I went on a shopping trip to downtown LA's garment district yesterday with a friend of mine who also loves to sew. We took my baby with us and let me tell you, that was quite an endeavour. I have one of those strollers that's the size of a small tank and manouvering it through stores was quite impossible! I think I will leave him behind with my husband next time! I was worried he would be crabby since he is teething and he hasn't been his usual sunny self but he was really well behaved! he put up with 4 hours of meandering through downtown LA stuck in a stroller and didn't cry or fuss at all! He did poop twice which was fairly unfortunate. I changed him in the trunk of the suv once and in his stroller once, which I have never done before, it was quite an interesting experience...
So here are a couple of pictures of my haul, I got a fair deal of fabric and I got some thread, zippers and bias tape!
We first hit up the FIDM scholarship store, I hadn't been there before but my friend had and she said the selection wasn't as good as it had been before, I did find a beautiful silk for 5 dollars a yard and I got two yards of that. I will add detailed pictures of the fabric in another post since I haven't taken them yet! I also got 2 yards of a really thick black knit with ridges on it.
Then we hit up Michael Levine Loft, it wasn't a good day for the loft, I guess it's because it's the end of the month and their stock is probably low? I got 2 yards of a faux stretchy suede looking fabric, 3 yards of some purple satinny stuff and 1 yard of a really thick purple knit. That was from the bins, I would have gotten more if they had it on the bolts. Then we went to the main Michael Levine where I toyed with the idea of buying swim fabric but then decided I couldn't be bothered just now since I would need to get underwires, swim elastic, etc etc. I did find Gutermann 5000 metre spools of sew-all thread for only 2.25!! they were on sale, I bought 4 of them but now I'm wishing I had bought all the colours they had, they didn't have that many more. I can't believe how cheap that is, 1 spool of sew-all 100 metre thread is usually 1.80 at Joann! I looked online and the price of these spools varies from 12 to 25 dollars depending on the site! They're 50 times the small spools I usually buy, I don't know why I didn't buy them all! Considering I won't be headed back DT for a while.
After the loft, we went to LA Alex, where you can buy serger thread for $1.25 a 6000 yard spool! I got 8 spools of serger thread, 15 yards of bias tape and two different fabrics, a mint gingam of which I got 1.5 yards and a really stiff poly cotton blend in a nice aqua-ish colour.
Then we hit up a random store on the street that I like to go to for knits. This is a picture of just one small section of their store. Look at all the striped knit fabric!! I resisted the knit urge since I already have many and bought some wovens instead! I got 6 different fabrics here, a really cute skull print, a blue silky one with trees, a cream silky one with butterflies etc.
Then we hit up the lace store where I bought 1 yard of this beautiful purple stretch lace that i hope to one day make a bra out of! Then on our way back to the car, we snagged these bags full of zippers for 3 dollars each! I started counting them but gave up at 80, and I wasn't even halfway through. They are 4,5,6,7 and 8 inches long.
Then I stopped at another shop where I had been eyeing a fabric and bought it and also bought a yard of beautiful silk impulsively. I gave that shopkeeper the last of my cash! The fabric I had initially been eyeing is a cotton silk! I'll post pictures in another post, they're both really pretty.
So here is a picture of all the fabric's I got, and below that a picture of all the stuff I got!
Anyway, so that's my total haul, I'll post detailed pictures of the fabrics another day, baby needs to be fed right now! I won't be going downtown for a while so I'm happy I got a good amount of stuff. There's stuff I wish I had bought more off, like the Gutermann thread and bias tape, but DT isn't going anywhere, I'll get it in a few months! I'll get swim stuff then too! Oh, and I totally forgot to get powermesh, I'll get that next time too!
