I give up!

So I thought March was a great month for shopping since all my sewing projects fell apart.  Not so much.  This has also been a terrible month for shopping.

This first shopping story isn't really a problem, just weird.  Consider it a warm-up for the latest shopping disasters.

Back when I was trying to make a nice evening outfit for DH's banquet, I purchased 10 yards of Bemberg black lining and 2.5 yards of a tan Bemberg.  This is how it arrived.



Huh?  I love that they rolled the black lining.  Awesome, thanks!  But why is the tan lining haphazardly wrapped around like a Tootsie Roll.  This is just weird.  I'm guessing they have men who don't sew working in the orders fulfillment department.  I know it doesn't really matter but if you were fulfilling fabric orders, would you ever treat someone's fabric like that?

So then I ordered several wool jerseys and cotton lawn fabrics on clearance from Denver Fabrics on March 5th.  I still haven't received this package...because they chose to ship by FedEx SmartPost.  I've only received one other FedEx SmartPost package and that was a disaster too.  I ended up having to go pick it up myself.  The way it works is FedEx rapidly delivers your package to the destination city and then the USPS is supposed to take over from there.  You do get a tracking number from FedEx that tells you what is going on when it is in FedEx's hands.  After that you should expect another 2-3 business days before USPS finally delivers it to you.  So the last scan on the Denver Fabrics order is from March 12th and it says the Memphis USPS has it.  I gave it 6 business days before I called the post office to find out where it was.  They claimed they have never received it.  So then I called FedEx.  Their rep says they delivered it as far as Memphis and then sent it to Arkansas, where it has sat in a warehouse for 7 days.  Folks, Memphis is the freakin' NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS for FedEx.  The airport is busiest at night because of FedEx.  You can't find one person in this town that doesn't know someone who works for FedEx.  Yet, they can't manage to deliver to Memphis.  "You'll get it in a week or two."  No apology.  No "how can we make this up to you?"  Just a "take it or leave it."  And that's the answer I got from Denver Fabrics too.  They could care less that I still haven't received my order.  They just lost a customer.  I've spent hundreds of dollars with them in the past but I'm finding lately that I would rather spend a little more and be treated fairly.  Bye, bye, Denver Fabrics!

So next up is my dress form.  I finally caved and bought a dress form.  After much online research and consideration of my budget, I opted for the Uniquely You.  I bought from Atlanta Thread & Supply Company for $159.00 USD and they threw in a free pair of Mundial 8-inch bent trimmers.  The scissors arrived immediately and the dress form came faster than expected.  I was giddy with excitement.  Until I opened the large box to find my dress form isn't complete.  This is what I have:



A foam dress form and the base.  No cover.  No alteration instructions.  This dress form doesn't work without the cover.  A little bummed but still optimistic, I called Uniquely You and left a message.  I called a few days later and left a message.  I called ATS and asked for their assistance.  They promised to re-fax my order to Uniquely You to "pressure" him to fulfill my order.  "He's a one-man operation and doesn't return phone calls."  So why the hell are you doing business with him?!!  I paid you, ATS, and at no point did you indicate that another supplier was filling this order.  You simply said it was shipping from another warehouse.  I've had this big-busted foam contraption in my home for a week now with no cover and no return call from anyone.  I'm glad I put this on my Visa because I have a real bad feeling about this.

And there is the SmartFlix drama, of course.  Apparently they have cancelled my subscription but I have yet to see a refund.

And lastly, not a sewing or shopping-related issue but money to spend nevertheless.  I'm scheduled for a minor surgery on April 8th.  Yesterday I went to the hospital to complete my pre-surgery work-up.  They had the nerve to ask for my deductible and co-insurance...2 weeks before the surgery, even before they drew any blood or anything.  "We haven't done jack for you yet but we want to be paid now."  (I'm paraphrasing, of course.  They didn't actually say that.)  I've spent hundreds of dollars over the last month and don't have much to show for it so no, you won't get my money until you actually provide me with the agreed upon service.

I love to shop.  I mean L-O-V-E to shop.  I love it even more than chocolate, which is saying a lot.  Yesterday was payday and I didn't want to buy anything.  These retailers have killed my shopping spirit!  I guess I don't really need anything (except all the crap I've already paid for).  I guess it's back to sewing now since shopping isn't going well for me.  I did finally watch my Palmer & Pletsch pants-fitting DVDs (fitting and sewing) and they are AWESOME!  I wanted to buy the rest but I'm not shopping...until I get all the other crap I've paid for.   

Breaking up with SmartFlix

I've read some very brief reviews from others regarding this service and they were either happy with it or just thought it was a good idea.  I think it is a fantastic idea but it isn't executed well.

