I didn’t get any photos, but Peter will be doing a recap of the day tomorrow so check out his blog for visuals and entertaining commentary! It was fun to see familiar faces and also meet new ones. There was Wanette of Sown Brooklyn, Clio of Clio & Phineas, Sonja of Ginger Makes, Vicki of Another Sewing Scientist, Suzanne of Beau Baby, and many, many others. I’m hoping to get a hold of the names of other bloggers in attendance!

M6696 leading up to its MPB Day appearance!

I wore my latest creation, the McCall’s 6696 shirt dress. I will be blogging about that one soon! I can already tell it will be a TNT pattern.

After seeing the RetroSpective exhibit at FIT, we all gathered for lunch and a pattern swap (or “a pattern take” as Peter called it). I put in four patterns I just knew I was never going to make, including Colette’s Lady Grey coat. This actually worked out well because I had been eying Colette’s Chantilly dress for a while now and guess what pattern ended up in the pile?! Good times, good times.

A group of people went straight to Mood after lunch while the other half followed Peter to smaller shops on 39th Street. We checked out Chic Fabrics, Fabrics for Less, Paron’s, and AK Fabrics. I bought a red and black Buffalo check cotton flannel at AK (below), which is so super soft! I’ve been on the lookout for winter fabrics and had first contemplated this print a year or so ago, but I wasn’t sure if it would work as a dress. A vote of confidence from Peter convinced me to take this future dress to the check-out counter.

MPB Day goodies – I guess I was in a red and black mood!

Next came Spandex House on 38th Street, and even though I’d been there during what I’m dubbing “Meg the Grand Day” I had no idea there was a HUGE second floor of more and more fabric! I had run off to Sil Thread quickly to pick up a zipper for a planned skirt and when I came back to Spandex House I thought I had lost the group. But then as I went upstairs they all magically appeared from the bolts and bolts of polyester.

Afterward we went to Mood where I picked up a couple of knits to make a couple of Sewaholic Renfrew tops (above). Our group was given a 10% discount and a free Mood tote bag. Victory! There were many great quotes from Male Pattern Boldness Day, but one of my favorites was when Sonja said someone from Mood asked if we were with “the balding men group.” Ha!

The day ended at the Kinokuniya Bookstore and then Bryant Park across the way where we all recounted the day and shared our fabric goodies. During your average day you might get asked, “Did you make that?” but with a group like this you get asked, “Is that the Colette Ceylon dress? I love that you matched the stripes!” Or “I knew you were part of the group because I recognized that fabric!” All in all, a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday in New York. Thanks Peter for the great day and I like your idea for a winter meet-up, though no pressure!

Oh, and we even met Charlotte, the founder/designer of By Hand London, who happened to be in the city this weekend with her beau! I haven’t made any of their patterns yet, but I’ve definitely seen them pop up in the blogosphere. Charlotte wore her Anna dress and seems like a super cool lady.

Reality check.

And I’ll leave you with a little exercise in reality I completed today, courtesy of this paper ledger (am I a dork or what?!). I decided to write down all the fabric I have and their cost as a way of putting it to me plainly how much I’ve spent on fabric I have yet to use. I knew what I was in for but it definitely helps to see it all written down and added up (total = major yikes factor!). As the daughter of an accountant, you can bet your bippy it’ll be thrilling to move the costs to column 4 after finishing up a project.

I’m starting with a couple of pieces from my stash to make an outfit for the Sew Weekly Reunion. Are you joining in for the big September 1st reveal?

Here’s a quick shot of the bodice of my latest work in progress, the Nicola Dress by Victory Patterns. I was originally going to use another fabric for this dress, but since I’m on a tight deadline and the sheer fabric was going to require underlining, I decided to go with this rayon instead. The print is called “Van Gogh” – perfect because the event I’m going to will be in an art gallery!

I made a muslin of the top and it fit well enough for me to say, “Just go for it, kiddo.” I cut a size 2 at the bodice and transitioned up to a size 4 at the waist, which is what I usually do. There are a lot of darts on this baby! Three on each bodice piece and two in the back (so eight total). The rayon wasn’t liking my chalk pen so I thread traced the darts instead. Took some time but they came out nice.

One thing I noticed is that I probably should have done an FBA. I’ve only seen a few other finished versions of Nicola online and I could sense that this neckline might be a bit revealing on me – turns out I was right! I mean, it’s nice for a date or something…but not a work event. :) It all works out though because I happen to have a matching camisole that will pair nicely with this dress.

Learning at Mood
In other news, I attended my very first seminar at Mood: “Sewing with Silk,” which was lead by Sarai of Colette Patterns (you can see a photo of the class on the Colette blog, the Coletterie). Definitely a very interesting class and discussion – I even wore my new purple/blue wrap dress to mark the occasion! The card stock with silk swatches was a really nice souvenir everyone took away from the class. Each swatch comes with handy information on how to work with that type of silk. Yay! Wouldn’t it be neat to have a binder of these for different kinds of fabrics? Especially for those who rely heavily on buying fabrics online…

Colette Spring Party
I also attended the Colette Patterns Spring Party at Brooklyn General! If you wore a Colette design you received 20% off fabric, so my Oolong dress gave me a discount on one yard of this pretty Liberty Tana Lawn. My first Liberty purchase. :-D I was banking on the fact that I could make a simple blouse out of this; when I returned home I successfully fit the Colette Sencha pieces on it – woohoo! A $28 blouse made of some high quality fabric – not too shabby, not too shabby at all, I say.

