Leah – Page 151 – No Idle hands here

Why I love the Fabric district in DTLA

Recently a friend came to visit. We met on Facebook but only met in person on this trip. It felt like we had known each other forever – which in a way, we had. Having only a few hours we rushed downtown. This was our first stop.For over 30 years this store has been offering everything for the Sewist in downtown LA. They have a separate Home Decorating store. A garment fabric store – which includes yarn, findings and a lot of notions. The loft – where they get remnants from local jobbers and sell everything for $2 a pound. Which btw, adds up very quickly.Here we are, of course we made some purchases. this just gives you an idea of how large the place is.

Then we just hit the streets and walked around looking at all the other wonderful stores in the area. According to Karen, this is a much larger fabric district that New York, could be, our garment industry is quite large. These are the fake animal prints out on the side walk. From cow, to leopard to pink tiger.More fur, I think these might go indoors soon. Interesting how they are chained. Is that so they don’t fall down or so no one walks off with a bolt?Party fabrics!Beads and sparkle.

The really good quality fabrics are all inside and yes, one can find some very expensive quality fabrics here.

This is the first post of many. I love this part of town, started coming here 22 years ago when I first moved to LA. It is amazing to me how the district has grown and changed. I will have to share some of the bead stores as well. Oh and don’t get me started on the party stores, or actually do, that is a subject for a different post.

Leah

A quilt for Aytan

Before Aytan was born, 5 years ago, I set out to make a quilt for my first grandchild. I was too impatient to wait to find out the gender of the baby. So I made a baby quilt with pink, green, light blue and brown stars.I had recently gotten back into quilting and had found a wonderful book that showed how to make these different 8 point stars with strip piecing.

It is time for a new quilt and I’m working on it right now. Aytan loves trains, a passion I am trying to cultivate. He likes riding them, he loves model trains – so what better theme than trains.

I set out to find fabrics, some in local stores, some from online sources.A jumble of fabrics after being washed. Notice the train tracks along with train related fabric. If you are seeing some Spiderman mixed in there, that is because right now Aytan loves Spiderman and that is also a passion I keep feeding. I will be putting that fabric on the back of the quilt.

Now for a patternI love it when someone else designs a well thought out pattern. I don’t need to do everything myself. Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew designed this one. The name says it all. I found the perfect fabric, train tracks to connect the boxcars.Here is a complete quilt block. I chose a grey for the background and decided that the center of the boxcar would always be a solid color.

Here is the first row of blocks complete. I showed it to Aytan and he thought it was very pretty, I think I have a happy customer.

You noticed the non-train fabric boxcar? Yes indeed that is Mickey Mouse, thanks to his Mom, Aytan loves Mickey and everything Disney, so into the quilt he goes.

I’m in no rush to finish this, I am enjoying the process of seeing the quilt top grow gradually. I’ll probably be posting this for a few weeks at WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Leah

Last year lace was the rage. I am happy to see it still is since I’m a year late to the party. On one of my visits to Mood I picked up this geometric lace and the perfect backing fabric.Next was deciding what pattern to use.Umm, yeah, I do have quite a collection of patterns. Simplicity 1425 was my choice for the top of the dress, Yes, McCall’s is also very cute but it calls for boning, and I just wasn’t in the mood for that.I carefully pressed and clipped the neckline on the inner bodice.I also added a waistband to separate the bodice from the skirt.Here you can see clearly the difference between the lined and unlined portion of the bodice.

I ended up using this pattern for the skirt. In the past I have made this skirt, it is a half circle – so there is fullness but not as much as a full circle skirt – which can be overwhelming.

I would say this dress is halfway couture. I had taken the Craftsy class The Couture Dress, a very worth while class by the way. I have incorporated a lot of hand sewing, not quite as much as a real couture dress, I still love my serger.The inside of the dress is very clean, I did fine hand stitching on the bias tape (made from the lining fabric) binding around the armholes and neckline. I also did a very fine stitch to attach the lace to the lining on the front bodice. don’t want anything moving or sagging. You can see that I used the serger wherever I could. Combining sewing techniques works for me.Love the clean finish of both the invisible zipper and the bias binding. Since I cut the back pieces on a fold, I did get a very good match of the fabric. I am actually very impressed with the result.

Done, beautiful and very well fitted. No, I didn’t do a muslin, I made corrections as I sewed. The joy of being very proficient – I make modifications as I go along.

Click on the slideshow to see the dress in action. Me twirling in this dress, it is very comfy. I will wear it the first time at the Rehearsal dinner for the boys, which is less than 2 weeks away! Yikes.

Leah

A friend is having a big birthday this month, one of those ending with a zero. She spins fiber into yarn so she falls into the category of ‘handmade worthy’, someone who appreciates a well crafted item.