Through SmartFlix you can either specify a few DVDs you want and pay a fee for each rental, or you can pay for a subscription.  I purchased "Sewing University" that promises 3 DVDs a month for $22.95 USD.  Their sewing library is quite impressive, 95 DVDs so far!  So this is where things start to go wrong.

There are a ton of quilting and serging DVDs in Sewing University.  I don't quilt and don't own a serger so I wanted to skip these DVDs.  Supposedly you can just send an email specifying what titles you don't want.  Immediately after making my payment, I sent an email stating I only wanted garment sewing DVDs and I specified Islander Sewing, Palmer & Pletsch, Nancy Zieman, etc.  Several days later I get a response that I must specifically list the titles.  No problem....except this email conversation was so slow that they already shipped out my first 3 DVDs; two of which I didn't want.  Customer service promised to ship 2 more DVDs "immediately."  This promise was made on March 3rd.  They weren't shipped until March 16th.

I finally receive my first shipment of the 2 DVDs I didn't want and 1 DVD I did want.  The Nancy Zieman DVD is broken, physcially cracked.  How does that happen when it is mailed in the same mailer with 2 other DVDs?  I tried to report the broken DVD online using their system and the web page froze 2 times.  I sent an email to customer service reporting the problem.  March 9th I was promised a replacement.  I actually received 2 copies of the broken DVD the next time around...and nothing else.

I posted a quick "what's up?" on my blog and the company's president posts a comment on my blog.  He promised to look into the problem and credit me 2 months.  Fast forward to March 20th.  It basically took 3 weeks to get 2 viewable DVDs for my first month.  (One of the replacement DVDs they sent was also broken.  I checked the packaging; no damage there so what gives?  I don't have these problems with NetFlix.)  I now have 5 DVDs in my possession: 2 copies of the same Nancy Zieman DVD, 2 other DVDs I wanted (one of which is broken) and a miniature-making DVD--huh?  Dolls and miniatures aren't even in the Sewing University subscription.  I finally receive another email from the company's president stating he's been busy dealing with "a ton of website problems" but can now deal with my subscription problems...a week after his first email.

Bottom line:  My husband gets to gloat on this one.  He told me to cancel when they messed up the first shipment but I like to give people chances.  After all, I mess up sometimes too.  Well, DH was right about this one.  I've sent my cancellation and refund request.  This service isn't worth the hassle, which is a real shame because I really wanted to watch so many of those DVDs.

Sale Alert: Denver Fabrics

Denver Fabrics is offering free shipping on orders over $40.  This offer expires on March 29, 2010.  Write "FREE SHIPPING" in the comments box.  They still have a bunch of fabrics on sale until March 22, 2010 too.

Sorry to enable...but fabric shopping is great retail therapy!

Friday Laughs

I'm not even sure how I stumbled on this page of "Clothes you can't wear to work" but it would be selfish of me not to share these with you.
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I swear there are mornings where I wake up feeling like this...



Or feeling like this...



And I just want to wrap myself up in a haute couture Snuggie.



Instead, I get up and go to work armed with brain power...



And a gas mask because my building sometimes has sewer troubles.



I avoid the creepy water cooler guy at all costs.



After work, I go to class.



Thankfully class is online.

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Happy Friday!

Review: Threads Magazine Archive DVD: 1985-2009

I finally bit the bullet and bought this for myself.  AWESOME!!

This DVD is awesome because:

1. It saves space.  1 DVD or 24 years worth of magazines?  Easy decision.
2. Cheaper than a 24-year magazine subscription.  Penny pinchers take note!
3. It's searchable!!  I searched "button" and immediately found 2 great tips for sewing buttons on faster and stronger.
4. Search terms are highlighted.  Much easier to see at a glance if the article is what I needed or if it only mentions my search term once and for a completely unrelated reason.
5. Search titles and/or keywords.  Not a novel concept yet many programs won't let you distinguish between the two.  If I search "buttonhole," I want an article about buttonholes not every article that ever mentioned a buttonhole.
6. You can zoom in and read.  I prefer to read paper and not computer screens but the zoom feature makes it easy to read on the screen.
7. You can save your favorites.  You can't name your favorite article but you can create folders for your favorites to organize them easily.
8. You can print.  If you must, you can easily print the article.
9. It's all relevant.  The fashions may have changed but they still had fitting issues and interfacing questions in the 80's.
10. 80's fashion!!  Those pics are hysterical.
11. You can flip through an issue.  It's just like having the magazine.
12. Knitting and crocheting are included.  I haven't seen much of this in the past few years but earlier issues contain some great articles about knitting and crocheting as well as sewing.

The only downsides I see so far are that you must download this onto your computer (you need 3GB) and I can't take this with me to work.  If you don't have permission to download a program onto your computer, you can't use this DVD.  Once it is downloaded, you are done with the DVD.  I would love to do some light reading on my lunch breaks but Big Brother at work takes away all the fun (no photo-sharing websites, no YouTube, no downloading fun games and no forwarding jokes).  

