Sometimes the simplest pieces are actually the hardest

I had a really tough time with the sleeves on both of these jackets, probably for the most part because of my extremely limited draping experience. The armpit was so hard for me on the doublebreasted one, from Peter Som. It sounds silly, but it's so hard to see in there! If you lift the arm up it distorts everything, and you no longer know if the fit or how the fabric is lying is right, but if you don't lift it up, you can't tell what the hell is going on. I spent much too much time on the armpit and in the end learned that once again, intuition is best --


The raglan sleeves on this coat from Thakoon were difficult for me, because I was trying so hard to avoid that big flap of fabric at the armpit that so often happens with raglan sleeves. Also, the sleeves were supposed to be fairly wide, but fitted at the shoulder, and it was tough to achieve both of those without the sleeves becoming more of a flared shape than wide.
The sketch of this coat was actually more exciting to me than the final version is. The collar here seems to collapse on itself, but in the sketch it looked like a big fold-over collar, and the whole piece itself was much bigger and more Dior 1950's-esque (okay, I only say that because one of the inspiration photos I was given was an old Dior shot form the 50's - it was a gorgeous coat).

What about the final fabric on this one? I'm not sure about that herringbone running over the shoulder like that.

Two of my favorites from our studio this season:

The dress is Thakoon and the coat is Proenza Schouler. I didn't drape either of these, but pretty much everything that comes through our studio, we all work on in some part.


The hem of this dress is trimmed with a metal zipper -- zipper tape pulled apart, with the teeth facing out as if it were piping. Thakoon also did some short skirts with zipper trim, and all I could think was "So, when you wear tights in the cold of next winter, they'll be shredded immediately." My co-worker laughed at me and told me fashion isn't practical.

This was one of the garments they were working on at the fitting with Proenza Schouler that I got to go to. Originally the lower overlap on the sides of the coat was ruffled, which pushed the coat out and gave it a rounder shape, which was what I think Jack and Lazaro were going for. The ruffles looked like some sort of gills on an exotic fish though, and we were all rooting for them to take them off.

Peter Som's Show!





Two of the dresses I draped for Peter Som. They are basically the same asymetrical skirt with different bodices. The top of the taupe one looks complicated, but really, it was the skirt that was more difficult. There are three pleats on each hip, but on the left, they are all high, right at the high hip point, while on the right, they are lower, and spaced about 6 inches apart. Because of the asymetry, it was difficult to situate the pleats so that the three folds they create, that fall across the front of the skirt, lie in a nice clean line.
I wish there was a shot of the back of the dresses, because there's a lot going on. There is a long and also asymetrical bustle/train, as well as a giant bow off to the side. When I was draping the dresses, we couldn't help but make fun of the bustle/bow combination, but I have to admit, it looks a lot better in the final fabric than it did in muslin. That said, I have to agree with style.com when they said they were a little "too vintage-y." Maybe that's because the design came directly from a dress borrowed from one of our NYC vintage stores?

Pattern Magic, Finally!!!

I just recently bought these two books, after covetting them for ages, and can't recommend them enough. They're apparently only available in NYC and San Francisco at the Japanese bookstores Kinokuniya, which I hunted down and paid a visit to here in NYC (6th and 42nd, right across from Bryant Park). The store itself is incredible, the patternmaking and craft section blew my mind. Everything is in Japanese, but the photos are beautiful, and you can get the idea of things easily enough. Their design sensibility is so good, clean and simple, but still really interesting and innovative.


I have only made a couple of things from these books so far and they've all been mock-ups, no finished projects yet. When I complete something, I'll post a picture or two.