The party was good fun. It was nice to see Wanette and Shelley as well as other new faces! I also had a chance to chat with Sarai and her husband, Kenn, at the end of the party. Oh, and it was cool enough that evening for me to wear my coat, too. Fun times with the sewing crowd, fun times, indeed. :) The event was also covered over at the Coletterie where you can see me in my dress!

In any case, a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to meet up with Meg the Grand, oonaballoona and Clio & Phineas in the Garment District! Meg announced on her blog that she would be visiting from Chicago so I was excited to finally meet her. I’ve been following her blog for a couple of years now after “meeting” her on the Sew Weekly Sewing Circle, which sadly seems to have slowed down of late. This was also my first time meeting oona (I respect her usage of all lowercase letters as I would for e.e. cummings) after a number of failed attempts, yay! And it was also nice to meet Clio and find a new blog to follow. How cute is this knit hippo?!

We visited a couple of new-to-me stores (I’m so unadventurous), including Spandex House at 263 West 38th Street. Yep, Spandex House! I’ve heard about it through Peter’s blog, but never went in since I had this idea in my head that the store only sold spandex for workout clothes or something. Silly me, t’would seem.

I came away with these three fabrics, though only after our little meetup had ended. Guess I got a little distracted and was just enjoying meeting fellow sewing ladies. :) Seeing Meg suddenly light up and dart around the aisle wheeling her luggage full of fabric behind her to pick up a rainbow-colored zipper was one of the highlights!

The navy/white inkblot knit (that’s what I’m calling it) and the polka-dot knit are both from Spandex House. I’d been on the lookout for polka dots to go with the orange wool I picked up from Mood a number of weeks ago, which means recreating this outfit moved one step closer to reality, folks.

I’m also very excited about the sheer floral fabric I picked up at Fabric for Less at 239 West 39th Street. Definitely love the bold punch of colors. I plan to turn it into the Nicola Dress by Victory Patterns. I love that name! I read in an interview with the designer Kristiann that she chose the name because it had an old-timey 1940s sound to it – I thought that myself before even reading the interview. Perfect too because someone commented that my fabric has a 1940s Hawaiian vibe to it, yes! Now I need a flower for my hair. ;) I’m hoping to have it finished for a work event in early May, which means it’s next in line.

Clio had mentioned she was working on the lingerie pattern above during our meetup and when I read her blog post about it I really loved the options provided. I went searching for it and found that the McCall’s website was having one of their mega sales.

I like the ease of sewing knits so I bought the pattern in the middle to help add to my knit pattern stash. The drape at the skirt can be easily removed from the pattern for a different look (it’s a separate pattern piece, so easy peasy for variations). Methinks the inkblot fabric above would pair nicely with this pattern!

The shirtdress is also cute and comes with a slip. I definitely have a thing for fitted bodices and full skirts, don’t I? It’s nice to have some waist definition, otherwise I feel like a rectangle. ;) One version of this pattern is recommended for sheer fabrics – will it look like you’re just wearing a slip underneath?? I think it should be fine, but you just never know…

So, anyway, it was great fun meeting up with these three ladies! I feel like there was a domino effect: Meg announced a meetup during which oona led us to fabric stores resulting in Clio’s blog convincing me to pick up a new pattern. And there you have it – it’s all connected in the great circle of sewing.

Last Saturday, I made it to Gertie’s book launch party held at the Sewing Studio in the Garment District! I’m wearing my Muddy Waters dress (aka the Cambie Dress from Sewaholic Patterns). It was great fun! I absolutely loved Gertie’s 1950s-inspired dress – soooooo pretty. It’s a variation on her sundress pattern that’s included in the book. Basically I’d love to find a reason to make and wear this dress. :)

Here you can see I’m holding my signed copy of Gertie’s New Book for Better Sewing. Let me tell you, there are more than a few of these patterns that I can’t wait to sew. So hard to focus on the sewing pattern at hand when there are so many great ones out there! I would absolutely love to tackle the pencil skirt at some point. Definitely a great office wardrobe staple.

Please pardon the grainy photo!

Gertie was chatting with everyone all night, that must’ve been exhausting! I actually tested two patterns in the book – the Portrait Blouse and the Wiggle Dress – ages ago. Really, I remember thinking I couldn’t share these patterns for a whole year and a half. Yowsa! Alas, they’re still only in muslin stage, but I hope to sew up finished versions. At the end of the evening, Gertie cut up the cake and we all partook in the eating of it. An image of the book cover was the top of the cake. Don’t you just love the crowd of ladies visible in the mirror? I think that’s so cute!

I was thrilled when ladies (and Peter!) came up to me and either recognized me or my dress pattern. There was even talks of a fabric buying meet-up! It was great to meet other sewing enthusiasts in person and chat about each other’s dresses. I have to admit, I’m a bit shy when it comes to approaching people at parties, but I do like to chat with you, I promise! Needless to say, it was wonderful to meet all of you. :)