At $150 USD, this was a good investment for me.  If you like to buy sewing books, you probably spend that much in a year just buying books.  You could save some money and buy this DVD and never be able to read all the articles in a year.  Just my 2 cents.

SmartFlix drama

Have you tried SmartFlix.com?  I purchased the "Sewing University" membership on February 26th and I've had nothing but problems since then.  The way it's supposed to work is you pay a monthly fee of $22.95 USD to receive 3 DVDs that you can keep all month.  They have an extensive list of sewing-related DVDs.  You don't get to pick the DVDs you get each month so you have to send them a list of the DVDs you don't want from the list.  To date, I've received 2 DVDs I didn't want and a broken DVD I did want.  To make up for it, they are sending me 2 copies of the same DVD.  So far I've paid $22.95 USD for basically one DVD rental.  I could've bought that DVD for less!

I think this all could have been prevented if customer service responded within 1-2 days of your request.  I sent one email on February 26th stating I didn't want several of the DVDs on the list and asked how do I cancel those.  I didn't get a full response until March 2nd, after 2 unwanted DVDs shipped.  I was promised replacements, which I still haven't received.  When the unwanted DVDs arrived, a 3rd "wanted" DVD was included and it was broken.  I reported the problem only to find that 2 copies of this broken DVD are on the way to me.  Huh?

I'm not going to bail on them yet because they offer a 60-day money-back guarantee.  So far I'm not impressed though.  Has anyone else had an experience with SmartFlix?  The reviews I found initially were quite promising.  Maybe this just isn't my month for sewing.  Can't get the right DVDs, can't get my fabric on time, can't get my garments to fit,....

I did manage to snag some Palmer & Pletsch goodies at 40-50% off thanks to Victoria's tip (at "Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing").  This may not be the month for sewing but it is definitely the month for shopping.  I've secured tons of great OOP patterns that I've been hunting for!  Anyway...I've wanted these Palmer & Pletsch items for awhile but couldn't bear to pay full price online or in my local Hancock's.  I'm a bargain shopper and it seriously pains me to pay full price for anything.  I called Hancock's and got the scoop on their coupon policy.  They will accept competitor's coupons, like JoAnn's, but only one coupon per item per transaction.  I wanted 2 DVDs and a book so I had to pay for 3 separate purchases.  I can feel some of you rolling your eyes now.  Yes, I am that shopper with the fist full of coupons holding up the line.  In my defense, I will only do separate purchases if there is no line.  I also look for the longest line when I have a fistful of coupons and stand in that one so I don't make a shorter line unnecessarily slow.  I also make sure the person standing behind me knows I have 20+ coupons.  For some silly reason, they stay in line behind me anyway and then impatiently tap a foot on the floor.  Tap away, honey!  You were warned and I won't leave my hard earned money in the store. 

These $20 DVDs were $12.80 each including tax.





This $30 book was $19.30 including tax.  And I didn't have to wait for it to ship to me!!



I've done way more shopping this month but more on that later.

I was right the first time...the sewing gods are cruel

My jacket lining showed up on Friday.  Gee, THANKS!  That's plenty of time to finish my jacket for Saturday.  So I had to go shopping Friday night.  That was awful.  I haven't bought pants in quite some time but I did discover that a size 1 or 2 petite in Lane Bryant bottoms fits me decently.  Since I really needed pants, I headed to Lane Bryant.  What a mess that store was and nothing in my size either.  To make matters worse, I purchased a cheaply made jacket for $89!!  The jacket fit me perfectly.  I didn't bother to check the price tag until I got to the register.  I was so desperate to get out of there, I would've paid anything.  Maybe that was their strategy....  Anyway, $150 later I had a complete outfit for Saturday.  I will be wearing it again this Saturday as I head to yet another of DH's banquets.  Socializing with strangers is exhausting.  I'd say he owes me one but he is paying for my sewing class this summer, Susan Khalje's week-long Couture Sewing!!!  I don't have any real complicated projects to work on so I'm sewing a reproduction gown for a co-worker.  This dress has it all...polonaise, bustle, boning, leg of mutton sleeves, full skirt, lace, a million buttons...you get the idea.  I should get my money's worth out of this class and practice fitting a body other than my own! 

But I digress...this rant started with the sewing gods punishing me for not planning ahead.  Let's backtrack and see where I went wrong.

