Monday 28 May 2012

Mad Men Shocker and some Fabric Pr0n

Spoiler alert!  If you haven't watched episode 11 yet, please close this window now.

OK, so we've all watched it?

WTF? 

And as soon as I saw this scene with Peggy meeting Tom, I thought, "Why is she wearing such a Joan outfit?!?".  Oh wait, yeah.  I see the parallels they are drawing. 


But I have to say, I love this.  If we have another Mad Men challenge over at TSW, I'm doing this one. 

And didn't you all love it when Joan wore her Wave Dress from the previous season?


Anyway, now that I got that off my chest, I wanted to follow-up from yesterday's pattern treasure post with this fabric treasure post.  Gaze upon the haul I'm trying to stuff in my medium-sized suitcase:

De Gama cottons and wax prints. 

 Double sided shwe shwe

 Some scratchy mystery fabric, made with what appears to be linen warp and tinsel weft.  As soon as I saw it, I had to have it.  It reminds me of something from long ago that I can't quite put my finger on.  I know it looks tacky, but I just had an immediate gut reaction to it.

 Mandela border print shwe shwe.  (Funny story:  when the lady was cutting it, she accidentally cut through Mandela's left ear, and then she stopped and cried, "Sorry sir!  Sorry sir!", while rubbing the cut portion!)


 Linen in basic colours for trousers / dresses.


 Shwe shwe panels for making skirts.  You cut along the white dashed lines, align the panels and add whatever binding / closure you want to the waist.  The ladies at the shop measure your waist in centimetres and calculate how many panels you need.


Twill for making trousers. 


 Venda prints.  The one of the right is to make my friend a Venda skirt like my orange one I wear a lot.  Shhhh...it's a surprise.



Cotton voiles.


All this (plus some fabric I got for a friend) added up to about 40 metres and I believe I spent about $100.  The prices in Rand are about equal to what I would pay in Canadian dollars, so with the exchange rate being 8:1, I had a hard time saying no to anything.  For example, at one shop linen was 15R /m(~$1.90) and I would pay between $12-20/metre in Canada.  It's very, very tempting to go overboard.


Thanks to Jill over at The Sew Alongs for leading me to Focus Fabrics, the shop that caused me to hyperventilate slightly.  (Turns out that by some strange six-degrees-of-separation thing, her husband works with someone I work with at UCT, but I'll save that story for another time.)  Right next door was a shop I hadn't visited before either, called something like "Exciting Ladies Fabric Shop" (I would have put an apostrophe in there somewhere, but whatever).  The fabric cutter kept dropping the price whenever I tried to verify the cost per metre.  I really wasn't bargaining, but just trying to calculate the damage!


So I think I've eaten up my travel allowance.  I know you're supposed to use your per diem to pay for food and transport, but C'MON!  Who amongst you wouldn't skim a little off the top for shwe shwe and Venda prints?!

16 comments:

  1. That is a truly amazing haul!!!!!! Happy sewing!

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    1. You should see what I *didn't* buy. I considered each section for a long time before I bought anything, because I knew I could only carry back so much.

      Although I'm still thinking about that blue/purple/orange shwe shwe print that is calling my name....

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  2. Glad you enjoyed Focus Fabrics :) That is quite a haul of fabrics you got there!! I love all the De Gama prints, the Venda, that red/blue double sided swhe swhe...and the Nelson Mandela fabric cutting story made me snort my tea, hahahaha.
    Oh, and tell your lab friend, my husband is Jack, the audio guy, if he remembers him.

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    1. FF was great for basics like twill and linen. I usually go too crazy with the prints at Fabric City, so this was a great stop for staples. There were a few other shops that I saw a bit further south along Main Road that I'm saving for my next visit.

      And sorry, but I have to say: Jack and Jill?! ;) Ugh, you must get that a lot.

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  3. I just watched the episode!!! WOAH...it's going to take me awhile to process!!! Love the fabric!!

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    1. I was a bit taken aback, but now that I've thought about it, you knew Peggy would leave at some point when things got really bad. And for Joan: she did, after all, chose to marry the man who once raped her. At least this way, she has a semi-secure future for herself and her child, independent of a husband.

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  4. That skirt panel is so cool! And such amazing bargains! Lucky you!

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    1. Those skirt panels are usually worn by older "traditional" ladies, not young fashionables, but I'm hoping that it will look sufficiently interesting back in Canada to prevent me from looking like a granny!

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  5. I'm drooling over your fabric purchases!

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    Replies
    1. Me too. Now if I could just get a few weeks off to do some sewing....

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  6. Your shiny mystery fabric is sooooo pretty! I cannot wait to see what you make out of it!

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    1. It's made of something INCREDIBLY itchy, so whatever I make, it's going to have to be fully lined!

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  7. Mad Men made me scream at the screen a few times this week. Your fabric made me coo at it. I guess it all balances out, right?

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    1. I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I'm hoping there is a big payoff for both of them.

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  8. I'm an American living in Cape Town. I don't have a sewing machine, but dream of having one soon. I'm so in love with the Schwe Schwe here- the Mandela one is so special, and you don't always find it! If you ever want more fabric, I could always send you some...

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    1. I had only 1m of the Mandela print that I bought in Gaborone (I bought the last piece in the store), so when I saw it again in Cape Town, I had to get another meter. I wanted to make a skirt and my initial 1m wasn't quite enough to go around me and leave any ease. Very nice offer! I am up to my ears in fabric now, so I think I will have to go on a buying diet for a while.

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