Proenza Pre-Fall

Here are a few pieces from Proenza Schouler's Pre-Fall collection that I neglected to post months ago -- this is what we were working on when I first arrived in NYC.
Tomorrow I should have bunches of pictures from the runway shows today

Deft Movements

This is an entry I wrote weeks ago, while I was in Mexico, but didn’t have the opportunity to post until now:

I’m sitting on top of my parents house in Mexico, looking out over the lagoon where several dump trucks and other big machines are tearing up part of the lagoon to make a walkway. One roof over a little boy of about 6 is sitting on a bucket watching the work – he seems to be there most of the time, completely absorbed. Yesterday a friend came up and sat and watched with him for a little while.
I’ve been watching the bricklayers who are reconstructing a wall, thinking about movement. The motions of their work are so precise and efficient, the way they apply the mortar, scrape the excess off, and reapply it. There is a point when the execution of common tasks becomes graceful with the sureness and ---it’s not automatic, -- maybe an unconscious confidence in the way things are best done. I love this. Watching the deft movements of anyone at work is a pleasure to me, as is developing them myself. At NC Inc, there are a couple people with a kind of unconscious grace in specific movements that’s so beautiful to me. I was watching Isabella cut out a pattern a few days ago – cutting that has to be perfect to the 16th? 32nd? of an inch – with no rough spots and no nicks. She was slicing along with a nonchalance at a speed that at first startled me, until I realized how effortless it was to her. And when Nicholas comes to check my draping, he has a way of unpinning and repinning that is so quick, but so precise in how it lets the fabric fall in the way that it should.
Most of the time, I feel incredibly awkward in my movements at work, but the other day I got to sew up a sample – one of our sample sewers was on vacation for a bit, and the sewing was piling up. Sitting down at the sewing machine felt so good, a big burly machine, in need of a little love, somewhere between the Phaff monstrosities at Beckel Canvas and the fancy fancy Jukis at Queen Bee. It felt good, all the little motions I’ve done so many times, taking out the bobbin, reloading it, changing thread colors, testing the tension, adjusting the bobbin casing. It was a little boost of confidence in a sea of still uncertain techniques and processes.

If anyone has bought the February issue of Vogue, two of our main designers –Thakoon and Proenza Schouler - are featured in the article and photo spread with Kate Bosworth. My very talented co-worker Isabel made the Proenza Schouler ensemble that Kate is wearing. Both Thakoon and Jack and Lazaro come by the NC Inc. studio often, especially as Fashion Week approaches, and they are all three very sweet and charming and don’t seem to fit the high-maintenance fashion-designer stereotype at all. Which is a relief.

Latest update from NYC

I haven’t been posting because my anonymous neighbors, whose internet I was piggybacking off of, decided to put a password on their wifi service. Alas, I’m much much too busy to actually take my computer to an internet café to connect with the world…but last night as I was leaving work, Nicolas told me he didn’t need me to come in tomorrow. Really???? With Fashion Week only two weeks away, and incredible amounts of sequined organza to sew picot trim onto, I had been planning on spending my whole Saturday at the studio. Now I have an entire free day ahead of me!
I have a couple bits of exciting news. The first and most thrilling is that I have found a dream apartment in Brooklyn. To list a few of the reasons that I am completely in love: intricately patterned hardwood floors, three levels with lots of ground floor space for bicycles, staircases in both the front and back of the place, a huge stained glass skylight over the main staircase, cut glass sconces in various places, a glittering gold tiled fireplace, built-ins, exclusive roof access, a back deck off of a big kitchen, chandeliers, a clawfoot tub, three bathrooms, and tons of dramatic huge windows. It’s on “Doctor-Preacher Row” close to the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Library, and Botanical Gardens, and only a block away from two subway trains. I sense the quality of my life improving greatly, with the length of my commute cut to a third of what it is now, and my lovely friend Lillian – also a patternmaker/designer - as a roommate. Anyone who wants to come to visit is completely welcome. Lillian just found an 80’s blue street bike for anyone who visits to pal around with us on.
Also, a new home means shared wifi, so I will be posting again regularly in a week or so.
Second bit of exciting news: I get to work backstage at the Peter Som show during Fashion Week! Three of our clients who show in the US – Thakoon, Peter Som and Proenza Schouler, all have their shows the some day, Monday, February 4th. I get to help because this creates too much work for Nicolas and Isabel backstage, where they have to be in case of fitting emergencies, and to help dress the models (sometimes it’s not apparent which way is up or front and back, and since we created the clothes, we help get the girls into them). Last season at Thakoon it was discovered half an hour before the show that all the buttons had been placed wrong, and had to be re-sewn, which is why it’s very important that someone from Nicolas Caito Inc be backstage. I’m excited to see the workings of a full scale fashion show, and to meet Peter Som, the only one of our clients I haven’t met yet. Actually I haven’t met Carolina Herrera yet either, but she doesn’t design anymore, I’m told she just waves at the end of the show and the rest is done by a team of designers headed by a friend of Nicolas’.

