BUSY!

Sorry, no updates. Been super busy at work ... in fact, i'm still working and it's a Saturday night. But things will ease up by mid-week next week (hopefully). It had better, because there is a top which is waiting to be hemmed and a Macaron that needs to be cut out and sewn!! AND I haven't responded to comments yet (sorry).

Hope everyone is having a super weekend filled with doing what you love to do :-)

Headsup - Sale @ Spotlight; Burda & New Look patterns cheap!

From this Thursday, 22nd July to Sunday, 1st August Spotlight is holding a red ticket sale. Here are the highlights for those who sew:

• Burda and New Look patterns are just SGD$5.99 each!!! VIP Members (if you're not one, just sign up for FREE) get an additional 10% off and so pay SGD$5.39 each.
  
  You'll need to go through the pattern book for the Burda patterns (and then line up and get the Spotlight folks to retrieve them for you ... pain in the behind, if you ask me), but the New Look ones are displayed out in the open at the section near the quilting cottons.
  
  
• Selected fabric from SGD$6 per metre. The Spotlight folks said that they're slowly clearing out the warehouse, so expect more of these specials in future sales as well.
  
  
• 30% off lace trim by the metre, machine embroidery theads and stabilisers, sewing boxes and trolley bags and the entire range of buttons.
  

I'm avoiding the place! LOL! I have zero self control and certainly don't need to add to the stash. But I'm happy to enable ... hahahahaha!

Address - Level 5, Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road
Phone - +65 6733 9808
Opening hours - 10am to 10pm daily
Website- www.spotlight.com.sg

And it didn't stop there

Nope. Golden Dragon was just the start. The fabric debauchery continued across the road at this place -
Seems innocent enough, right? But look here ... cute Japanese prints:.... adorable Hello Kitty (original Sanrio) prints which my little monkey ADORES:
And then there are these Kokka Russian Doll prints:
On the extreme right, you'll see a grey dotty fabric -- that's Japanese linen and I almost bought some. However, I resisted! And felt pretty proud of myself until these decided to come home with me ....
"She's a lost cause," I hear you say :-) LOL! Jo, who runs the store (and whose family also has a couple of other fabric stores at the same complex), is really sweet, friendly and not pushy. I like her range and think that her prices are pretty decent, especially for the quality you get.

At Jo's shop you know that when she tells you something is Japanese cotton, that it really is from Japan. And if you're looking at the "Japanese Liberty" inside the store, she'll tell you about the other similar ones outside which are on sale (the inside ones are not on sale).

Look out for the cuts of fabric at the back of the store -- ie. the ones not in bolts. These are usually shorter cuts of about 2 - 3 metres at the most (but most are usually about 1 metre) and they're all Japanese, if I'm not mistaken. You'll find linen/cotton blends and some 100% cottons as well.

The elephants are from those tempting piles at the back. And sorry, I think I took them all except maybe one in a blue colourway. But they may still have the cute hippos!

So with Jo being so nice and her fabric being so yummy .... HOW could I resist? Hahahahhahahah!

Malin Textile
Address: Block 32 new market road #02-1122
Tel: 6535 4660

Here's the "culprit" ...

... the delicious cotton gauze that totally broke my resolve to NOT add to the fabric stash. After taking photos of the fabric at Golden Dragon, I decided to just casually glance over the collection and this print stood out. Here is a view of the border on one selvedge: Here's a close-up of the border:And here is the border print on the other selvedge:Close up:

Designer:
There isn't much of this fabric left -- there was maybe about 5 metres left on the bolt. Cost is SGD$21.80 per metre and the minimum cut is half a metre.

I'm planning to sew a simple sun-dress for my darling monkey. I think it would be just nice for a visit to the zoo!

So much for the fabric fast. I think the only way to stick to this "diet" is to totally avoid all the fabric shops. LOL!

Golden goodness

When I first started sewing some years ago, one of my favourite shops to visit was Golden Dragon Store at People's Park Centre (not to be confused with People's Park or People's Park Complex). If you're taking a cab or driving, People's Park Centre is the building opposite Chinatown point ... and also opposite the Subordinate Courts.

