Road Trip Report

Last weekend, my friend Paula and I took a fabric/fashion road trip, traveling south west to the cities of Charlotte and Asheville, in the state of  North Carolina.

Road Trip route

Stops included several independent fabric stores, a thread outlet, snoop shopping at Neiman Marcus and Bellagio, and a museum exhibit of Chanel garments.  
Friday morning, bright and early, we headed to Charlotte, NC, a 4.5 hour drive south west from Richmond, VA. Our first stop was Charlie Rector’s thread store.

Long Wood Mills

That is Mr. Rector on the bench in front. He warned us he was a little hard of hearing and slow moving But he was definitely a charmer, with lots of stories about the southern textile industry.

Bench Requirements

My aunts and grandmother worked in textiles mills, near St. Pauls, NC, in the 50’s and 60’s. I remember going on a factory tour with my aunt and being awed by the complex and fast moving machinery weaving fabric. Those mills are long gone now.

Aisles and Aisles of Thread

This store stocks massive quantities of serger and embroidery threads at excellent prices. I bought serger thread in colors I can’t find locally, and some heavier thread to use in the serger loopers for edge finishes. I also enjoyed looking at some old machinary in the back room, that winds 6 individual strands of thread into a twisted cord. I want one of these!

Cord Winder

The second stop that day was Mary Jo's cloth store. This little door opens into a 32,000 sq. ft. fabric store in Gastonia, NC.


It had an impressive amount of quilting and home dec. fabric and many beautiful bridal trims and laces, but not much of the high end silk and wool garment fabric I was hoping to find. I bought some solid colored 100% wools for slacks, which were a good value for $10/yard.
That evening, after dinner we headed to the designer department at the nearby Neiman Marcus store and happily touched and examined the garments until the lights dimmed to indicate the store was closing.
The next day started with a 2 hour drive to Asheville, NC. Rain and fog shrouded the mountains during our trip, but the sky cleared when we arrived in town. After a quick lunch in one of the village eateries, we stopped in at Bellagio A store full of art to wear garments and hand crafted jewelry. So may beautiful garments and embellishment ideas. Their web site has wonderful pictures for inspiration.

From there it was a short walk to Waechter's Fine Fabrics.

Waechter's Fabric Store

   I often browse their web site and admired the fabrics. They are gorgeous and very pricey. Definitely above my "have to have" price point. The button selection was awesome, and they carry many of the independent pattern lines. I really enjoyed seeing the sample garments made from their fabrics. All are pictured under the inspiration tab on the web site. After seeing this sample garment of the Decades of Style Matinee Blouse, I had to buy the pattern. When I lifted up the bottom edge of the front to examine the hem, I saw a sticky note on the dress form with this written on it. "yes, you will have to wear leggings" Hee Hee

Decades of Style - Matinee Blouse

As we walked out of the store I picked up a brochure for a Fabric, Fiber, Bead Trail which listed other area shops selling beads, fabric, and yarn. With the help of Paula's GPS we found and visited several of the shops in the brochure. I purchased some vintage fabrics from Kitch Fabrics and we headed back to Charlotte after a long day.

On the last day of our trip we went to the Charlotte Mint Musuem’s exhibit: Chanel - Designs for the Modern Woman. On view through 26 February 2012. The Chanel garments were from the 1980 to 2010 time frame and there was only 18 of them. But those few garments had a wealth of details to examine and marvel over. And they were displayed in a way that we could get very close to them, as long as we did not touch. I took lots of pictures, but I also did some line drawings to help me remember some of the seaming which was so well pressed, it was difficult to see in the photos.

Almost all the garments had princess seams of some sort, most of them originating from the shoulder. I think this is the key to the Chanel silhouette and fit. Several of the jackets had the three piece sleeves which Chanel is known for. And the matching of plaids, seam lines and lace motifs were impeccable.

hand sewn whip stitches affix fine silk tissue ribbon to edge

Silk net lace over wool.  Notice the matching



Chanel printed on every closure -all 7 of them!

Close up of beaded button

The car travel time passed quickly thanks to the two music play lists that Paula's DH created for our trip. Charlotte1 for the trip down and Charlotte2 for the trip back. Each song was a surprise. They triggered memories; "I saw that group in concert when I was 17." Or "Aww, that's so sweet!" moments - a song sung at Paula and Gerry's wedding. Or "I can't remember my PIN, but I remember the name of the one hit wonder group that did this song 30 years ago!"  moment.

The trip was great fun. We saw a lot and bought a little. Now I really want to do some sewing.

Books and Baptisms

No sewing recently, but I did do some sewing related activities. This past weekend we had a family and friends get together. On Sat. the girls attended a quilt show. My SIL is a member of Quilters Unlimited, a very large northern VA quilt guild. Despite her very busy schedule as a middle school music teacher and mother of young children, she still finds time to sew and she always has at least one quilt in the show. I love the colors in her quilts. Always nice and bright. This year she was actually pushing herself to buy dark fabrics in an effort to push her comfort zone. After the show, we drove to the Centerville, VA, G Street fabric store. Neither I nor my shopping buddies bought a single thing at G Street! This was amazing given the size of the store and the selection of fabrics. But there were no bargains or “have to have’s”. I was also very good at the quilt festival. I kept the purchases down to three fat quarters, 2 yards of woven ikat fabric, several trims and handkerchiefs from a vintage booth, and two books. One of the books was 200 Braids to Twist, Knot, Loop, or Weave by Jacqui Carey . I have wanted this book for several years. It shows how to create decorative braids using three techniques; braiding, weaving and twisting. It contains many "to scale" pictures of completed braids, the individual cords, yarn, and bead strings used for each example, and step by step instructions. I bought the book as a source of ideas and instructions for braids that could be used to trim jackets and home decorating items, or used as handles for purses. My decision to buy it was clinched when I watched the Signe Chanel series on YouTube and saw how the Chanel jacket trims were created. Threads are unraveled from the jacket fabric and woven with other fibers to create coordinating trim. While I have no desire to replicate a Chanel jacket, I thought it was a great way to create custom coordinated trims.

On Sunday we attended the baptism of my niece and nephew. (Ages 3 & 5) They both looked very nice in their special occasion attire, but she looked especially adorable in an off white silk dress with hand smocked yoke and sleeve bands. It was made by her maternal grandmother, and was just gorgeous. She is a very girly girl and loves dresses. She danced and spun so her dress flared out around her. She looked like a mini whirling dervish. Whirling Dervish Video Some times I wish I had a girl child. Whenever I say this out loud, my brother’s eyes light up and he eagerly offers to bring her to my house for an extended stay. Perhaps a little too eagerly. But hey, I’ll try anything once.

I am signed up for a fitting class with a Palmer-Pletsch instructor next week. These instructors are trained to use the pattern fitting techniques shown in the books Fit for Real People, Pants for Real People, and Jackets for Real People. Palmer/Pletsch I am really hoping to come away from the class with a bodice sloper that I can use to make some of the patterns in the Japanese pattern magazine Mrs. Stylebook. For the ASG meeting in July, I am doing a presentation on using the patterns in international pattern magazines; Burda, Diana, Knip Mode, Patrones, Modellina, Mrs. Stylebook, etc. There is an excellent article on these magazines at Patternreview.com International Pattern Magazines . I have been using the presentation as an excuse to buy copies of these magazines. You know, for research, so I can show examples, and talk from my own experience. Unfortunately I have seen so many patterns I want to try, that I became overwhelmed and couldn't start any. I hope to get over the indecision hurdle this weekend and start a new project.