What I'd give for an industrial.

My curiosity was peaked about four years ago when I ran across a beautiful old White brand sewing machine at a thrift store. It was that lovely mid-century metallic turquoise-blue color.  At that point I hadn't seen a sewing machine in years (much less a metal one) and didn't know much on the subject.  But it was so charming in it's little foldaway cabinet, that I brought it home.  I hauled it into our little one bedroom apartment and plunked it down in the middle of the living room.  I cleaned it up, plugged it in, and figured out how to thread it.  And then I got bored.  After all, it only went forwards and backwards! Much less, I had nothing to sew. So, it sat around for awhile and was eventually returned to it's home, the thrift store.  

I had forgotten all about it until recently.  And why should I remember it now?  Because now I DO have something to sew, and all I want is that damn machine back (well, and an industrial).  Having had the opportunity to work on industrials, it has occurred to me that despite what I always thought to be true, I am actually exiting the dark side.  I know that there is a bright future ahead where I may own 25 machines that each serve a single function very well. Sure, my home machine does all the fancy tricks like buttonholes, zigzags, and blind hems, but very poorly. At any rate, it's just not doing the trick. When I  attempt to sew something rigid, the presser bar flies around causing the stitch length and the tension to vary, and sometimes the needle to break. This simply cannot be stood for! So what did I do? I bought another thrift store machine just like the one I foolishly got rid of. It goes forward and it goes backward.  Oh, and it winds my bobbin for me while I sew. It's the closest to an industrial I can get, so I love it.  Not only is it beautiful like a '56 Chevy, but it probably weighs as much too.                                                                                    

Grand New Adventures

Last week I got offered a job at the industrial design firm Terrazign. Once again Susanna has been incredibly kind to me. She recommended me to her boss Bill and talked him into interviewing me. He in turn has been very flexible with my starting dates in order to help me ease out of my commitment to Beckel with minimum hassle for them. I feel really bad about having to leave Beckle. Kathy was nice enough to give me my job back plus some when things didn't work out at Langlitz. I in turn told her I could stay till I went to school. Alas Terrazign's offer has made a lire of me. It is so exactly what I want to be doing. I will have a hand in the actual sewing and patterning of their projects as well as some training in the programs they use. Both of these things will be invaluable to me later, not to mention incredibly fun now. I will be working with just Bill and Susanna. I don't know Bill very well yet but I like him so far and Susanna is obviously about as sweet as they get. It was an offer I couldn't refuse.
In order to celebrate Jason and I went to the coast last weekend. The recent storms have scoured the beaches. Which gave a more stark and awesome feel to the already stark and gray Oregon winter beaches. Cape lookout state park had part of its embankment wash away leaving plumbing sticking out of the hillside and cement walkways that ended abruptly in cliffs. The beach itself had incredible formations where the sand had actually be flushed from the underlying surface. There were sandstone wrinkles raised up out of the water. It was a huge expanse of these spiny, rock laden, fingers of sandstone with the waves crashing between them. Unfortunately I left my camera in the car. The wood that had washed up was strange water logged roots that looked like they had been at sea for eons. There was also a whole chunk of beach that had washed away to expose a whole grove of tree roots below the waterline.


