Provident Mom

One of the reasons why I love sewing so much is because it can be anything you want it to be. You can scrounge-sew and repurpose to save money (yes, it’s possible); or, you can use fine fitting and couture techniques to get clothing you would never get otherwise. You can do crafts, home dec, dolls, toys, clothing, anything you want.

Today I went the gamut. At a free style show given by a local sewing shop, I got lots of (unexpectedly) cute ideas for repurposing thrift store items. I also went to a class on how to make high-end t-shirts – the kind that cost a lot of money to buy. There was more, but these were my two favorites from today.

Some of the repurposing/recycling ideas – I think some of these would make great projects for kids (sorry for the poor picture quality):

Men’s button-down shirts to pillows (unbutton to insert pillow form, and to remove later for washing):

Men’s shirt to little girl’s dress:

Men’s shirts to aprons (surprisingly cute!):

Old book to sewing kit:

Men’s wool suit to computer bag:

Old wool skirt to messenger bag:

Old ties to cute handbag:

And now, some of the beautiful t-shirts from Londa’s Creative Threads (much prettier in person, but this gives you some idea – click to enlarge):

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After taking a very (ahem!) circuitous route from my hotel in Auburn to the Western Washington Fairgrounds in Puyallup, I arrived at my destination early this morning:

I have to say, it’s WET here (rained hard all day), but that didn’t seem to dampen (ha ha) anyone’s enthusiasm:

I didn’t have my first class until 10:30, so I headed into into the Showplex where the main vendors’ area is located.

And that is where the title of this blog post, “Kid in a Candy Shop,” comes from: Hundreds of booths full of all kinds of sewing, crafting, and needlework items. Cloth of all kinds, like you just plain flat-out can’t get in Utah; unique patterns from independent pattern makers; high-end tools and sewing gadgets; specialty threads; quilting; machine embroidery; whimsical items, including dolls and toys; books and instructional videos; sewing celebrities everywhere (the ones who are writing the articles in the magazines you buy at JoAnn’s);  and on and on.

What’s a girl to do?

SHOP!

I meandered around and got a few things here and there. But when I got to the “Hide Your Tummy” patterns, I made a full-fledged stop. (Do you have anything to hide the rest of it too, LOL?) When I saw the sign that said they’d measure you and make a custom pattern for $25, my wallet came out.

And that’s the beauty of this place. There are things here you just can’t get in my neck of the woods. Maybe not in most peoples’ neck of the woods, because this is the nation’s largest sewing conference, so it attracts a great concentration of sewing stuff plus sewing talent. The best and brightest are here, along with the newest and most innovative. It’s a great place to get ideas.

I went to four classes today (machine beading, fitting, and two construction classes). I am always most interested in fitting: sewing is easy, it’s fitting that’s hard. I am interested in apparel sewing, and I noticed that even here at the Expo, there seemed to be less apparel fabric and classes then when I last came three years ago. Lots and lots of quilting, wearable art, crafting, etc.

Today I took some random pictures of about half of the main showroom floor; more to follow tomorrow (hopefully). Enjoy!

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Daughter and I thought it would be fun to hit some sales on President’s Day weekend. So off we headed to the mall.

We don’t go to the mall too often – our style is more the local Deseret Industries thrift store – and in between, we always seem to forget that we really don’t like the mall.

We remembered today why we don’t like the mall so much. We thought it would be fun to find some cute spring dresses, so we headed to the Juniors section at Dillards. There were cute dresses there. Lots of them. But … all of them were too short. (Some of them were w – a- y too short. We could tell just by looking at them. (When you can’t tell if it’s a skirt, a top, or a dress, something is wrong.) Plus, the prices were making us hyperventilate. They weren’t really unreasonable, but like I said, we usually shop at thrift stores.

Daughter didn’t even try any of the cute dresses on.

Instead, we headed to the local JoAnn’s cloth store. (We brought our mailing-list coupons, of course.) We weren’t really expecting to find much. But guess what – we did. Daughter found quite a few pieces of cloth that she thought would make cute spring dresses. We had to cut back our selection, even.

We came home with three pieces of fun cloth: a bright floral ruffle cloth; a really fun reversible blue and white polka dot/stripe; and another fun random-style polka dot. All knits. All about $15/yard (before coupons). We bought a yard and a half of each. With $1 Simplicity patterns, it cost $40 for the makings of three cute spring dresses.

Sewing isn’t always the best option. But sometimes I have to say it: I’m really glad I can sew when I want to. After visiting the mall today, I want to.