1. Did not have all materials on hand before beginning project (linings and thread)
2. Did not preshrink all fabrics and notions beforehand (I didn't preshrink ANYTHING!)
3. Sewing with a fabric or pattern that I hated (Vera Wang Lavendar collection brocade--hideous)
4. Didn't give myself enough time to finish the projects (10 days for lined jacket and pants with knit top?!)
5. Didn't stick to my New Year's sewing resolutions:  sew 1+ hours per day, work on Singer sewing techniques every week, etc. ('nuff said)

Did I leave anything out?  Basically, I was doomed to begin with.  It's time to regroup.  I have lots of wardrobe needs and lots of possible projects but very little time.  I also have a new machine, new presser feet and various other gadgets that I'm trying to become comfortable with.  I think the best plan for me is to work on groups of similar projects at the same time, regardless of the wardrobe or outfit.  I plan wardrobes but it is easier to sew a bunch of similar items at once.  With this in mind, I have already ironed pattern pieces for several knit tops, dress pants, and pajamas.  First up, probably the pajamas.  They're easy to make.  I'm already comfortable with elastic waistbands (which I need to post).  I've got the fit worked out...and fabrics preshrunk--there's a shocker!  (Yes, there is fit involved with pajama pants.  I don't like when my bootie pulls the back of the pants down when I sit.)  I think next up will be the knit tops.  I have very little sewing experience with knits so I still don't know which needles are best for which fabrics or how and where to stabilize the knits.  As much as I need pants, they will have to wait.  I'm still having a lot of fit issues with them.  I need to make a bunch of garments really well first before setting myself up for possible failures again.  Failures..bring...me....down.......

Still here...but dying of laughter

I got this email from McCall's about the early summer 2010 preview and I couldn't resist sharing it with you.  The patterns are generally pretty basic.  There are a few that I might like for lazy summer days but generally the preview screamed "crazy" and a little...(looking for a polite way of saying this)..."not appropriate for a lady of good moral character." 

I've been looking for a way to wear my Runts candy bits on my shirt and now I've found it!!
McCall's 6068


For Halloween (I like to plan ahead), I'm going to be Jennifer Lopez circa P. Diddy.
McCall's 6075


Or I could just wear my bedsheets.
McCall's 6079


At any rate, I need to borrow someone's baby so I can dress them up in one of these.  Mind you, I'm not calling these "crazy."  I think they're hysterical!
McCall's 6105


Last, but not least, I will use up some neon paisley fabric I have to make DH a shirt like this.
McCall's 6086


I am concerned that he might enter this shirt into evidence at my competency hearing but I think the law is on my side!

McCall's is claiming that maxi dresses, cowl necks, and bejeweled apparel are in.  Maxi dress?  Depends on the look.  Cowl neck?  Almost always love these.  Bejeweled?  Only if I can use Runts candy.  They're too hard to eat so I might as well wear them.

I am considering upgrading my summer look from boring T-shirts and shorts to some easy summer dresses.  Might as well look cute while I sweat through another extremely humid Memphis summer. 

McCall's 6070


McCall's 6072


McCall's 6074


I do enjoy a nice cowl neck!
McCall's 6078


I'm not really a fan of tunics but this could be cozy lounging around the house.  DH would probably appreciate the upgrade from super baggy T-shirt.
McCall's 6080


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I've been sewing every spare minute I have so I can complete my outfit for Saturday night.  The sewing gods are not being kind or they just have a really sick sense of humor.  My pants lining just arrived yesterday and I still haven't received the lining for the jacket.  The New Look 6920 jacket "muslin" fits great and only needed some minor adjustments.  (I say "muslin" because I don't make muslins for any of my projects anymore.  I am teaching myself some Palmer & Pletsch techniques, like tissue-fitting the pattern pieces and then pin-fitting the fabric sections BEFORE sewing.  See Fit for Real People for some details.)  My first Kwik Sew pattern ever is also an easy fit.  The directions are weird though.  Nonfusible interfacing on the neck facings on a knit top???  I'm fusing some Pro-Sheer Elegance interfacing to the neck facings instead.  I feel the same way about sewing directions like most people feel about speed limits and stop signs....they are merely suggestions. 

The pants are not going well.  I wasted an entire evening pin-fitting McCall's 5710.  Disaster.  I cut the largest size out.  The front fit pretty well after adjusting the crotch depth and length.  The center back was 5 inches from my center back and the waistline was 4 inches lower than my back waistline.  Did they design these for women with absolutley NO hips and NO bootie?!  After messing around for over an hour just adjusting the back, I balled the pattern up and threw it away.  I'm moving on to Vogue 7881.  As I worked on that, I realized that I hadn't preshrunk my fabrics yet.  Great, another evening lost to washing and line drying some fabrics that will still need to be pressed. 

This brings me full circle to my New Year's sewing resolutions.  Sew smarter.  Preshrinking, gathering supplies, reading the pattern directions before cutting the fabric, etc.  I'm a work in progress, I guess.