Fabric Stores in Switzerland

I am back! My 3 week visit to Switzerland was oh-so-wonderful, but it's good to be home! I found several fabric stores in Switzerland, but truthfully, I could not afford to buy much. (Along with the Alps, prices are STEEP in Switzerland! Ha, ha, that's a joke, and you're supposed to laugh.)



This store was in Zurich.... Look at the zipper collection! I was amazed at the selection. Oh, and the fabric was all so luscious....you can imagine how excited I was. See the purple bolt of print fabric in the next picture? I bought one meter of it---will show you pictures later---and I only paid 34 francs per meter, yes, mucho expensivo. Think of it as paying $34 per yard. But in defense of my splurge, I really did HAVE to have some fabric from Switzerland, and it is purple (my new favorite color), and it is a lovely knit with a soft drape, and I LOVE IT! Betcha can't wait to see pictures, huh? (another post on another day....)



Another fabric store I visited was in Luzern, and oh, you should have seen the beautiful knit and corduroy fabrics there. The fabrics were wonderful, but I resisted the temptation to buy any. Oh, at the suggestion of a Sew Chic reader, I visited another fabric shop that was fairly close to my daughter's apartment in Zurich. Apropos had rolls and rolls of fabric, more than any other fabric shop I'd been to. Again, I resisted the urge to buy.... Thank you, Alvertern, for telling me about Apropos. Yes, I had a good time in Zurich!

Alvertern said:
A beautiful Fabrik Store in Zürich
Apropos
Holhlstrasse 201
in Zürich

Ich wünsche eine gute Zeit in Zürich!

(Hilco fabric? at the shop in Luzern)

While I was in Switzerland, I didn't have time to miss sewing. We stayed busy with sightseeing, climbing the Alps, shopping, and visiting museums. Oh, and I spent a lot of time (but never enough!) loving on my sweet granddaughter. It's good to see my daughter and her husband so happy together. This last picture is of my grandbaby and me standing on top of the world (so it seemed!) in the Alps.

Ruth

more Switzerland pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/callmeruth/collections/72157624761912517/

Coming soon...Sew Tina Blog Tour!

Oh, I am so super excited...Sew Chic is going to be part of the debut blog tour for Tina Givens new sewing book Sew Tina! 30 Cute Projects and Adorable Decor Items for Kids. 

The book releases at the beginning of October and we're going to be showing off a couple of projects made from it and hosting a fabulous giveaway as well. I'm really excited and just had to share the fun. Now you have something to look forward to in the next couple of weeks!

yay for sewing!

Jessica

It's County Fair Time!

Last night we had a fun family evening...

Elliot got to ride in a little water barrel train...he loved that!

Marie had to content herself with sitting on a really big tractor...she was just a bit too little to ride in the train by herself.

Justin liked the bunnies...just kidding!  The kids loved the petting farm though!

I was pretty excited...this year I won two best of show ribbons!  One for Marie's Easter dress and the other for my chocolate chip cookies. I've been entering sewn items in our county fairs since I was 16, but it's only in the last couple years that I've started doing some baked good too.  I'm really not a huge baker, but I do have a good chocolate chip cookie recipe.  =)

Have a great week, friends.  Mom is getting back in the middle of next week, so hopefully soon she's do a recap of her Switzerland trip.  I'm excited to have her back again...3 weeks is a long time to go without talking to your mom! 

Jessica

Summer Sewing Wrap-Up

Whew! What a summer it's been...long and hot!  Cooler weather is finally starting to breeze through Oklahoma this week.  Today was the first day we didn't have to run our air conditioner!  

Mom keeps reminding me that I haven't posted pictures of my summer sewing (all 3 projects, haha!). Most of my sewing time this summer was spent getting ready for the craft fair I did last weekend.  That was a blast and now I'm ready to do some fun sewing for the kids and myself, but first I really do want to wrap up with reviews of this summer's projects.

 

First off my was my Easter skirt...that got finished in June!  I actually only wore this once this summer...I don't know...it was just so white, and a bit too full.  I think I'd wear it more if I had a colored top to wear with it.  Oh well...maybe I'll wear it for Easter next year!