Golden Dragon used to be a huge store, but over the years, as interest in sewing and crafting dwindled, they got smaller and smaller and then moved to a quiet corner of the shopping centre.

So I'm happy to report that Golden Dragon has undergone a bit of a facelift AND has expanded, taking over a small neighbouring unit.
Things are much brighter and there is more space to move around. They still have lots of crafty products and they still offer knitting and other craft classes. Their knitting classes are very popular and there is always a happy, crafty buzz during lesson time.
And for those who sew (and knit!), you'll love their wall of Clover products. The last time I checked, the Clover prices at Golden Dragon are lower than at Spotlight and they have a much larger range:
At the back of the store, you'll also find a small but decent selection of fabric from Japan and the US. They stock mainly quilting cotton, some corduroy and a tiny offering of oilcloth (or maybe it's laminated cotton, I didn't really examine them in detail):

If you want to be informed when new fabric stock arrives, just tell one of the "aunties" there and they'll get you to put your name and number in a book.

So why am I writing about Golden Dragon? Welllllllllllll ... let's just say I broke the fabric fast today. AGAIN. And it started at this store. I'll tell you more tomorrow ;-)

Oh and before you give up on me as a total lost fabricaholic cause, I *did* sew something which I'll share as soon as I take some pics. No, Sew Convert, it isn't the Macaron, unfortunately. I needed a quick project to assuage the guilt of buying more fabric and so whipped up the Burda top from the previous project. Again. In black and white. Again. LOL! Notice a trend here?

OK, enough jibber-jabbering. Here is the essential info about Golden Dragon:

Address - #02-251 People's Park Centre, 101 Upper Cross Street
Tel - (+65) 6535 8454
Website - www.goldendragon.com.sg

Burda top in action

Here are the action shots at last, taken by a colleague at the office today. Yes, we're a pretty casual office :-) (and boy are the yellow walls ugly). This top is proving to be very comfy so far.

Oh and you can read my review of this top at PatternReview here. On to the pics!

Front (my hands are there to "shape" me a waist. hahahhaha!):

Back (the way I'm standing makes it look as if I have non-existant hips. My hips are small, but they're not that small ... it's an illusion):3/4, standing on the red carpet (as if! hahaha!) view:

I should do this more often

It's done! Well, almost ... just need to hem it ... but you get the idea ;-) Nobody is around to take a pic of me in it right now, so the action shots will have to wait just a while.

Apart from having to fight with the slippery fabric, this top (Burda magazine 2/2009 #108) came together rather quickly and easily, thank goodness. It fits well enough and I'm rather pleased that after so long, I've finally sewn something for myself again.

Construction notes
Pattern - Burda magazine 2/2009 #108
Fabric - Lovely Poly/Lycra knit from NicoleXavier

• I cut a 40 at the neck, blended it out to 42 at the arms and waist and then back to 40 at the hips
  
• Sleeve cap was lowered by about 3/4 " - i just eyeballed it and cut a wedge off the top
  
• I ignored the Burda instructions cos this is a fairly easy top and I didn't like how they had you insert the sleeves in the round. Doesn't make sense for a knit! So here is how I did it:
  - stabilise shoulder and neck with strips of knit interfacing
  - sew shoulder seams
  - sew neck (i just turned it down and sewed; didn't use a twin needed or coverstitch
  - sew sleeves into armholes
  - sew up side seams, from ends of sleeves to bottom of top
  - hem sleeves (i used a 3-step zigzag cos I was too lazy to set up the serger for a coverhem)
  - hem bottom
• Try on the top and resolve to get less "fluffy". LOL!
  

I'm definitely going to make this again, but in a more stable knit the next time(s). Working with slippery fabric made me run through (in my head) my inventory of swear words in multiple languages. Hahahhaha!

Vogue pattern sale @ Spotlight & latest LMB

Vogue patterns are going on sale at Spotlight! From the 7th to the 13th of July, all Vogue patterns are SGD$15 (SGD$13.50 for Spotlight members).

