The sewingest fabric and another Arielle update

Ok, my travel is coming to an end with a wedding in Evanston (coincidentally the same Chicago suburb where the Vogue flagship store is located. Hmmmmm. Is there anything wrong with going to a fabric store dressed in wedding guest attire?) And as of tomorrow I should be reunited with my sweetheart at home whom I have missed terribly after a weeklong separation. Oh, I hope my darling Husqvarna has been true while I’ve been away!

First up, a quick update on Arielle: the wonderful Cidell of Miss Celie’s Pants has volunteered to collect and consolidate all packages for Arielle.  She will send them to Arielle’s courier service so that Arielle doesn’t have to pay to receive dozens of individual packages. Thank you, Cidell! (I apologize for not offering to take care of this myself- for those of you who have not already figured it out, the Selfish Seamstress does not live in the US, so it would be expensive for most of you to ship to her, and expensive for her to ship out!) Also, if you haven’t already, do stop by Cidell’s blog and wish her a happy birthday.

At this point, I believe that everything on Arielle’s wishlist has been promised. If there is anything additional you would like to offer, you can email her at lakaribane[at]gmail[dot]com to ask what she needs. I believe she has near-daily access to email at this point.

And now, for those of you who have been worried that your selfish needs have been ignored by my blog for the past few days, don’t you worry. I found something that you might want. As you know, I’ve been on a little bit of a print kick lately, and I was scoping out some Alexander Henry lately when I stumbled upon this fabric called “Perfect Pattern“, the ultimate fabric for the sewing-obsessed:

Oooh, see?  It’s fabric printed with pattern pieces! Is that not the sewingest fabric ever!  And it’s somehow much cuter and edgier than fabric printed with, say, buttons or spools of thread. I can’t see wearing this fabric (perhaps some of you could swing it as a novelty skirt though) but if I had a sewing room, I’d be snatching up  yards of it (the third one is my favorite) for curtains, seat cushions, and other decor details. Adorable!

New update on Arielle

Hi everyone:

Thank you again for all of your generous offers to send sewing gifts to Arielle! I’m sorry, but I’m on a business trip so I have not had an opportunity to respond to you all, but will do so soon.  I received an email from Arielle yesterday and she is very, very moved by the outpouring of generosity.  She was thinking, however, that it might be best if all of the items could be consolidated into a single package and sent at once, since she has to pay for all of the packages to get to her from her US courier address. At this time I am waiting to hear back from her about whether there is someone in the US who could handle collecting and consolidating all of the items.  If so, I will email everyone who has promised things and let them know of the updated address. So if you have something for her and haven’t yet sent it, could you please hold off on doing so until I hear back from Arielle?  Thanks so much!

-Elaine

Update on Arielle wishlist

Oh my goodness, your emails are pouring in so quickly that I can barely keep up – (not to mention that I’m trying to pay attention at a work conference!)  Thank you so much for your incredible generosity- I’m sure Arielle will be back up and sewing in no time thanks to your kindness!

I’m trying to compile a list of all of the promised items, and so far, here is what has been offered in the emails I have received so far (if you received a response email from me, then I’m counting the items you offered in this list):

• Buttons
• Zippers (regular and invisible)
• Dress pins 
• Thread (all requested colors)
• Hooks & eyes
• Snap fasteners
• Steam-a-seam
• Chalk, marking pens
• Tracing paper, tracing wheel
• Hand sewing needles
• 3m tape
• Seam rippers
• Bobbins
• Glad Press ‘n’ Seal
• Ironing board cover
• Rotary blades (both sizes)
• Miscellaneous patterns and fabric

To help you out, this means that the only things left on her wishlist that are not yet covered are:

• Ballpoint pins
• 1/2″ shoulder pads

For those of you who would still like to send her things and not yet emailed me, it would probably be best to send the sort of things that “one can never have too much of”, e.g. pins, tape, zippers, tracing paper, snaps, rather than the things that one doesn’t need many of which have already been promised (ironing board covers, tracing wheels).  Email me at selfishseamstress[at]gmail[dot]com for her US courier address.

To answer some of your questions, I’m not sure at this point what other items may be helpful to her- she does have sporadic email access so you can try to contact her directly to ask (lakaribane[at]gmail[dot]com).  And I’m not sure if things need to be packaged in any special way as she did not specify, other than to say that you should not send any liquids of any kind.

To those of you who have kindly offered to send money to me to purchase items for her, I apologize, but I’m not too comfortable sending or receiving money. I do appreciate the generosity of your offer- perhaps Arielle would appreciate a warm email from you instead; I’m sure she certainly understands that it is more expensive than it is worth for non-US residents to send a box of pins to a US address and would just appreciate that you are thinking of her. Again, I am very sorry that I can’t be more helpful on that front, but I’m nervous about handling or sending other people’s money.

I haven’t received a pattern wishlist from Arielle, so I’m not sure what kind of patterns she is looking for.  If I receive a list from her, I’ll be sure to post it here.

Thank you all again for your kindness and generosity- it’s truly heartwarming to see this community take care of one of its own.