I did get some pictures from our drive up the coast.

This is it, for real

Here are the wonderful pictures that Susanna and Brent helped me with. It is the complete and official portfolio.


This is my first real tailoring project. A wool coat for Jake.


A wool shirt, pendelton-esque, made for Jason.


This was one one of my first sucesses, a canvas, wool lined coat. Note: I don't recommend lining coats with wool.


I love this skirt but I used a found fabric for the lining. I also didn't heat test it so the lining got charred. Oops.


I made this dress for my college graduation party


This is a design by Susanna who employed me to make it for her wedding rehearsal. It was also her beautiful choice of fabric. Its a subtly metalic silk.


This was my halloween costume a couple years ago. I was a Beckle canvas product.


This is a beautiful chocolate silk with antique lace. Its too light for a dress and too heavy for a slip so I mostly wear it around the house on hot nights.


Made from washers and satin ribbon


I made these for Hannah as a present. The white one is a bull head, not a bikini.


Knit mittens, obviously. Both are "Lamb's pride" worsted. I love that stuff.


These are slippers I made for my dad for christmas. They're a little heavy on the Crafting-For-Men thing but I like them. The soles are made from goat skin scraps from Langlitz leathers.


Re-useable grocery bags, also christmas presents.


Beckel Purses.


This was one of the first things I designed for Beckle.


Modular origami rules!


These are made from folded muslin.


I made this quilt for Becca's son Gus, who was still unborn at the time.


This quilt was made by dying scraps in the same dye bath to create uniformity. I made it for my mother.


And you know, this is what I do at work.

Where's Hannah?

We here on the west coast got a lovely taste of Hannah yesterday. She came through town for a special one-day only appearance. Becca was kind enough to host an open house and the parade of admirers came to show their respects. Silly descriptions aside it was very nice to see her. It was just enough of a taste to wet my appetite and not nearly enough to dry it back out again. I wish her the best with all the traveling and dealing with the fast paced big city. The truth is that as much as I miss her I love living vicariously through her new education.

christmas

What can you ever say about christmas. I know its suppose to be a big wonderful moment full of magic and warm fuzzy feelings but I don't know anybody who actually feels that way.



I have three houses to go to. The first of which is my Dad's where this year they were kind enough to wait for us to get there before opening presents. They also did a very sweet job of welcoming Jason. They even bought him some presents that were well thought out and things he would actually use. I got my dream boot. The Frye boots I've been coveting for ages. It was incredibly nice of them.





Then it was on to my Grandma's for brunch. She had decided this year that no one could bring their boyfriends. Which I think is totaly resonable but seemed to add some tension to the event. My mom gave me her late 60s Merantz stereo receiver. This is also something I've been coveting since childhood. I've seen a lot of second hand amps just from dating an audiophile. Many of them have light bulbs burned out or whole speaker channels that don't work. This one has a little bit of stickiness in the knobs but that's it. It has more power than Jason's Merantz and for once he wants to use my equipment in the house. I only feel a little smug.




Next on my list of christmas events is crab louies at my other grandma's house. On this side of the family I'm the oldest of sixteen cousins. Not all of them were there but needless to say its almost complete chaos. The highlight of the night was a present from my aunt to the four youngest cousins. They can only be described as giant stretch velvet pillow cases. They were sewn almost completely shut with a gap at the top. The kids climbed inside with just their heads sticking out the hole in the top. They were like giant velvet flying squirrels. If you ever want to keep a six year old entertained for hours, let me tell you this is the way to do it.