The fabric is from fabric.com...a sheer print with little chenille circles that add texture.  Any ideas of something fun to do with the scraps?

Next was sort of a refashion project that Marie and I have both actually gotten a ton of wear out of.  Exibit A (below) is Liberty of London print dress from Target. It was clearanced for $8.00  It's a girl's size 16, and it fit me but was too short to wear as a maxi dress.

I chopped the skirt in half and re-fashioned the top part into a sundress for Marie. The remaining skirt portion became a summer skirt for me!  It's fun to match sometimes!

Marie is such a spunky little girl.  I love her!!

Finally, in July, a special friend of mine got married and I sewed my bridesmaid dress and the dress for another friend who was also in the wedding.  

There were 11 bridemaids total and each girl used the same fabric but had a different pattern and style to her dress.  The variety was really fun and refreshing.  

You've seen the pattern for my dress, McCalls 5804, before HERE and HERE.  I loved how it came out made in formal fabrics.

Here's the closeup detail of the rose flower at the waist.  I used this tutorial for my inspiration.

Hopefully soon I'll have some fun fall sewing to show off.  Tonight after the kids went to bed I got a pj set cut out for Elliot.  I'm excited to use my coverstitch again!

Blessings!

Jessica

I'm in Switzerland!

As promised, I took a picture of my 4 month old granddaughter wearing the Ottobre jacket I made for her. As you can see, the size 68 jacket is big on her. But she'll grow. In the week since I've been here in Zurich she seems to have grown bigger right before my eyes.

I will be here in Switzerland for a total of three weeks, and I'm having a wonderful time with my daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law. Zurich is beautiful! Switzerland is beautiful! We have kept busy every day, sightseeing, picnic-ing, shopping, and visiting castles, old churches, museums.... And of course, I am finding time to hug and kiss on the baby. Oh, she is so adorable, so sweet, so good natured, so absolutely precious! I am savoring every minute with her because I don't know when next I will see her.

Zurich along the Limmat River

If you care to see pictures of my travels in Switzerland, I have them here on Flickr.

Ruth

p.s. I've not yet found a fabric store in Zurich, but my daughter promises me there is one or two that we'll visit.

Ottobre 04/2007 Design#8 "Hooded Velour Jacket"
Size 68 (6 months)
Fabric: velour outer, jersey knit lining

It's time for the Dustbowl again!

Yay, this Saturday is the Dustbowl Arts Market in Norman, Ok.  Last year was so much fun...I'm super excited to be part of this fair again!  If you are in the area, please come see me!

Here's a sneak peak of some of the little hair flower clips I'll have there! Hopefully I'll have some more pictures in the next few days, and then after the fair I have plans to restock my etsy store.  I have been VERY busy sewing this last month and have lots of new stuff!

Blessings, Jessica

Panasonic Iron Review

Sometimes I get e-mails from people wanting to know my opinions on sewing machines and serger brands.  Unfortunately I'm not a lot of help because all I've ever sewn on are Pfaffs, but like most people, I've been through my share of irons!  The expensive Rowenta I started out with didn't make it through the first two years of marriage.  For quite some time now I've been limping along with a little discount store iron a friend gave me when I needed one in a pinch.  I finally decided I needed something with a few more features (like getting hot for starters!).

So for everyone who wants an iron recommendations, I purchased this Panasonic iron two months ago, and LOVE it. It's pretty heavy, gets very hot with lots of steam, and has a fairly large detachable water tank.  It also has a retractable cord with built in storage on the base, and an auto-off.  The temperature dial seems really reliable and I haven't had any issues with it spitting water on any of the lower settings. I wasn't too sure about the detachable water tank, but it is actually so handy!  With a push of a button it comes off and I can fill it up in the sink and snap it right back on.  No more carrying little water containers back and forth, and no more dripping water all over trying to fill the iron up.  I leave my iron set up all the time, so the retractable cord isn't a big deal to me, but if I need to put it up, it'll be nice to not have the cord flopping all over.

The nicest thing about this iron though was that it was completely free with my Swagbucks earnings! You can find out more about Swagbucks HERE if you are interested!

Jessica