Remnant: Black Friday 2010 at G Street

Not interested in Best Buy or Walmart deals. Not me. There is really nothing that I want or need and I'm not interested in acquiring more stuff, especially since I've just recently purged my life of the majority of my worldly goods.

But I had one store on my radar for my Thanksgiving weekend in DC and not much time to make it happen. Actually, I didn't get to the store until Saturday morning so I was expecting slim pickings.

I chose these off the back wall after a quick perusal:

This is a knit which I think will make a great cardigan or light jacket for spring. I like the floral motif.

The large dotted will be a simple layering shell. I only bought a small amount of the black with tiny dots - thinking that it might make a good accent for something. I bought too much of the white, but thought it might make good muslin for knits, besides, white is always classic and I like the texture.

After that, I made my way to the lining and this is when my shopping trip turned into a private sewing lesson.

Lucia's first lesson was a suggestion on which interfacing to buy. I chose three colors. I also chose three basic lining colors. Boring but necessary purchases.

Does Bemberg need to be pre-washed for shrinkage? (Bemberg at the top, interfacings below.)

While Lucia cut, she kindly pointed me to a couple of bins, where I found these silk jerseys:

This jersey is a tube shape and very narrow but oh so lovely.

(I'm using the spool of thread for scale reference.)

....and these wools:

Lucia suggested I make a bias cut skirt from this plaid:

Lucia instructed me to cut this single layered, to first cut one piece in a corner and then lay the piece (turned over) and match up the plaids perfectly to cut the second piece. This will give me a perfectly matched plaid. Sounds simple enough. But looking at this plaid, it does not seem to be a perfect bias print. Does it to you?

I think my favorite piece is this houndstooth. I had hopes to find one - and I'm thrilled to have located this piece. Mondo has inspired me to do something a bit special with it - though I'm certainly more tame than he.

I do like textured fabrics - those fabrics which have interesting patterns based on weave alone. Notice the bias in the weave of the gold. It'll surely be interesting using that piece.

Now here is a wool piece Lucia found interesting.

Can you see the interfacing which is already fused to the whole length? Ever seen that before?

Lucia suggested that I find a simple jacket pattern and use it over and over again, with artistic changes. She helped me choose this one with the instructions that I could cut off the lapels. I LIKE the lapels and I like the casual ease of the cut. I think I'll be working on fitting this to perfection!