Portfolio update

Suzanna and her husband were kind enough to help me take pictures for my portfolio. Really they've been kind enough to help me with just about everything. When we first talked about taking pictures I had no real idea what I was in for. I was not excited to do it myself. The photos would have been done with my tourist quality digital camera in front of what ever blank wall I could find. I imagined that Brent would do pretty much the same thing with a better camera and a better wall. When I got there I realized that this was not an amature set up. We had real lighting, seamless, and a great camera. Suzanna ran me all over town helping me get my stuff together. She did a wonderful job of setting up my stuff including bringing foot lasts for my slippers. Because of them I will have a beautiful portfolio. I cannot thank them enough.
ps I'll post the pictures later.

Lovely Marc Jacobs jacket

Here's a picture of the most inspiring coat I've seen in a long time. I've got yards of the perfect heavy vintage wool to make a similar one out of, I'd lengthen the sleeves - I want to make it good and warm and I'm tired of chilly arms - but besides that I love it. It's perfectly versatile, whether worn over a little dress, or with old jeans and sneakers. All my (2) coats have to be worn with fancy things or I look confusing. It's a little frustrating on the weekends when I want to slouch around.

Feeling grateful

I have to take a moment to report how utterly happy I am to be apprenticed to Nicolas. Most of the other folks at NC have much more experience in the fashion industry than I, having actually gone to school for it, and lived in NYC for a time, and they talk about the world of fashion as a not altogether friendly or delightful place. Not that that is a surprise; I suppose what is a surprise is how utterly pleasant that world of fashion is at NC's. The amount that I learn daily is mind boggling (yes, literally, sometimes at the end of the day I am remarkably stupid from having used up my entire mental capacity). Even days when nothing goes right, no one gets frustrated with me, and I am still learning -- what not to do. At risk of sounding gushy, Nicolas is always kind, helpful, and says some damn funny things, both intentional and otherwise. The other day he told someone on the phone he was "crazy busy sick" -- meaning very very busy -- but the immediate image that came to my mind was of someone rushing around puking wildly. I'm digressing.
Every day at lunch we all sit down together, eat off real china with real silverware, and chat for awhile. It's so nice, especially since most of the day we're quiet, focused on our work.
Sometimes I can't believe I'm here, that somehow I stumbled upon someone who does what I want to do, and who wants so much for others to learn it from him.

A Fitting at Proenza Schouler!

I met two of my favorite designers last week. They’re the design team behind Proenza Schouler, the up and coming darlings of the New York fashion world, straight out of Parsons 5 - ? – years ago, now with a CFDA award, and a big chunk of their company bought by Valentino – which means they can play around a little bit more with their creativity. The reason I mention their credentials is because they’re some of those esoteric famous people – if you’re in the fashion world, you know who they are and presumably respect the hell out of their work, if not – well, none of my friends have had any idea who I was talking about when I excitedly told them I’d met Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez. Oh well.
Nicolas had a fitting with them last Thursday – a sleety, freezing day – and NC Inc is so swamped that he couldn’t spare Isabella to help him at the fitting – so I went instead! I was sooo excited. I felt very quintessentially NYC running down Broadway with a garment bag and an umbrella in the slush, taking the freight elevator up to PS’s 6th floor studio. I met both Jack and Lazaro, who were very sweet, as were the rest of their team. My starstruck jitters didn’t last very long because the fitting itself was so interesting.
What I've come to learn more and more with Nicolas is that I need to trust my gut at all times. So much of what we do is instinct based. That instinct needs to be honed, of course, and you have to know the general guidlines in terms of how fabric behaves and the basic process of draping and patterning garments, but a lot of times when I'm stumped, if I remind myself to use my instinct, I can figure the problem out.
The reason I mention this is that most of the fitting seemed to be Jack or Lazaro saying "hmmm...I don't know if i like this aspect" and then Nicolas would slash a line, or tear out a seam, or pinch out some fabric, and they'd all step back, and say "better..." or "no...." It was a lot of fun to watch, but hard to convey in writing. We had 7 garments to fit, and it took about 4 hours, with 2 of the garments needing a second fitting. The fact that the other 5 didn't need second fittings attests to both Nicolas's skill and Lazaro and Jack's complete trust in Nicolas's skill.
Another little thing from the fitting: I noticed that Nicolas handled the clothes on the fit model in exactly the same way he does on the dressmaker's forms. I guess this isn't surprising except that I realized suddenly that I had been thinking of the fit model, Lily, as a dressmaker's form. I mean that in the literal sense. It actually startled me when she spoke.

