The Heat Wave is Starting

I went to Missoula yesterday. The drive down was lovely; it was early enough in the morning that traffic was light. I had the joy of listening to the Whipstitch podcast—Heather, thank you so much for the link to her website and to that podcast!—which made the drive even more pleasant. I was gratified to hear her talk about how much work it is to fit garments properly. Zede and Mallory said something similar on one of their recent podcasts. If these expert sewists have to make multiple muslins for some garments, I’m going to give myself some grace in that department.

I went to Joann Fabrics first. It’s on the south end of Missoula and I like to start there and work my way back. I am not sure what is going on with the Joann Fabrics in Kalispell. All the other stores in the region are open 9 am to 9 pm. Our store is still on pandemic hours and is only open from 11 am to 5 pm. Ostensibly, it’s because of the labor shortage, but part of me wonders if the manager just likes it that way.

I could not believe the selection of garment fabric in the Missoula store. We have maybe one aisle of knits and one aisle of special occasion fabric. The Missoula store has three times that much, and it’s no bigger than our store. We never got the modal sweatshirt knits. The Missoula store has the original stock AND new colors. I might have a chat with the manager next time I’m in our store. She may just not know that people want to sew garments and would buy that fabric in Kalispell if the store stocked it. To look at our store, you’d think that the only things people in Kalispell sewed are fleece blankets.

[Joann Fabrics pushes people to buy on their website, but they have a two-yard minimum on fabric cuts. That’s fine for garment sewing but less fine for quilting and other types of projects. Also, I don’t like to order fabric I haven’t seen in person.]

I scored some rayon ponte from the clearance rack. It was priced at 50% off with another 40% off red tag clearance, and when I got to the cutting table, the woman there knocked it back even further because the edge was dirty. (Someone had set the bolt on the floor.) The ponte is not a color I would wear, but at that price, it will be fine to use for another attempt at the Tessa dress.

[I was scrolling through the posts about the Tessa dress on the Love Notions Facebook group and ran across one from a woman whose body shape looks a lot like mine. She noted that she made a Large with no FBA. It fit her nicely with no pulling, so maybe there is just a lot of extra ease built into that pattern.]

I left Joann Fabrics and headed for The Confident Stitch. I don’t like this store for reasons that have nothing to do with fabric, but I cannot argue with the fact that they have an excellent selection of product. Joann Fabrics has acres of olive green, navy blue, and burnt orange, so it’s nice to walk into a store that carries bright colors that I can wear. I did a fair bit of damage there and came out with a length of Robert Kaufman Trainers French terry in a lovely dark teal, some Birch Fabrics Abyss interlock in a saturated medium blue, and some QT Fabrics double-brushed poly in a geometric cobalt/turquoise blue print. I have not tried any of those fabrics before.

I also picked up some Essex Speckle Yarn Dyed in Cream, which is a 68% cotton/31% linen/1% polyester blend. It’s cream-colored with tiny bright-colored speckles. When I was in Alaska, DD#1 and I had a discussion about cloth napkins. She said they would like some that match but are also unique so that guests can be “assigned” a napkin. DSIL said that his mother does the same thing and I think it’s an eminently sensible idea. I think this fabric will make nice napkins, and I can change the rolled hem edging thread so that each one has a different-colored edging.

I meant to add this book to my pile of purchases while I was there, but I forgot.

I ordered a copy when I got home. The section on full bust adjustments is fabulous.

I did not stop at Vicki’s Quilts Down Under even though she also carries a nice selection of knit fabrics. I bought enough at The Confident Stitch to keep me busy for a while. In fact, I was pretty well done shopping by noon (the heat! the traffic! the tourists!) and decided to head back to Kalispell with a stop at the Amish store in St. Ignatius. The husband wanted some Lebanon bologna to take for lunch and I’ve been having trouble finding it here in town.

We’re at the beginning of a heat wave here. I am planning to cut the grass this morning (hopefully for the last time this summer), then spend the rest of the day inside, sewing. I’ve been getting a couple of zucchini every morning, and the husband has been snacking on the first raspberries. I also cut this lovely cauliflower the other morning:

In my family, cauliflower is most often prepared by browning bread crumbs in butter—do not skimp on the butter!—then pouring that over a bowl of steamed cauliflower florets. I did that with this head of cauliflower and have been eating it ever since. Bugs and worms do not plague my produce. I brushed three earwigs off while I was cleaning this one and that was it. Thank you, snakes.