Communing With Fabric

Sunday, August 7, 2016

New York City, Part 3: International Pleating and Blogger Meet Ups

Today's post on NYC talks about my visit to International Pleating and other bloggers that I met up with in NYC. My last, and final, post on NYC will cover the fabric and trim stores.

International Pleating
Meeting Other Bloggers

International Pleating

When the folks at International Pleating heard I was coming to New York, they suggested that I stop by for a visit wearing my new pleated skirt. When I asked if I could see pleating in action I was told that, no, that process is a closely guarded secret, but there's still plenty to see in their factory. I told Lisa that I needed a better reason to visit than to show off a skirt that THEY pleated and she replied, "Come to show us your skirt, stay for the company."

How could I resist a quip like that?! Besides, I wanted to ask for clarification about some of their pleating services such as mushroom and Fortuny pleating.

I actually stopped by their factory twice. The first time to meet them and chat about pleating. The second time, two days later, I dropped off a piece of fabric I bought in the garment district to have it pleated.

It was a very informative visit! I met with Lisa, who handles most of their online correspondence, and George, who runs the company. George's father, Leon, was also on deck.

With Lisa in front of one of their pleating machines
Photo credit: George at International Pleating

With George
Photo credit: Lisa at International Pleating

I very much enjoyed talking with Lisa and George! George is very passionate about pleating, so there was much to discuss, and we also had a lot in common, family-history-wise.

George and Leon

Lisa examined the hem on my skirt and pronounced it good. I told her that I had tried very hard to avoid a flared hem and yet it still flared slightly. She said that even hems on the purl merrow machine flare very slightly and she pulled one to show me.

Sunburst pleated skirt finished with a purl merrow hem

I purchased their pleating sample kit

After returning from NY, I wore my chiffon skirt to work where the hem had several unfortunate encounters with the wheels on my desk chair. Parts of the hem are rather torn up and I am now considering sending it back to International Pleating for a purl merrow hem (cost: $15). Lesson learned: don't wear a long chiffon circle skirt to work!

Mushroom and Fortuny Pleating

I have always thought that mushroom pleating and Fortuny pleating were, essentially, the same thing. In fact, neither of these terms have been defined officially and, in many minds, they are equivalent. But, as George put it, it's like having two recipes for Banana Bread—each recipe is different but both result in a similar treat. (I'm paraphrasing here.)

When George talks about mushroom pleating, he's talking about pleats created on a pleating machine. Fortuny pleating is done, at least at his factory, on a table using a proprietary technique. The result of both processes has a similar look and sometimes he combines both techniques. The fabric, the budget, and the desired effect, determine which techniques he uses. You can learn more in George's article, What is the difference between Fortuny pleating and mushroom pleating?

I'm eventually planning to have some mushroom pleating done, but I haven't yet identified the project. They now sell pleated fabrics on their website. You might also check out International Pleating's Etsy shop which offers some pre-pleated fabrics as well as other goodies.

P.S. Mushroom and Fortuny pleating are similar, but not the same, as Broomstick pleating, a popular craft from the 80s. If you aren't familiar with Broomstick pleating, which you can do at home, either google it, or read this excerpt from The Art of Manipulating Fabric.

Meeting Bloggers

A big part of my trip to NYC was meeting up with other bloggers. I've already mentioned meeting up with Carolyn, Robin, and Mary Glenn, but that was the tip of the iceberg! New York City is full of sewing bloggers!

One of my local sewing peeps, Wendy B (who is active on Pattern Review), was visiting New York at the same time. We met up for a quick round of fabric shopping.

Robin joined us for lunch at Indian Project in the garment district

The food at Indian Project was very good but, what they consider "medium" spicy I consider very spicy!
Photo credit: Wendy B

Robin and I playing on her last morning, at B&J Fabrics

Carolyn and I taking a break from shopping in the garment district
Photo credit: Carol of makeitanywear

While Carolyn and I were enjoying cold drinks at Pret a Manger, Carol of makeitanywear saw us in the window. It was nice to meet her!

