A Weekend Buying Trip

This past weekend, Joe and I took a run to Atlanta to pick up some shirts for screen printing. Going to the warehouse to pull our shirts was great fun and we walked away with 23 dozen in all sizes. I will be doing adult sizes as well. I will be posting up some of those by next week for sure. The shirt on the left was a cute shirt that I ran across while in a fabric store. I thought the saying was cute and sure rings true for many of us who love to sew.

While in Atlanta we did some scouting around looking for discount fabric warehouses and we learned, Atlanta isn't necessarily the best place to shop for apparel fabrics. If we had been looking for home décor fabric, we would have been in the right place.

We did a quick run down to Covington, GA to check out a fabric warehouse called SOCO. They had rolls and rolls of fabrics by the yard in their warehouse but again, most of it was home décor fabrics. They also sold oriental rugs and close out fabric by the pound.

We did buy 14 lbs. of assorted knits and cottons in the closeout section of the warehouse. I wished there had been more of a variety. If a person was making drapes or recovering furniture, this would be a great place to go. We had a great time and jammed all we needed to do into a day. We had a relaxing dinner and enjoyed the evening.


When we woke Saturday morning, we decided to just head back home.We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Joe sure deserved his Smokehouse breakfast after being my helper on Friday. The biscuts and gravy were really good. Atlanta I am sure is a much more interesting place if you know where to look for things to do. I love unique little shops and out of the way places to check out. You never know what you will find in places like those. I didn't know where to go to find those. They do have some wonderful museums in Atlanta too. If anyone has any interesting places that they think is worth checking out, please write to me and let me know. I know there has to be things tucked into Atlanta besides just malls and namebrand outlet stores.


On our way back Saturday morning, I did stop in this a very adorable fabric store called the Red Hen.








The store is geared toward quilters but is a great shop for all who sew.

The prices were reasonable. Most everything was priced from 5.99 to 7.99 per yard. I did pick up a few yards of some very pretty prints that I will be making into skirts very soon. The store had every possible sewing gadget you can imagine.I had to look at everything. Joe was a very good egg for going along and helping me. One little lady in the store even said as we were walking by, Joe with fabric in his hands helping out, she said, “you’re a good egg there Charlie Brown.” We stopped and chatted with her for a few minutes and discussed other fabric stores around that she thought we might want to check out the next time we are down that way.I really did enjoy the Red Hen. If you get a chance to get to Marietta Georgia, you should stop in and see the shop. It is located on the corner of Cherokee St and North Marietta Parkway.The address is 305 Cherokee St, Marietta, Georgia. Be sure to pop over to Red Hen's website to learn more about all the classes and things they offer.

The store was so wonderfully laid out. I must share the rest of the photos with you.

Their quilting room is much larger than this one photo shows. They have several quilting machines as well as a class room area. It is a dream shop for quilters. If I lived near there, I know I would be spending lots of time there.





They have so many wonderful patterns to choose from. I did pick up a couple that I had been looking for.





The store is 6,000 sq. foot and has over 6,500 bolts of fabric to choose from.





It was a great trip and I can’t wait until next week when I nothing on my adgenda but prewash shirts and screen print some of my new designs. I promised to help out this week with the school fall festival and also will be in the class room at least one day this week. It should be a fun carnival. I have even managed to get my son and his girlfriend to help out. Our class will be doing the hay rides. I am glad of that since, I do have tractor experience.

Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful fall we are having.

Blessings to you all!

Learning Serger Secrets

I am so excited to be experimenting with a few new serger presser feet. They were a birthday gift and I love them. I had been looking at and dreaming of them for months now. I started to experiment with a few this morning. I am looking forward to learning more about all the things that a serger can do.

A few months ago, I picked up a book called Serger Secrets and it showed all the different types of stitches some sergers can do as well as all the different types the different attachments and accessories. Once I ran across the shirring foot, I knew that was one attachment that I would make good use of.

After spending a little time playing around with the shirring foot and a tiny bit of tweaking of the stitch width and length; this is what I came out with. I am in love now. I see lots of gathers in the future.

Now I am off to dig through the Serger Secrets book and try out a few more of the presser feet. Yeah!

Hope everyone is have a wonderful day!

Blessings!

Ooooo... Honey!

I finally had a bit of time this afternoon to play like a kid and make Honey her first set of clothes. I loved how she turned out.

Yesterday, Doodlebug and I made a dress for her new American Girl doll. While in the sewing room she found Honey stuffed in a bin on the sewing cabinet. I thought I had her hid pretty good but I guess not. Doodles pulled Honey out of the bin and fell in love with her. I may be making me another sewing room friend and Honey may be finding her a new pal to spend time with. We will see how long the old Marshmallow can hold out.

I do love how Honey’s outfit turned out. I made it by one of the patterns that comes with the doll kits from Weir. I must admit, the pattern drawings look a bit old fashioned but anyone who has made doll clothing before knows, a basic pattern is a basic pattern. I did like the simple style of the dress. It has the sleeves and bodice all in one piece. Simply stitching the yoke piece in and flipping under or, as I did turning it to face out, adds a neat touch. A choice of bright colored fabrics can make an old fashioned pattern look in style.

I think my favorite accessories of Honey’s are the socks and for sure the Chuck Taylor’s. I found the little sneaks at a craft store. I do have the shoe pattern to make the little Mary Jane’s but I really liked the bit of pizzazz that the striped socks and sneakers add to her look. Her socks are made from a bit of recycled knits.

I am sure I will have to give Honey up to Doodles when she sees her in the new outfit. I am looking forward to making a few more outfits for sure. If I do find that I enjoy making them and playing dress up with dolls again, I may make several and post them in the store for sale. That will be only if our doll trunk gets a bit too full in the near future.

Making the doll and the outfit has been great fun. I do have plans for sure for making two more dolls but that will be my limit for making these types of dolls in the future. They are very sweet, loveable pals for our little ones but a bit too time consuming to make, at least for now.

I do have a doll pattern that will share for free before long that I designed many years ago. It is made using a bit of new fabrics and recycled kids clothes. They are pretty cute kids too. I will post those up here very soon.

Blessings to you all!