New York, New York!

I feel like I have so much catching up to do right now! I finished two more Thurlows late last week, and still need to take pictures of those. There's the latest Wardrobe Architect study. And then, over this past weekend, my husband and I went to New York City! His birthday was yesterday and mine is later this month, so we thought a little getaway would be a fun way to celebrate.

Our hotel, as it turns out, was in the Fashion District, since we arrived via Penn Station and that was very close by. So that means our hotel featured things like this artwork made entirely from spools of thread! There was also some kind of sewing workroom directly across the street (though several floors down), which I could peek into every so often and see what they were working on. That was pretty neat.


We did do a lot of the typical touristy things, like Times Square and stopping into the Empire State Building. We went to the NY Public Library and the American Museum of Natural History (the one from the first "Night at the Museum" movie), and spent some time in a big NHL store, because he's a big hockey fan. But what you probably care about the most is that he let me go to Mood!


He even held my coat for me while I was shopping. He's the best. Though I think he was a little overwhelmed--he's seen it on TV while I've been watching Project Runway, but I don't think he quite expected it to be quite so jam-packed with fabric!

We didn't see Tim Gunn, for the record. Or Swatch. But I did see a bag of his dog food on a shelf by the register.

I know this picture is a little blurry, but I'm posting it anyway because it makes me laugh. ALL THE FABRIC WILL BE MINE!!! Precioussssss fabric.... Ahem.












So what did I end up with, you ask?

I made up a careful game plan before I left home--while I did build a travel allowance into my Stash Diet pledge, I wanted to be responsible, so what I decided to focus on looking for was 3 yards of some colorful lining for the winter coat I already have outer fabric for, and some notions for a Cooper bag, which I also already have fabric for, and can't get anything locally.

Aaaaaaaand I didn't buy a single thing from that list. They didn't have the bag notions, and the only lining type stuff I could find was all solid colors--everything else was too sheer and would likely get shredded quickly. So I'll just get some polyester silky print at Joann's sometime instead.
This is what I actually bought. There's 3 yards of each piece. The top one is an embroidered cotton that was in with the eyelets, black on either ivory or light tan. (I haven't seen it in the sunlight yet, and it's looked different depending on the lighting.) The bottom one is a lovely soft knit, I think maybe an ITY. I probably should have looked more closely at fiber contents, but I was too busy looking for prices, to be honest! (It was $14 per yard for both pieces, which is a little higher than I usually pay, but how often do I get to go fabric shopping in a fabric district?)

I already have a loose game plan for both pieces, too! For the embroidered fabric, I'm thinking a fairly casual jacket that I can throw on over either t-shirts or dresses, probably with some kind of contrast (read: black) collar and possibly cuffs, if it's 3/4 sleeves. (Which I'm strongly considering, since the fabric seems more suited to warmer weather layering anyway.) As for the knit, definitely some kind of dress, though I'm not sure what sleeve length to do, if I make it with sleeves at all. I just need to figure out what patterns to use!