clumsyness = accidental productivity

I fell down an entire flight of stairs today. NC Inc. on the third floor of building in Tribeca and I 'm always a little nervous going down the steep stairs...today at lunch I misstepped at the top of the second flight and went head first all the way down, landing upsidedown, feet in the air, dress around my waist, at the bottom. Miraculously all bones are intact, no facial deformities, and all I'm left with are dozens of bruises in the making and some seriously bloody knees. I have to say, if ever you need an impromptue nurse, patternmakers are the best. Isabella, head patternmaker, could have been a surgeon with her steady hands, cutting away my tights with some tailoring shears, picking god knows what out of my knees (couldn't watch) with the sewing machine tweezers, then I was sterilized and bandaged up...
I was sent home in a cab, and now have an afternoon of free time, unplanned. I could work on one last Christmas gift but it involves an exacto knife and I'm still a little shaky, so I think it's the perfect time to get to all those entries that I've been wanting to post. It's been so long I'm afraid some of them have buried themselves in the deepest recesses of my mind, but I'll do my best to dredge them up.

From the Fashion Incubator

Ah, how I love Kathleen Fasanella's blog The Fashion Incubator. Sometimes I'm not sure I should even continue with my blog, since all I usually want to do is cut and paste her entries... but I refrain. Here's one I had to share though, because it made me laugh, because drinking does seem to be involved in a surprising amount of sewing and patterning activities, because I'm still amazed by all the fabric store salesmen chainsmoking indoors, and because I love the idea of 9 fingered flirts finagling passes to the YKK party.

"According to Mr Mahon (of The English Cut), cutters and tailors tend to drink heavily and while he makes no mention of smoking, we do a lot of that too. In fact -and until quite recently- one of the unmentionable memes of the trade was that you did not -or should not- trust anyone who didn't smoke. Seriously. Some still feel that way -often vendors- those who continued to smoke quite heavily in and out of their booths at the previously annual Mecca-trek (The Bobbin Show) in Atlanta. This in spite of copious signage advising criminal penalties for non-compliance. In fact, if you needed a cigarette, all you needed to do was find some guy missing a finger or two and he'd happily help you out -the folks missing fingers came up through the ranks having cut their teeth figuratively -or fingers literally- on the cutting table. Drinking was always an issue of moderation although the minus-appendage-guys (all of them shameless flirts) were often good for a snort from a hip flask. However, most vendors and attendees were able to postpone alcohol consumption having finagled an invitation to that evening's YKK party (YKK always threw the best parties)."

accidental hiatus

a quick note to say that no, we haven't given up on our blog, carly and i are both just swamped at the moment -- i'm currently doing 18 hour days, but i'm planning on posting like crazy as soon as i leave for my luxurious christmas vacation, and carly will be done with her extremely thorough grad school application process within the month, leaving her more time to share her brilliant thoughts with us....
thanks for reading, by the way. and commenting. i love the comments.

More portfolio

One of the things I want to make is a three part folding screen. The fabric suspended through the screen will be folded and tacked. I haven't figured out what I want to make it out of. The picture is made with cotton sheeting. I have also tried silk organza which I liked for its crisp hand but it was so see-through it hardly made a screen. I would love some suggestions.

Well, its official.

