Kaoru Marie

Every month I tell myself to stop buying fabric until I make several garments with the fabric in my stash. Unfortunately, most of what I currently have in my stash is for making dress/button-up shirts, which I still need to work out some fitting issues. I've gotten a lot better about not buying new patterns by the five-fold from Jo-Ann Fabrics during the Big 4 sales, although I have bought a couple new patterns from Sewaholic and Thread Theory. But fabric shopping....oooooh, I just can't help myself sometimes! I'll have an idea in my head and then I HAVE TO GET THE FABRIC NOW! I got into one of those fits last Friday. I blame Marrie and her amazing stretch cotton sateen dress . That dress is so cool and exactly the style and colors (black and white!) I would love to use as the backbone for my work wardrobe builder. After thinking about stretch cotton all morning, I sped-walked over to Michael Levine during my lunch break hoping to find some fabric to make a dress. ...

I've been dying to stop by the FIDM Scholarship Store for months ever since I read somewhere that they sell fabric for cheaps. I tried going a month or two ago after work, but got there maybe 10 minutes after they closed. This failed adventure could have been avoided if I wasn't too lazy to PICK UP THE PHONE earlier in the day to confirm the store hours (FYI, it closes at 5pm on weekdays). Even though I work in Downtown LA, the store is located just far enough from my office that the thought of walking there and back during lunch always seemed so tiring. But the stars aligned last Friday! My coworkers and I walked to three different lunch spots in a quest to find someplace (any place) that wasn't incredibly crowded. When we got to the third location I realized we were only one block from the FIDM scholarship store. I bid adieu to the guys and decided to forgo a tasty lunch and instead went searching for some scrumptious cheap fabric. I wasn't sure what to expect...