Treasures From the Trip

At the Quilting Bee, the large quilt store in Spokane, I bought myself something nice with some of my profits from the craft co-op sale. I have been wanting one of these custom seam ripper/stilettos:

Each end pulls out and flips around to reveal either the seam ripper or stiletto. The tool has a nice weight to it, as well, and I think it will make ripping seams less tedious. I am learning to appreciate a really sharp seam ripper.

I picked up this serger pattern:

This might make a good class. I’ll make one up and see if the quilt store can order the pattern. Most everyone in my classes at the quilt store south of town has an L890 and thus has coverstitch capabilities. My big quibble with some of these patterns is that they say “serger” on them but you have to read the fine print to realize that they require coverstitch settings for some of the stitches. Not all sergers can coverstitch.

This is the blue damask—Joanns labeleled it “Delft” on the bolt—ponte fabric I picked up at the Alderwood Joanns.

Technically, I think it should be labelled a doubleknit, not a jersey knit. I categorize knits based on their structure, as you might expect a former knitting designer to do. This Threads article on identifying knits is very helpful, although I also think—splitting hairs, here—that doubleknit and interlock knits are really the same thing; doubleknits sometimes have a jacquard appearance to them, with different patterns on the two sides of the fabric. The term “doubleknit” carries that unfortunate taint of 1970’s polyester with it, however.

I will check my Sandra Betzina fabric book and see what she has to say.

Moving on . . . DD#2 suggested that I listen to this episode of the Glossy podcast, which is an interview with the Chief Merchandising Office of Macy’s, Nata Dvir. Macy’s has stopped carrying the Charter Club brand—at least in stores—and replaced it with a new women’s apparel house brand called On 34th.

This interview was fascinating. Dvir explained that Macy’s realized that they were underserving the 30-year-old to 50-year-old market (duh) and embarked on a project to find out what those women wanted when shopping for clothing.

[What a novel concept—asking customers what they want. How odd. /<sarcasm>]

They surveyed women, held focus groups, tested products, and finally came up with this new brand. I went to their website yesterday morning and checked it out. I like what I see. I especially liked these pants and ordered a pair, which made DD#2 remark that they got their target customer right:

I am withholding judgment until I see how they fit. The sizing for these pants was bizarre. The sizes ran from 24 to 36, which I understand can be similar to European sizing, but there was no way to correlate that—even by body measurements—with US sizing. I finally broke down and had an online chat with one of their stylists to figure out that a size 12 in US pants corresponded to a size 32 in the sizes listed.

[I am being rather pedantic today, aren’t I? Did you miss me?]

I do like that top, too, although I didn’t order one because I could tell by the specs given that the tops in the On 34th brand will be too short on me. Oh well. I can make one in a similar color.

Macy’s seems to be pulling out of the nosedive it has been in for a few years. Perhaps they should offer a master class to Joann’s corporate staff and suggest the same strategy of listening to customers.

I can’t believe that even has to be a thing. 🤦‍♀️

I am itching to start a quilt but I need to finish the one on the Q20, first. I worked on it yesterday afternoon. I used Warm and White batting—not Warm and Natural as I usually do—and I am finding it very irritating to my eyes. The bleach? I can only work on that quilt in two-hour stretches. I am almost to the halfway point, though. And I need to get my decorative coverstitch class sample made.