Fabric Store Review – Tissu in Salt Lake City
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Teresa, the owner has a knack for selecting fabrics. Her shop has fabulous prints and textures in natural fibers – silks, wools, linens, rayon and a couple polys. The mouthwatering choices are rare for this high-desert near high-mountain town. Teresa eschews the ordinary for the beautiful. I know you’ll find a wonderful fabric that’s worth your sewing time. Teresa knows how to sew and how to figure yardage. She carries wonderful buttons and couture notions, such as hair canvas and shoulder pads that aren’t made with poly foam.
I’ve purchased an unusual coat-weight multi-colored raw silk tweed for a Chanel-type jacket, turquoise coin-size polka dots on a cream background in linen and silk for capris, a fine silk with swirling pastel colors for a summer dressy dress, and a Chanel-type blue/pink/red tweed for a super warm jacket. Plus a thick dark red wool melton for a winter coat.
Quality of fabric: 4 stars. Some of the fabrics are 5 star, but many are a bit lower quality.
Service: 5 Star. Teresa has a great eye and can offer suggestions for fitting issues, fabric coordination, and button selection.
Online store: not available. Visit in person.
Price: Not rock bottom prices, but fair and lower than the same fabric would be elsewhere.
Special features: The bridal and evening-wear selection is fabulous. Teresa loves lace and beading so visit if you need a really special dress.
Fabric Store Reviews – Britex in San Francisco
Imagine 4 floors of luscious fabrics right off Union Square between Geary and Maiden Lane in San Francisco. It’s been my favorite store since the 1970′s. The first floor holds internationally-sourced silks and woolens. The ceiling is so high and the stacks of wool are so tall, that the sales personnel climb library-style rolling ladders to reach them. The second floor is cottons and linens and casual fabrics, the third offers an extraordinary selection of buttons and notions, the fourth is totally remnants.
Quality of fabrics: 5 stars. Their selection is high-end, unique and deep. Beware the remnant floor – the prices are lower, but many of the pieces are flawed or soiled, but not all.
Service. 5 stars. Superb. They’ll ship my purchases to my home and the fabric arrivse about the same time I return. The sales staff knows how to sew and how to figure yardage. If you need to match a color or coordinate a fabric, they’ll be happy to send you swatches.
Online store: I haven’t used this as I prefer to talk with a salesperson directly and have them send swatches. The online selection is paltry compared to what’s in the store.
Price: Since you’ll be buying silks, woolens, and linens, expect to pay for quality.
This store is a must-visit. I am totally thrilled every time I walk in the door. In the 70′s, I’d travel to Britex once a year and buy enough fabric to last until my next visit.
Buying Fabric for Sewing
Chanel-type tweed, green and black dot silk poplin, multi-colored silk crepe, coral dotted silk crepe from Mood Fabrics, NYC
Choosing fabric is not so easy. It’s challenging. It’s fun. And it can be exasperating if a fabric store offers so-so, ho-hum, or tedious fabrics.
For me, a fabulous fabric needs to speak to my soul and my creativity. It needs to be a full-body pleaser.
Whether it’s a silk crepe-backed satin, a heavy wool, or a crisp cotton poplin, it needs to give me a pleasing sensuous experience. I need to like how it looks, how it drapes, how it feels, how it smells. Serviceable fabrics that act inelegant aren’t for me. Not any longer. Yes, I may need to hand wash my favorite fabrics, iron them, or send them to the dry cleaner but it’s worth it because of the creativity that great fabrics evoke from my inner being. It’s as if the fabric whispers longingly to my hungry creative self. And when I hear the siren call, out comes my credit card, and I become the owner of a couple to several yards of silk, wool, cotton, or linen.
Being the owner gives me responsibilities. Gives me work assignments. The fabric makes demands. It wants to be sewn. It wants to become a work of beauty, a work of art. It wants to be worn and shown off. It wants to be admired.
I take this responsibility seriously. I dream about how to style and design the perfect garment for the fabric. A dress? Perhaps for an upcoming event or evening out. A blouse or shirt? I wear them often. Pants, slacks? Loose or tight? A skirt? Maybe. A jacket? Oh, I love jackets, and coats, too. Should it have a pointed collar, long sleeves, cuffs or not? Will the fabric be best for winter chills or sultry summer days? Is it a 3-season fabric?
Will the garment have buttons, trims, pockets? Fabrics take their accouterments seriously. The wrong ones will ruin their beauty. My fabrics prefer a “je ne sais quoi” kind of appeal. They want to appear beguiling and effortless.
Each fabric store has a vibe. I like the scattered junky ones in which I can find amazing buys and natural fibers that may have been forgotten or passed over for years. The prim styores that are too orderly scare me away. I know they keep elaborate inventory controls so they turn their stock frequently; from experience I know that the buyer buys only what will sell best and fastest, most likely ignoring the gorgeous fabrics that whisper to the heart and soul of the artist sewer.
