May Day Long Weekend - Days 2+3

So on Sunday and Monday of the previous long weekend I only made one new thing, but I also finished the convertible/infinity dress (finally!). That took me all day Sunday (making the bias tape was very time-consuming). Here's what the new bottom of the dress looks like:

I'm very pleased with it. It looks so much more finished, which is fantastic.

On to the new piece I made. I didn't take loads of pictures of the process because I misplaced my camera in the middle of it. So all I've got are the before and after pictures of the fabric. I had Google searched for how to turn a sheet into a dress and came up with this little beauty, which I desperately wanted to make. I had this old duvet cover from Ikea:

which is light pink on one side and dark pink on the other. Initially my plan was to make it reversible but I realized my seams were all wrong for that so I ended up using the light pink on the outside since it's a more muted colour. Also, using two pieces of fabric, especially quite thick fabric like this, was not the smartest move for this dress. When it came time to gather the sleeve bits there was just way too much fabric to deal with, so I gathered as much as I could and then made little ties to cinch the ends up. This actually worked out way in my favour because it ended up creating a semi-sweetheart neckline and cute little cap-esque sleeves. Here's how it looks finally:

I'm super happy with it. I'll try to get a better picture, though, of the detailing on the sleeves and the ties but I think you get the picture.

Next up is to try to make one of these satin rosettes (I seem to have forgotten lately that I adore fake flowers) and, also, on Monday (my birthday) I'm going to Ikea to get some fabric to make some more spring dresses. I'm currently in love with the idea of a dress from this print. But of course I'm also looking forward to just looking at their fabrics and feeling like I'm in a real country. Yay! Plus soon I'll be headed to America for a few weeks where I'll insist on sewing with my sister, and I already have two patterns waiting there for me, so, we'll see how that goes. Oh, and I have some fabric from Mood waiting for me there as well to make a crinoline. How exciting!

Sewing Shop Reviews #2 + 3: Place at Belorusskaya and "Season" at Alekseevskaya

This morning I had some work to do at Belorusskaya metro, and then afterwards I decided to hit up this fabric shop called Season I found on yandex, this time searching for "fabric store for clothes" (not gonna make the curtain mistake again). I chose this one because it seemed to have a good selection AND it's on the orange line of the metro, my line. I'd have to pass that station on my way home from Belorusskaya anyway, so I figured, excellent, I'll do that.

I got lost on the way back to the metro after the business I had to do near Belorusskaya and I saw this little shop and figured "what the hell." Let's just say I shouldn't have bothered. It was another curtain shop, with little in the way of service or selection. So I booked it out of there pretty quickly.

Then I went to Season at Alekseevskaya. It was perfect. The women were helpful (after a bit) and I bought some alarmingly inexpensive fabric, a zipper and a button (in case things go awry with the dress I'm planning on making tonight/tomorrow). I checked to see if they had extra long zippers for the pencil case idea and they did not. Oh well, they have tons of fabric, a glorious selection of buttons and ribbons and zippers and even some patterns! I'm in love. Some of the fabric is grotesque but there was not a lighthouse in sight and there were even some prints I liked. And it's so near in my flat (Moscow-relative, of course). Plus there's a giant pet shop across the street from Seasons with tons of rabbit food. I'm very very pleased.

Sewing Shop Review #1 - "Textile Interior" at Medvedkovo

Yesterday on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com I ordered some things I didn't want to bother trying to find in Russia (tailor's chalk, a book called Sewing Green, and a bias tape maker); today, after the frenzied high of online shopping I thought it would be prudent to try and find some places in Moscow where I can buy sewing notions and helpful bits. So I spent quite a bit of time on yandex (kind of like a Russian Google) looking for fabric shops and places with names like "Sewing World" and "The House of Fabrics." None of them were near where I live and I decided my first sojourn should not be halfway across Moscow so I yandexed "fabric stores medvedkovo" (Medvedkovo being the region where I live in Moscow) and came across one "store" in this furniture-showroom type place a couple kilometers from where I live. So I hopped on a bus and went. The plan was to take pictures and document what I saw and found, but right inside the doors of the place is this huge sign with a picture of a camera and the red circle-and-line forbidding business. So all I got was the picture above of the outside of the building, "The House of Furniture."

I went to the little corner on the top floor of the building which had the fabric and it was fairly impressive, even though about thirty too many of the swatches had lighthouse motifs. The women working were the opposite of helpful so I spent a good amount of time browsing and trying to decide which fabrics I'd want to make things out of and I found some I really really liked, not only for their lack of stretchiness but also for their material construction and design. I was fairly certain that the place was only for curtains but I figured I could use the material anyway. So I called over the less-than-helpful woman in charge of it and she started drawing up a quote for me; she was surprised when I said I wanted a square meter of the fabric because this was a curtain shop. Then she told me it would be two weeks until I could collect my fabric, which all seemed very Soviet to me. So I said "no thanks" and as I was walking out I heard her tell her friend that I was a дура, or a fool. I spun around and was like, "hey, lady, we just had an entire conversation about fabric in Russian, don't you think I'd be able to understand the word fool?" I was furious and very happy I hadn't purchased anything.

Based on the other results of my yandex search I think I can find a better fabric store, even if it will be less convenient in terms of location. I don't need that shit. I miss customer service.

Next weekend due to (un)foreseen visa circumstances I'll be in Vilnius, Lithuania, and I'm going to look into sewing shops there. That should be exciting! Anyway, today's project will be to draw up a pattern for a Morsbag and then whip one up. We'll see how that goes.