Carolyn very graciously organized a blogger dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Hells Kitchen. In one fell swoop I caught up with old friends and met some wonderful new people.
top row: Oonaballoona, Aspen, Grace, Claudine
bottom row: Carolyn, Robin, me, and O! Jolly
THANKS so much, Carolyn, for a wonderful evening!
Photo credit: our waiter

It was a hoot watching Aspen and Oonaballoona play with the filters on Snapchat

After our day of museums, Mary Glenn and I stopped into Mood Fabrics where we ran into Peter of Male Pattern Boldness. He was choosing fabric for his next Mood blogger project.
Photo credit: Peter Lappin

Mary Glenn and I at Mood
Photo credit: Peter Lappin

A few more photos from the garment district:

I couldn't resist a pic with the Garment Worker statue—I approve of his technique!
Photo credit: Carolyn

Robin is giving him a hand!

The iconic Button statue

The Fashion Walk of Fame runs along 7th Avenue

Three posts down and one to go. My last post on NYC will cover fabric and trim shopping.

Have a great week!

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Back in Business

Hey gang! I figured out how to make the images work in my blog posts. I write my posts directly in HTML—I don't use blogger's wiki interface. It's a bit gnarly to embed images in this environment, but I can make it work going forward.

If you haven't yet read my last two posts due to broken images, it should be ok now. And if not, I want to hear about it!

Thanks for your patience!

Edited on Sunday morning to add: I've been reading the comments that you've been leaving now that the pics are working again. Can I just say that it warms the cockles of my heart? Sometimes I feel that my blogging might be too much "me me me", and maybe it is, but I really want to share with others. To know that it's appreciated means a lot! Blog readership is down these days, and blog comments are way down these days, with many folks moving to Instagram, so your comments are much appreciated!

Until later!

ARGH

UPDATE: I think I have fixed the problem, at least in my "Fall Buttericks and ACC Craft Fair" post. It will take me quite awhile to fix the "New York, Part 2" post, so I'll do that later. Please let me know if you continue to have problems.

Well, it's like this.

For years, I used Picasa to host my blog pictures. Picasa was decommissioned some months ago, but continued to work.

Between my "NYC, Part 1" and "NYC, Part 2" posts, Picasa was completely turned off. I couldn't use it anymore. I had to switch to Google photos.

Google photos doesn't seem to want you to embed single photos in a browser. They only offer the option of embedding an entire album which of course, won't work for a blog post, at least not the way I write them.

I have now tried two workarounds to this problem. The first workaround only worked reliably on Chrome and Firefox, but many of you use Safari or Internet Explorer, which worked for some, but not for others. (I have no idea why.) For the record, I would never use either of these browsers—they just aren't up-to-date with all the features that a good, reliable, safe, multi-functional browser provides, but I know that they are used by many.

The Butterick pictures work in my last post because Butterick is hosting those pics - I link directly to the pics from their site—I don't upload my own copies to Google photos.

I have now spent hours and hours trying to get the images in my last two posts to work. I just don't have the time to keep pouring into this, so I guess I'll be taking a blogging break until I, or someone else (more likely) figures this out. The New York, Part 2 post was particularly painful to fix, because I have to find each pic in my album and jump through hoops producing a usable link, which I then have to locate in the raw HTML of my blog post, and insert that. I worked on this from 6pm to 3:30am last night, trying to get both of my last two posts working for you.

And I failed. I have SO much more to post about my New York trip, including info on the fabric and trim shopping, but it will have to wait.

I have much to do in the real world, so I guess I'll be taking a little blogging break. I'm sorry for this annoyance! It's completely frustrating and demotivating.

Fall Buttericks 2016 and ACC Craft Fair

We bring you a break in the New York reportage for a review of the Fall Buttericks, and info on one of my favorite San Francisco events—the ACC Craft Fair.

Early Fall Buttericks 2016
ACC Craft Fair 2016

Early Fall Buttericks 2016

The Fall Buttericks were released 3 days ago. I wrote a summary of my favorite patterns on Pattern Review, but I thought I'd publish a tweaked version here.