Out-of-town fabric stores demand exploration. I visit the best as I travel, usually taking a morning off from sightseeing to tour the fabrics. In my next posts, I’ll tell you about fabric shops in New York City, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Bursa (in Turkey), and my home town of Salt Lake City.
Face Fashion
What’s your face wearing these days? We know to avoid packaged facial care and cosmetics that contain “mystery” ingredients, just as we do with foods. Mystery ingredients have unfamiliar and unpronounceable names, or are preservatives, parabens, food coloring, PEG’s, petrochemicals, and other ingredients that don’t promote healthy radiant skin, but instead have harmful characteristics. If you want to check out a favorite product or ingredient, go to Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and access their amazing databases: http://safecosmetics.org/section.php?id=33 andhttp://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ .
Here’s what I’m loving right now: Eminence Organics, especially Stone Crop Cleanser and Hydrating Mist, and Bright Skin Licorice Root Booster Serum. The cleanser is mild and effective, which I use with my Clarisonic – a must-have and so worth the price. I also love the Coconut Cleanser for removing makeup. The eye-makeup remover is organic, safe and soothing. A bit pricy, but worth it.www.eminenceorganics.com
(A side note about pricing. I used to buy Erno Laszlo and Crème de la Mer, so everything on this list is way inexpensive. The money I save lets me purchase more silk and woolen fabric, and lets us travel abroad more often.)
I discovered Super Salve on 2nd Mesa on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Great for rashes, sunburn, and more. The company also offers Power Repair Vitamin C Solution for collagen repair and brightening. Both at www.supersalve.com and the price is low, the value is high. I’m looking forward to trying their Power Repair Lighten and Brighten when I reorder.
In Sedona, Arizona, I found Body Bliss Desert Dew Facial Serotherapy – a pure face oil that positively glows your skin up a couple notches. I hate lotions – they don’t even appear to be pure and they contain alcohol. This oil works so well, that I tossed all lotions. It’s not greasy, either. Order at 1-800-909-3629 or www.bodybliss.com. They also offer Mountain Arnica body 
and massage oil in Turquoise Sage. I love this scent. (I also make my own face oil with jojoba oil and essential oils of sea buckthorne berry, lavender, clary sage, and sandalwood.) For makeup, I add a couple drops of Dr. Hauschka Translucent Bronze Concentrate to the face oil if I want a bit of coverage for evenings.
and massage oil in Turquoise Sage. I love this scent. (I also make my own face oil with jojoba oil and essential oils of sea buckthorne berry, lavender, clary sage, and sandalwood.) For makeup, I add a couple drops of Dr. Hauschka Translucent Bronze Concentrate to the face oil if I want a bit of coverage for evenings.
Both of these companies were born in the desert. The products are fabulous for sun damage, dark spots, dry, and combination skin.
My go-to “butter” is pure organic shea butter. It’s very thick, and needs to be warmed in your hands before applying to your face and hands or other body parts before bed. It’s widely available online and inexpensive. www.amazon.com
For a petroleum jelly without the petroleum, try Live Clean Non-Petroleum Jelly made with castor oil and beeswax. Use to promote growth of eyelashes and eyebrows. It’s the castor oil that stimulates growth. Use for babies, grandchildren and your husband, too.
Mom’s Stuff is made in Utah by Lee Udall Bennion, an acclaimed artist. She gathers pinion pine pitch and mixes it with natural oils, neem, tea tree, and rosemary oils and concocts a salve that is on a par with Super Salve, but different. I love them both. Athttp://momsstuffsalve.com/wordpress/
A surprise natural hair product is pure Argan oil from a tree nut that grows in Morocco. What’s marketed as Moroccan Hair Oil is full of “mystery” ingredients and perfumes – read the label. Pure Argan oil is inexpensive – especially if you compare it to conditioners and styling products. I spread a 4-5 drops on my palms and swipe through my hair. It holds the style and conditions my hair – reduces frizz and doesn’t make it oily. I can’t use the scented gels and pastes, but the Argan oil is great. Lots of choices at www.amazon.com
As to makeup, I still wear YSL lipstick (expensive, but fabulous non-shy colors), and since my allergy LDA treatments, can once again easily tolerate mascara and eyeshadow. Since I only wear eye makeup when we go out in the evenings, I figure it’s OK. A person just NEEDS some glamour at night. I figure if I wear healthy products on my face day and night, a bit of glamour a couple evenings a week won’t be so harmful.
Please let me know about your pure and organic solutions to skin care. I’m always trying the next and best. Stay warm, Lucy
