While Nathan was off at his conference with the laptop, I went riding the rails on BART and go to a few fabric stores along the way. Mostly I was looking for good quality non-ugly knits for me to make a couple pieces of maternity clothes with, but alas it was not meant to be.
I actually made two tops from an awesome Butterick pattern, I just haven’t bothered to photograph them since I’ve been writing about cookies. It’s pretty amazing at A)how few maternity clothes there are and B) what horrific colors they come in. The days of tenting yourself into oblivion are over, but apparently we’re all supposed to wear these dark oppressive colors. I have two problems with that. 1. I’m not that depressed and 2. I’m a spring complexion-wise. Really intense dark colors swallow me up. So sew I shall.
At any rate, the first store that I came to had all these weird signs posted about how they didn’t want you to pull bolts off the shelves…how you were supposed to look at anything is beyond me. Since they had no interesting remnants and since nobody in there seemed to inclined to be helpful enough to pull things off the shelves (because apparently it’s very difficult from all of the signage), I left in a hurry. On my way to the next shop, I stopped at a jazzy little organic market and had a tangerine. It had this pretty pink blush to it. It was super tart and just what I needed for a little snack.
The next store was delightfully promising, but I’ll talk about the 3rd store first. Britex in San Francisco has to be about one of the most awe-inspiring places I’ve been. Undoubtedly they carry the most beautiful fabrics I’ve ever seen. If you were a designer, I could imagine this being one of your haunts. Unfortunately, all these shelves that looked much like the Tiffany’s of the fabric world also cost the equivalent of Tiffany’s in the fabric world. I was afraid to breathe on these fabrics lest I have to shell out several hundred dollars for marring them in any such way. So I guess if you had a trust fund and owned several islands in the South Pacific or your clients did, then you could afford to buy fabric from Britex. Do go if you’re in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful store even if you CAN only afford Breakfast at Britex.
The best place by far I went was Whizbang Fabrics
in the Mission District. The owner has to be one of the kindest, most interesting people I’ve ever met. She was super helpful in brainstorming with me through a project I imagine I’ll get to late February. I love people who spend time talking to you and manage to be knowledgeable without pressuring you into buying anything either. She carries an astonishing amount of designer quilting weight fabrics and some heavier prints for the tiny space that the shop occupies. I could not resist these:
Plus she also had a few bolts of vintage 36″ wide fabric from the 1940′s which was so charming and lovely. I think I will make a utility apron out of this vintage fabric. It just screams to be used daily.
We are at Nathan’s parents’ for the next week up in the peace and fog that one finds in the Redwoods of VERY northern CA. I think I will enjoy my time here immensely writing and sketching projects out.
