Back after my summer break!

Long time no see, my last post is 3 months old and the reason is very simple: I travelled back to Italy and enjoyed spending time with my family. After more than one and a half year I was finally able to go back to Italy to visit my family, and it was great! Something had to give and it was the blog, but I kept posting sporadically on my instagram (today you’ll find a new lingerie post!).

What did I do? Well I had a lovely family holiday with my family (including my grandma 🙂 ) at the seaside, and travelled around Italy. My grandma was a seamstress so when she saw me arriving at the seaside with a sewing machine she was for sure intrigued, and kept an attentive eye opened everytime I took my machine out for a new project. Yes, because even if I didn’t post as much, I sewed. Mainly for others: a shirt for my dad, a linen set for my mom, and a wedding guest outfit for my sister (which is on my instagram if you’re curious), but also for me :), taking advantage of some (some may say too much) fabric shopping.

I browsed local fabric shops and made a couple of purchases, then I discovered a gem thanks to my friend Maddalena. And that’s where I got all the fabrics that I’ll use for my fall/winter collection for 2021. If you visit Bologna, stop by Fashion Market. Ignore all the clothes (I mean..they have nice clothes but I was there for the fabric 😀 ) and go at the bottom of the shop, to the fabric corner. My understanding is that it is an outlet (of the outlet) for brands like Max Mara etc…and the fabric corner has precut deadstock fabric from previous collections. So you won’t find fabric by the meter, but selvage yard. All pieces are sold for €12 independently on the fabric content (which is specified, see labels on the right).

I got wool suiting blend, silk viscose blend, cotton shirting, and cashmere knit blend…And I’m planning to sew them all for the next seasons. As if it wasn’t enough I got some fabric from the local weekly market, also in that case great prices, longer yardage, but unknown content. I basically came back to the US with half a luggage full of new fabric 😀

It was also the first time for me to pack with mainly me-made clothes and of course I wore all my handmade clothes while travelling. Here are some pictures of my makes around Italy 🙂

Montepulciano with my sister – Susan dress Fibermood

The second half of my luggage was, of course, filled up by more sewing related stuff: two new sewing books, Coudre le Stretch and L’Atelier du Jeans, two sewing magazines (Burda Style and Cartamodelli) and a looot of buttons, kindly gifted to me by my grandma. I guess I’m fully ready for several months of sewing without new purchases..says the person who couldn’t resist to the Core Fabric Thanksgiving sale, emmm. How was your summer? Also full of sewing projects?