Abakhan Preston and Hotpatterns

Today I went up to Preston to the Abakhan fabrics shop there. I met up with Jenni (YorkshireLass) and her mum, and having fellow sewers there really enhanced the experience as well.

For those who have never been to Abakhan's as well as having fabric on the roll they also have fabric remnants sold by weight, split up into categories e.g. suiting, shirting, knits, fleece, etc.
Jenni is particularly good at finding things in these wire shelves where the pieces are 20+ deep and all sizes and shapes.

I have come back with 3 suiting weight pieces for trousers, 5 knits for tops (or maybe one as a dress), cotton fabric to make PJs for hubby and a few notions.

Wovens (top picture) L to R
Navy wool and cashmere for trousers
Interesting trouser fabric which has navy threads one way and brown the other making it a RICH grey.
Brown stretch trouser fabric - from the 70% off section :-)

Knits (lower picture) L to R
Soft cotton knit in coral
Greens and black knit
Black and white poly knit (large pattern)
Also bought a remnant piece which had a scrap of olive viscose knit sewn to another of teal blue (not pictured)

When I got home I also found that HP1089, the Classix Nouveaux 3 Graces T-Shirts pattern from HotPatterns has arrived today as well which is very exciting.

Classix Nouveau 3 Graces T-Shirts from Hotpatterns

Today I ordered the Classix Nouveau 3 Graces T-Shirts from Hotpatterns.

As an independent pattern company their patterns are quite expensive especially when the shipping to the UK gets added. But these tees really appealed to me for wearing to work with my classic trouser suits and I have not seen anything similar in Burda magazine etc so I decided to order.

I already have a few different drapey knits in my fabric cupboard which could be used for this pattern and if I think about buying one RTW top it would be about this price or more, so once I've made two tops from this pattern I am starting to save money!!

(Ok so saving money is not why I sew, but these justifications help when I've made a more expensive than usual sewing purchase!)

Trudi has some great clips on Utube showing this top in all different colours - neutrals, a stripe (not sure I like) and also in colours like pink and purple. The suitable fabrics I have are in quite a bright coral pink, leaf green, soft yellow, black, red slinky etc, so a few options :D

I had been poorly this week with something which may or may not have been a mild dose of the swine flu, anyway I am in recovery mode now. I'm staying in so as not to spread the bugs and when I have bursts of energy unpacking stuff into the sewing room.

The fabric cupboard is filling up nicely and some of it is like finding old friends - lovely fabrics I had forgotten about. There's a also a few where I wondered what I was thinking and I think there will be a lot of fabric bags for the church Christmas fair in the future.

Anyway its lovely having the fabric in a cupboard instead of in boxes - as I can see and pat the fabric more easily now.