Meeting Velosewer

Velosewer of How good is that? mentioned that she had a 24 hour layover in LAX in June and asked if it would be possible to fit in some fabric shopping. We made plans to meet up, but they went awry.  Fortunately, we still managed to hit SAS Fabrics near the airport and meet up later for dinner with our respective spouses before they crashed with jet lag.

FWIW, I think that fabric shopping is a great way to get over jet lag. It's stimulating enough to keep one awake, and mistakes made due to fatigue can be quickly ditched before you get on the home-bound plane.

SAS does NOT generally allow photography on their premises.  But, we got another shopper to sneak a fabric tourism photo of us anyway.  The manager is looking down, not at us.  (The manager is really, really nice, but she has to enforce the boss' rules.)

Velosewer is wearing her me-made !purple! jeans that I covet so much, and cardi-wrap.  I wore the outfit from Fail to win!  I even bought the fabric from SAS.

I forgot my camera so these photos are courtesy of velosewer, who used the same photos in her post.

One possible reason why SAS does not allow photography is that they are an odd-jobber that sometimes sells high end and designer fabrics at very low prices. Those designers might not be happy to see their old stock photographed in settings that they can't control.

It's all good, because you will find gold interspersed with dross in this jam-packed store.  In the photo below, I'm stroking silk tweed for $10/yard.  If you want to make a silk tweed Chanel-style jacket, select one of the $3/yard silk charmeuses (see how Trena used hers) on the other side of the doorway in a coordinating color.  They also received a shipment of 50/50 Merino wool (ultra-smooth Australian 120s)/polyester blend suitings in subtly textured basic colors like black, navy, tan and gray for $10/yd.

It's June and I've just finished sewing up the pieces I selected when I met up with Rose there in March. Shopping with other sewists is illuminating; they pick stuff I wouldn't have normally have glanced at.  Then I become inspired by how they use it.  This could be really bad for my fabric hoarding tendencies--but the company is so much fun.

BTW, I am always happy to receive Tim Tams and Easiyo Biolife Yogurt packets from Aussie and Kiwi friends.

Update: Internet karma!  An Aussie friend I met through our blogs just asked if she could stay with us next month.  I'm making a wish list of Style Arc patterns and books available in Australia but not (easily) found here.  She's visiting LA, SD and SF if you need a pattern mule.