Weekend Meet-up & New Shirt Project!

Readers, you may not believe it, but I have worn my leopard print Miyake coat every day for the last three days.  And that's without closures!

I have received many compliments and quite a few double takes.  You know who I feel like when I wear this coat?  Rudolf Nureyev.  Or is it Margot Fonteyn.  Anyway, very glamorous.

On Saturday, I met up with Elizabeth, who was in town visiting from the west coat, Claudine, Kat (an American living in Greece) and Sarita.  Naturally, we hit a great many sewing-related hot spots, including Paron's, Daytona Trim, Chic Fabrics, Pacific Trim, and Mood, Glorious Mood.

Elizabeth

Claudine and Sarita

Kat and me

Claudine and Elizabeth

This month, Paron's has a 40% off sale on everything not previously discounted.  I bought a beautiful mint-green pique that I think will be perfect for a robe for my mother (and hopefully she'll agree).  I love it.



Claudine kept badgering about my coat so I finally let her try it on.  I must say she looks smashing in it.



Claudine was wearing a skirt she made from the amazing furry fabric she purchased at Paron's on MPB Day last August.  I know I ribbed her about it at the time, saying it looked like it was embellished with a used Nad's For Men body waxing strip, but I love it, and it may just be the inspiration for my upcoming man-skirt, though probably without the hair.



We all ate lunch at Market Cafe, where I was introduced to the concept of the bottomless Bloody Mary.  I thought I'd have to take my pants off but I wrong (thankfully, as I was all in mesh).



After losing Kat and Sarita, we elders headed for the FIT Museum, where we caught two shows, Trend-ology and Elegance in an Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s.  I'd seen the former already, but the latter is fantastic and just opened last Friday (and closes April 19).  The museum is free, btw.  I love free.

Before the museum, we stopped for coffee and I caught this awesome hairdo.  I'm not sure how you sleep in it, but it's not something you see every day.





I met up with my friend Johanna yesterday and she generously loaned me about a dozen Japanese pattern books (more about that later).  Have any of my Japanese readers seen the segment on Nippon TV about Johanna's sewing machine collection?  We're still waiting for a DVD of the footage, I mean, Johanna is.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to organize my week. I want to sew a shirt with the fabric I bought last week.  I thought I'd try something interesting with pleats from my Japanese men's shirt book.  Which version do you prefer?





It seems like a lot of work but I think the results could be interesting, don't you? 



Below, I pleated out the orange stripe, and then stitched the pleats along their width, first in one direction and then in the other, to create a wavy effect.





Oh, I almost forgot: also on Saturday, I bought covered hook-and-eye closures for my Miyake coat. When I got them home and opened one of the packages, I realized I'd bought BROWN!  I hate when that happens.  I'll have to hunt down the black ones.





And that's it!  A busy week ahead, including preparing for tomorrow night's FIT class.  Tempus fugit!

Have a great day, everybody!