This is a good price, considering that once you factor in shipping from Club BMV even when they have a US$3.99 sale, it costs about the same. I so wish we had those 99-cent sales like they do in the US though!!

Also, the July edition of La Mia Boutique (LMB) is out! You can get LMB from Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City (the Bugis outlet doesn't carry it). June was late and it's out now too. If you haven't seen it yet, LMB is a little like Burda Style magazine, but in Italian. They have pattern sheets where you trace off the designs and there are instructions too ... in Italian.

The fashions are edgier than Burda and some of them are downright bizarre. LOL! But I like this mag and have a subscription with Allscript (http://www.allscript.com/), the Singapore distributors.

At laaaaaaast

This Etta James song (click here to see a video) keeps playing in my head as I write up this post :-) And you know why -- some sewing-related activity actually took place this past weekend!

I know, it's about time, right?! LOL! It's just baby steps, but at last I'm sewing something for myself.

First up is this Pattern Review #5 Best Patterns of 2009, Burda Magazine 02-2009-108 "Knit Top with Bateau Neckline".I've read the reviews and know that I have to reduce the sleep cap ease and possibly cut a smaller size at the neck. So that's what I did, and hope that it works.

Here is the fabric I'm using:
It's a groovy black-and-white knit -- I think it's poly/lycra -- and it is soooooo slippery. I'm a bit of a fabric snob (ok, I'm the snobbiest fabric snob there is) and don't usually buy anything with polyester in it. But this print (from NicoleXavier) was too cute to pass up.

It was a real pain cutting the fabric though, as it wanted to slip and slide and run away from me. Why didn't I choose a nice stable knit?! Oh well ... this had better look darn good when it's all completed

Now I just need some sewing machine time to sew it up, and that means it probably won't get done till Saturday because I can't sew when my darling little monkey is around as she loves to "help".

Foot in mouth disease

I'm generally careful, but sometimes I slip up ... and this time, it all started with some lovely knit fabric.

The other day, I stopped by one of my favourite fabric shops in Chinatown (People's Park), Thye Guan Textile. Henry and his wife Lay Keow had some pretty new cotton jersey fabric and I was ooh-ing and ahh-ing over them before finally settling on just one metre of a black and white rose-ish print (SGD$13) .

Now, I must've spent a good half hour just petting the fabric and looking at this and that. But not once did I feel pressured to buy anything. In fact, Lay Keow kept on smiling and chatting about all sorts of other things and didn't seem to mind that after all that time, all I bought was one measily metre.

So I told her (that's Lay Keow in the pic on the left, standing at my favourite knits corner) that I really appreciated their no-pressure atmosphere. And seriously, there is never any pressure to buy anything. Henry and Lay Keow happily show you their fabric or leave you alone to browse if you prefer.

And I should have left it at that, but was feeling wicked that day and complained about another store around the corner which also had pretty knits but whose high-pressure sales tactics I didn't like.

"No" is never enough for the other store. The response to my "no, not today" is always "Why? Buy today!".

So anyway, Lay Keow just smiled and nodded. And I CONTINUED TO COMPLAIN, telling her about what happened the last time I was at the other store, blah, blah, blah, whinge, whinge .... No big deal right?

WELL.
It turns out that the shop I was complaining about belongs to Henry's brother. So in effect, I was complaining to Lay Keow about her in-laws.

Talk about opening one's mouth and shoving both feet in! She took it all in good spirit, though, and said that the older man at that shop is "a character". Of course I apologised profusely and wished that a huge hole would open up and swallow me up ..... aaaaaaaahhhh! So embarassing.

Lesson learned!

Anyway, here's important info on Thye Guan Textile:
Address -Blk 32 New Market Road, #02-1006 People's Park
Opening hrs - 11.30am to about 8pm; Closed on Sundays
Good for - Cotton lycra/cotton jersey (about SGD$13 a metre), Irish linen, cotton/linen, denim. Prices are pretty reasonable and they have quality stuff. Many of their fabrics are from Japan or Europe.