Fabric Trip! Britex and Stone Mountain

Tayo’s Fabrics of Fair Oaks sponsored a bus trip to the Bay Area to vist two landmark fabric stores: Britex Fabrics in San Francisco and Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley. We were dropped off in Union Square, close to Britex.
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Britex is a San Francisco landmark-if you are a sewist of any type and you visit the city you have to make time for a stop. They have 4 stories of fabric-more fabric than you can comprehend in one visit. They carry a wide range of garment, home dec and quilting fabrics as well as notions, buttons and trims. They fit a lot of fabric in four stories!
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It was insanely crowded as there was a 30% off sale that day. The line to pay stretched up the steps to the third floor-ugh! I did emerge with some pretty nice goodies-5 pieces in total, 2 which may end up in my, uh, Personal Fabric Museum, but the other 3 I will definitely use.
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Look at this wonderful lace-ever since I fondled the $1600/yd hand beaded lace at Fine Fabrics of Santa Barbara, I have wanted to try my hand at adorning a pretty piece of lace with some hand beading and maybe a sequin or two. I only have a half yard of this which is manageable-I think I’ll make a cami out of it. It’s worth a try and if it doesn’t work out, so be it.

At Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley I found this faded-look linen-perfect for a summer dress for when it’s 110 outside. I actually have a pattern that already fits me so I hope this one is a snap.
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Look at this unusual wool/rayon blend with lace “topping”. I want to make a jacket out of it and use it as a double faced piece, possibly making a princess-seamed jacket, with the side panel on the lace side and the other panels the green side. Fun!

I’m pretty pumped about garment sewing at the moment. When I’m garment sewing, I can’t really think too much about quilts and when I quilt, I can’t think about garments-guess I’m pretty simple minded, giggle. I just had 3 muslins fitted so maybe I can actually get a lot done in the next week or so.