I have sent my transcripts to Pratt, RISD, Art Center, and the University of Washington. I have talked to my professors about letters of recommendation. There's is no backing out now. Now I just need to write my letter of intent (which I'm not looking forward to). I have a list of twenty things that will go in my portfolio. The university of Washington requires all twenty but for the other schools I can chose my twelve favorite. So if you own something awesome that I made and have forgotten about now is the time to remind me. I'll be taking official pictures around christmas but here are some teasers.

Ahh, language.

My Peruvian coworker taught me the word "pattern" in Spanish today: "patron" (there's an accent over the O but I don't know how to put it there...)
The thing is, "patron" also means "landowner", or "boss", in Spanish. I just did a very half-assed search for the etimology of the word online, and came up with nothing. Still curious...

Edge of Ability

During my long commutes to and from work, I've been reading Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You. The basic premise is that as our culture is getting more complicated -- the complexity of tv shows, video games, movies, technical operating systems, etc, have all skyrocketed in the past 20-odd years -- our intelligence is increasing. All of these cultural outlets demand much more than they used to in terms of logic, picking up on subtle cues, problem solving, and thinking in new and creative ways. Johnson talks about the "edge of ability" -the point at which people can just figure out what's going on, or what needs to be done, as being the sweet spot for maintaining attention span, and generating both direct and collateral learning. If something is too easy, too obvious, you'll loose interest. If something is too hard, you'll give up. But if something is just at the edge of what you already know how to do, you'll keep at it until you figure it out, because there's an emotional reward -- the feeling of satisfaction at your own success -- that comes with it.
This is exactly why I love patternmaking. Of course some days it feels like what I am trying to figure out is beyond the edge of what I already know, but then, I am relatively new at it. Most of the time though, I can feel that if I just focus enough, look at the problem from enough angles, run through the mental catalog of Important Points to Remember, and maintain some patience, I'll eventually figure out what I need to do. And when I do, damn, it feels good. The fact that the end result is a piece of generally gorgeous clothing is fairly secondary, and very seperate from my enjoyment of the process.

garment district

I went to the garment district yesterday for the first time. It was interesting...in the first shop I went to, the owners were smoking. Inside. Seriously, is there anything the smell of smoke sticks to more than fabric?? I couldn't belive it. In several other shops people were also smoking, albiet by the open front door -- in 33 degree weather! Priorities, I guess.
Anyway, I found some amazing things. One store was stocked entirely with wool. It was presumably geared towards mens' suiting, as almost all the colors were fairly subdued, but it was incredible. I walked around for a very long time just feeling everything. I'm trying to hone my skills at identifying fiber content of fabric, but right now I'm still practicing identifying "wool" vs. "polyester." Pretty basic. I spent a long time in the cashmere section, especially because there are these vendors all over NYC right now, selling $5 cashmere scarves that they all swear are real cashmere -- I'm sure they're not, but they do feel mighty convincing.... So I spent a long time feeling all the cashmere. Finally I brought a muted plaid up to the front, thinking maybe I could get 1 yard and make an extra luxurious scarf. Hmm.. at $120.00/yd. the potentially faux scarves seem to fit my lifestyle a little better.
There were so many specialty stores. There was one little 1/2 block that was full of spandex fabric stores. Others sold only european fabrics. There were a lot of trim and button stores as well, which are my weakness...I found some big brass military buttons to replace some more generic buttons on a wool melton coat, and drooled over all the glitzy buttons that would make fabulous earrings with a little glue and some post findings...and then I had to leave to protect my already very tiny bank account.
I was originally on a mission to find some plain black cotton for a project I'm about to embark on. I'm making a bag with braided handles. The braids will be made out of tubes of black cotton, stuffed taute with some sort of filling. Hard to describe, but I want it to have an almost down jacket puffyness, while maintaining its shape in your hand. Originally I thought of stuffing the tubes with polar fleece -- light and bulky -- or maybe quilt batting - but that might be hard to pull through the tubes -- if anyone has any suggestions, let me know. As soon as I'm done, I'll post some pictures. (This may be months away...)