In case you don’t already know Kyle of Vacuuming the lawn, she’s a sewing blogger who sews a lot and is know by lots of sewers and fabric store owners.

Our Mood purchases – pic taken by Meg

Kyle has her finger on the sewing pulse. That’s how I noticed her blog many moons ago. That and her great passion for sewing, flowers and food. Chicken pot pies and mac n cheese.

Swatch wasn’t at Mood when we visited. Neither was Tim Gunn. We visited 7 stores in 1 day.

I’m still reeling from our NY shopping day. Where do I start?

Was because when we met up we just had a ball?

Was it because the Mac n cheese at lunch was so good – just like Kyle had mentioned on her blog?

Kyle is the most organised sewing shopper on the planet. I’m biased.
We were high fiveing throughout our sewing shopping day.
Kyle is great at tweeting too. Kyle wore her McCalls 6078 cowl top and J Sterns design jeans. Following her sewing experiences on her blog has been a joy to support.

Kyle with her Tim Tams and the bag she made for PR weekend.

Here is Kyle’s write up about our shopping day in New York. I’m so glad we went to Kashi first at Metro Textiles. 

Standing with Kyle, Kashi and Barbara – pic taken by Kashi’s great assistant

At his store we met Barbara, another PRer. Kashi was really warm and accommodating. He does know his fabric.

While the three of us sewers were chatting all things sewing, Kashi was showing me of silk prints so I could see them, tell him how many yards I wanted and still keep chatting with Kyle and Barbara. We had a lot to chat about. 

Thanks for taking these pics Kashi. We were kacking ourselves (ie. having a ball).



A bit of everything from Kashi.

Mood purchases.

Fabric and notions from City Quilter. Can you spy the NY lamninated print here?

I took this pic to get my bearings during the week.

This is Kyle’s favourite row at Pacific Trimming. This store is 3 stores wide!! The staff are very helpful and will let you know if they don’t have any notions you are looking for.

During my week I found True Mart on West 26th St and 7th Ave.

Searching for fabric around Rockafeller Centre…veering off course

I bought navy woollen fabric. The roll on the shop floor didn’t have enough length for a coat so I was given this end roll at a discount and then bought the full length I needed from a roll they had stored downstairs. 

About NY:
A week in NY isn’t enough even when staying in the garment district. Sightseeing time is at a premium. DH and I did cover 3 boroughs in one day on the subway. My DB and SIL were also in NY at the time. That turned out to be our family day out.

Carlo’s bakery was fun (1 hour wait) but the pizza place next door was amazing. The Puerto Rico parade on the Sunday was huge and its crowd on 5th Ave was truly impressive.

The wharf to Ellis Island re opens on 4th July.

DH and I spent an afternoon circling NY by ferry and we also did a hop on hop off bus tour and we saw a Broadway show.

Grand St in Chinatown had some fabric places too.



We got to the top of the Rock on a cloudy day after visiting Ground Zero.

Kyle’s bag is now my Fashionary bag.

Thankfully Friday was Kyle in the city day shopping for fabric and notions. Lots of notions.

Here’s the mac n cheese I made on our first day home. Spicy ham and mushroom mac.

Total NY fabric weight tally  – 15 pounds. And I wore me-made clothes everyday.
It’s all about the fabric.