There is a wonderful pattern out called Sew Together Bag, available over at Craftsy.You can see I’m a quilter, I have a lot of fabric on hand that at first glance looks like it clashes, but will work together beautifully.

This is a fun multi pouch bag, anyone can find a use for this. Come on women, we always need another fun storage item!
As you can see, three inner zippered pouches with a nice surprise when you open them.A pop of bright red inside.

The instructions were very good and clear, I like how the raw edges are enclosed with binding.

I also love the way the zipper frames the bag and can be used as handles.I know I’ll be making many more of these.Birthday girl was so thrilled with her present. She immediately turned around and gave me one.Some of her incredible handspun two ply yarn. The black has silk in it, the brown in 100% wool. Both soft and lovely. I think this will become a hat for Joel.

Leah

A look at where my raw materials come from

Go look at the pictures, even read the article. Fruits of the Loom. I love it when a good photographer captures the essence of an industry. My only quibble with the article is about how the textile industry is in it’s final death throes. Sorry, I beg to differ.

It isn’t what it was 50 or even 150 years ago. It has changed, but with all of us crafters out there as well as a thriving garment business going on all over the US (I can give tours of the LA area garment districts alone). Textiles haven’t died here and all moved to China. Like every other business – it has changed. Change is not death.

Anyway, enough of my soapbox, just go look at the photos, they are wonderful and they tell an amazing human+machine story.

Leah

Reinventing the Heel.

I always have a knitting project on the needles, sometimes two. I’m what’s known as a monogamous knitter, though clearly not a monogamous crafter. Socks are always a good simple project. Easy to take with me and rarely do I need instructions on hand.Wool with some nylon is the best for socks, they breathe, they are comfortable and they are sturdy. It’s nice to add a pattern. I used to knit very complicated sock patterns, but people rarely see my socks, so I stopped that.

It is amazing how many knit designers are out there reinventing the wheel. In this case, the Heel.This is the Fish Lips Kiss heel, aside from the funny name and that the instructions were about 10 pages too long – it actually has a very creative new idea. Adding an inch of stockinette st. at the top of the heel does make it fit better.Onto sock no. 2And here they are, on my feet, just as the 100 degree weather is due to arrive. Oh well, they can sit in the sock drawer till fall.

Leah

Urban Nine Patch has arrived safely at it’s new home with my friend Lynne. And Bella came to live with me.These colors are pretty true, as you can see I took the picture outside. The beautiful frame is handmade as well – by Lynne’s husband. Isn’t it a beauty? He didn’t want to part with this, but now that he has the quilt at home – he is thrilled.

Colors are not true, I’m still learning this camera stuff, but Bella fits in very well in my dining room.We have a silly commercial here that happy cows make happy cheese, cows prefer the sunshine of CA to say Wisconsin. Bella came from the northeast and should be very happy here.

I am not one to sell my work, back in the day when I did, I cut corners in order to save on expenses and time. I love being able to make things and not keep a record of what my profit will be. This exchange worked out better than expected. We traded goods, Lynne got a beautiful quilt that looks as if it were custom made for her. (She promises pictures soon). And I have a wonderful watercolor that I love. Oh, and we met on Facebook, so there you have it, never pass up an opportunity to make new friends.

Leah

The rewards of having a granddaughter

I have three boys, I have one grandson and another grandson on the way. And then I have a granddaughter. Of course I love sewing for myself, but nothing beats sewing for her.

Leah

The Gerry Building

These days I try and take my camera with me when I am about town. Even when I am somewhere I go often, like the garment district downtown. I don’t know how many times I’ve walked by this building, of course I think the color changed recently.Sorry about the quality of the picture, I cleaned my lens when I got home.

First of all, this style is a little unusual in the garment district, and this building was built for for garment show rooms, unlike other Beaux Arts buildings in the area that served other purposes. This is Streamline Moderne, late Art Deco. One of these posts will be about architectural styles in LA, right now, I’ll just mention that at the end of the Art Deco period (1930s’), money was tight , no more major decorative elements and a very strong horizontal feeling. Think big steamer ships. The color picture is mine, but you can see, in 1947, the only difference is the color and the cars. This building was built in 1947, which is really after Art Deco ended (WWII put an end to most building for a good 5 years). Maybe the design was already approved, so once the war was over and the economy was coming back the developers just went with what they had and built the building.

Today it is once again used for fashion showrooms. Although it seems that someone wants to turn this into apartments. I wish they would leave some of the buildings downtown for business – this isn’t suburbia after all.LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the lettering, the only decoration on the building. It just screams Art Deco! I have no idea who Gerry was, I’m guessing it’s the name of the developers. And I also love the bright orange color. I know it’s not original to the period, but it’s ok if some buildings take on a more modern look. I’m not a purist when it comes to restoring buildings.