Sometimes I’ll have a project in mind and will search high and low and not be able to find the right fabric for it. When I was making my Betty Draper dress for the Mad Men party I went to, I literally spent hours perusing eBay and fabric.com and went to the fabric store twice before giving up and picking a different dress to replicate. (I had originally wanted to do this one but ended up going with this one instead.)

Then there are times like this past week when perfect fabrics fall into your lap and beg to be taken home.

A few days ago I went thrifting on a whim looking for spice jars and possibly some DIY-able men’s shirts. There was nothing remotely resembling a spice jar and I was completely distracted by shoes and forgot to look at men’s shirts, but I did stumble across a three yard hunk of gorgeous pink/taupe silky satiny fabric mixed in with the sheets and bedding. Here’s the extra-awesome part: a few months ago I was wandering aimlessly around the fabric store looking for exactly that fabric! Except the only thing remotely similar was 100% silk and about $290384 per yard (not an exact estimate). I ended up leaving with a satin that was too heavy and didn’t drape right and abandoned that project. Did I mention the thrift store charged me exactly $1.99 for that three yard piece??

The next day I stopped by the fabric store on the way to school to get some thread and decided it couldn’t hurt to just glance around. My bank account winced and I thought maybe just one tiny chunk of fabric couldn’t hurt. And then I found the same fabric I had found at the thrift store, in exactly the shade of navy I had needed to go with the taupey pink! *happy dance*

While I was at the fabric store, I had also wanted to look around for a navy cotton, something on the thicker side but still with drape. I was about to walk out of there with something not so amazing when the perfect fabric basically jumped out at me. I don’t even know what this fabric would be called so I couldn’t really ask for what I was looking for. I’m still amazed!

Anyway, sometimes it’s nice when the universe balances out the times when you just can’t for the life of you find what you’re looking for.

In other news, I’ve got some more exciting projects lined up this weekend. I bought a yellow floraly fabric a few weeks ago and I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with it but I’m thinking of going with this pattern. I might add some sort of cute collar detail but I haven’t decided.

I have to say though, it’s a little depressing making summer dresses and not being able to wear them immediately. I feel like this yellow print is a little too sunshiney to be able to wear in the snow. I’ll have to experiment.

Literally all of yesterday I was sucked into this project and holy crap it’s been difficult! I’ve had absolutely no training in pattern drafting and I wouldn’t even know where to begin to do it the “right” way. I’ve tried the math thing and somehow my calculations always seem to be off (one time I swear I did all the math right and ended up with a waist line 14″ too wide). I’ve tried using my mannequin but it’s a cheapy one and we have entirely different body types (plus her boobs are oddly pointy –maybe she needs a bra?). I’ve even tried tracing existing garments, which usually works best (except for the time I stupidly used a knit dress to make a pattern for a cotton dress and didn’t account for the lack of stretch -headdesk-). Usually I’m able to cobble together something decent but I couldn’t begin to tell you how I did it.

Anyhoo, the point is I’m 99% done and it 99% fits! I just need to hem it and fray check the buttonholes and it’ll be good to go! Look for it on the blog on Monday ;]

Lastly, can I just say how much in love I am with my new camera? My one piece of advice for camera noobs is to go touch one. No joke. If I had actually gone to a store and picked up and played with each of the cameras I was looking into getting, I’m fairly certain I would have gone home with this one in the first place. (Although to be fair, the only reason I could afford this one now is because the d7100 just came out so prices on used d7000 dropped dramatically. But still! Touch all the cameras!)

And yes, I  do feel slightly blasphemous taking crappy picture of a d7000 with an iPhone.

Have a great weekend!