Sewing, fabric, & car trouble

Hey everyone!

I guess that it's cutting it close but I've got this post up before midnight on DAY TWO of BEDA. I had planned on writing a post about Anna and the French Kiss because I got a CUTE $5 tote yesterday that said 'Paris' on it and it reminded me of how awesome a book Anna was! Instead I'll tell you about my day.

As I mentioned yesterday, I really love to sew. I inherited a brand new sewing a few years ago after my grandmother passed away. I wasn't exactly sure why I got it because my sewing skills were limited to hemming pants. I started taking sewing classes about 4 years ago (off and on) and have been progressing slowly (mostly due to lack of time to actually sew). My mother has been sewing for years and last year decided that she wanted to learn how to tailor and learn couture techniques. She and I take two classes together (I take only two a week, she takes 5 a week!). Today my mother and I went to a cute little town about an hour north of where we live. They have a great fabric store there that sells fabric for $1 a yard. It ranges from really cheap fabric to fabric that is normally sold for $20 at an average fabric store (they buy everything in BULK and proceeds go to a children's hospital). I brought patterns from home with an idea of what I wanted and we purchased about 25 yards of fabric! I'm excited about my new projects. I have a pattern for 50's Vogue cotton summer dress that I plan to start in a couple of weeks when sewing classes come back after the break. The pattern is a reproduction of ones they actually sold in the 50's! It says it's an 'easy' pattern but it'll be my first Vogue dress so it may take me a while to make it. I've made a few other things from Vogue patterns before and I really like them. I love the retro dresses. We also have some that were originally from the 60's, aka Mad Men era! Overall, my experience at the fabric store was great. Lots of good finds for me and mother.

Well, after the fabric store we stopped off at Subway. Who can resist a $5 foot long?Actually I got a $4 6 inch turkey sub but still a great price and low calories (280 + cheese, in case you were wondering) for fast food. When we got into the car, it wouldn't start! We were too far from home to walk (60 min) and we couldn't find our AAA card. SO, we called my dad. For 4 hours. It turns out that my dad was watching a basketball game stream live on his computer (we don't have cable anymore) with headphones on and didn't hear his cellphone or the land line ringing. We ended up calling people who would know where he was & 411-ing people that weren't in our phones. My phone was quickly running out of power and we were getting really worried that we'd have to go to a hotel for the night.After a few tries, we managed to remember our neighbor's last name & he was able to inform my dad that we were stranded an hour away. In the end I got home around 11PM after my dad came, inspected the car (we couldn't jump it, I don't know why), called the tow truck, and took us home. Total time waiting = 6 hours. It was funny because I was ten times more stressed out at the fabric store (because it was really messy this time & I hate shopping in messy stores) than being stranded, I was mostly annoyed that I didn't bring a book! Moral of the story: Learn your neighbor's last names! Oh, and keep your cell phone near you even if it is March Madness.

So, who is doing BEDA/VEDA? Leave links, I'd love to check out what everyone else is doing this month!

More later,
Genevieve

P.S. Oh! And I also got a really cute skirt today that I plan to wear to BEA in May. But that wasn't bought at the fabric store, of course. I've been looking for things that I can take that will not wrinkle & I can wear to the conference.