Wow, this is one of my favorite Butterick releases in awhile! There are several I will buy. Just like the recent Fall Vogue release, this release feels quite wearable.

I particularly like this dress, B6388, with the unusual seaming and the wonderful neckline. Check out how the side seams wrap to the front and the pocket is inserted there. LOVE

I like that this duster, B6368, provides some neck coverage -- it doesn't just sit at the base of the neck.

I also like the classic lines of this coat, B6385:

I like view D of this top, B6377. (View C and D are less chopped up, and D has a cowl neck.) It's fitted through the bust, which is more flattering than many of this style. The single diagonal seam and the pointed asymmetric hem lengthen the body and create a slimming line.

I like the scrunchy neck on B6384 and the fringe is fun. (I'd wear it closed.) Another plus is that the back features princess seams.

They call B6376 a button down shirt, but it's a button FRONT shirt. (A button down shirt has buttons on the collar points.) In any case, it's a lot of fun and I would get a lot of wear out of it.

Katherine Tilton has a new vest, B6381. It looks quite wearable and great for layering!

I thought of Margy when I saw the turtleneck from this "Lifestyle Wardrobe" pattern, B6389. Margy has been looking for a turtleneck pattern that won't result in a droopy neckline. This, of course, is partly due to fabric choice, but this turtleneck calls for a zipper, making me think that it's drafted quite close to the neck. The zipper would also stiffen the neckline, helping it stay up better. I would not sew this in a stretchy, lightweight jersey, but it might work well in a more stable, beefier, knit, like a doubleknit. (It would be difficult to prevent a zipper in a rayon knit from buckling and wobbling).

I recently drafted my own denim jacket and, after having studied the available patterns, I can say that we need better denim jacket patterns. The Gertie pattern, B6390, is close-fitted, which is a nice change from other patterns. I also noticed that the back of the jacket has similar (not the same, but similar) lines to the jacket I recently drafted.

Yes, a very wearable offering! There are a couple other patterns that I'd use, with some modifications.

You might also check out my review of the early Fall Vogue Patterns for 2016.

ACC Craft Fair 2016

One of my favorite days of the year is the ACC Craft Fair!

If you live in the San Francisco area, you should check it out. If not, maybe one of the other ACC Craft Fair locations is convenient for you: Baltimore (the largest), Atlanta, and St Paul. Check out their website for dates and times.

I made a quick visit this year, as my time was limited, but I still managed to immerse myself and revel in the wonderful creativity of these artists. It's exhilarating to check out the wares, and talk to the artists, exhibitors, and other attendees.

The ACC Craft Fair is held at Fort Mason in San Francisco

The last time I visited Seattle, I stopped into the gift shop for the Seattle Art Museum and I saw several fanciful wool hats. I took note of the artist's name—I've had her website open in my browser ever since. Imagine my surprise to see her, in person, this year at the ACC Craft Fair!

Lauri Chambers of Acme Hats (note that her website is currently down), makes wonderful, creative, whimsical felt hats and she brought a carload of them to the fair. Her booth was continually crowded, with some people trying them on and spectators observing the scene. Observers enjoyed the scene as much as the shoppers.

I had lots of fun trying on hats. I took pics of only a few, but you can see how wonderfully whimsical they are.

Myrna modeling one of the hats she bought

Later, I ran into Myrna again, as well as Veronica and Linda, wearing their new hats. Strangers started asking if they could take photos of our little group. I hadn't yet bought one, so I'm wearing 'the hat that brung me'.

Myrna, Veronica, me
Photo credit: I have no idea. A nice gentleman who asked to take our picture.

Veronica, Linda, me, Myrna
Photo credit: A different gentleman who asked to take our picture.

I was delighted to see Ping Wu once again! I purchased my "brain coral" poncho from her last year. Ping Wu, a contestant on Project Runway some years ago, is incredibly creative and primarily works with knitwear.