travel hung over. It’s not fun. However, I am pretty sure last weekend won’t be the last time, but I don’t advise it.

I made it to LA despite waking up about an hour before I was to catch my train. I felt bad for the girl who sat next me, since I did not have the time to shower. Magically, I had an enough energy to hang out with Oona a bit that Saturday evening.

Oona is now one of my favorite people in the world.  She is damn awesome, sweet and ridiculously talented person. I am really happy I met her (and Mr. Ruggy, who is just as sweet and awesome). I am now looking forward to visiting home, so I can travel up to NYC and hang out, since they are leaving the west coast.

So yes, Promaballoona, was the only prom worth going to for me. Awesome host(s), tasty drinks and cookies, nice guest and Oonaballona. Happy Birthday again, Oona.

Sewing Trip

This weekend, I went up to LA for the Colette Patterns Party & Book Signing at Sew LA. That was the first time I every been to Sew LA. What a great place.

I am kind of upset with myself for leaving my good camera at my friend’s house instead of taking it with me to the event. So I don’t have a lot of pictures to share.

I got to meet the lovely Sarai Mitnick, the founder of Colette Patterns and the author of Colette Sewing Handbook. If you don’t own it, you should. It’s a great addition to my sewing book collection. Sarai is beautiful and super sweet woman. I got a little fan girl while chatting with her.

If I had to pick only one person in the sewing blogosphere to meet in real life, Oona from Oonaballoona would be that one person. And I got to meet her. Oona is amazing, I am sure you all know it. Gorgeous, funny and a really down to earth person. I was surprised that she was my height, I imagined that she would be so much taller than myself. But, I always say, ‘Awesome things come in short packaging”… I could not figure out how I wanted to smile in this picture, which is the real reason why I had that mustache covering my mouth.

I also got to meet Mena from Sew Weekly, who is just a timeless beauty. Sadly, I called her by the wrong and I felt embarrassed after that. I’ve been following her blog for a while so I should have known her name. Doesn’t it look like my eyes are closed here? They are not.

When I walked into Sew LA, I was greeted by Christine Hayes. Her name was very familiar to me. When I got back home I realized I came across her site about a month ago. She is an independent pattern designer that I wanted to keep an eye on. I will definitely keep my eyes open for when she release her pattern line, after seeing her in the Peony Dress that she made. I hope pictures turn up online soon of her in this dress, since I did not photograph her. 😦 Christine was a lovely hostess.

I also met some other people but I did not catch their names. There were a lot of friendly people there.

While there I purchase the Cinnamon by Colette Patterns and a remnant of fabric. Luckily, they were all sold out on the Crepe Dress, which I fell in love with after seeing it on display at Sew LA. All I need is to buy a dress pattern that I’ll never wear.

Well back to reality for me, which is me trying to figure out what is going on in tailoring class.

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