I first visited SR Harris over Labor Day weekend in 2014, while I was in the area for my bridal shower and bridesmaids outing to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, and whoa that place is huge! I actually found the fabric for my bridesmaids dresses there! Well, my sister Gretchen found it, more accurately. I must do a post on my bridesmaids dresses one of these days.
I also found fabric that was originally meant to be my wedding dress, but it ended up being the mockup material instead. You can read all about it on my wedding dress blog.
I tried very hard on that first trip to constrain myself to just buying fabric for my wedding, but that proved impossible. I could not resist buying a full bolt of white cotton voile - but the price was so good! I don't remember how much it was now, but I do know it was far cheaper than I have ever seen cotton voile for, and it is a beautiful quality.
This was so long ago that I don't remember exactly how many yards were on that bolt, but it was at least twenty. Maybe twenty-five. I haven't done anything with it yet other than wash it and begin to iron it - which I should have just done at once when it was still damp from the washer. But what I have gotten pressed is now wrapped neatly around a bolt. Here I have pictured the halfway-pressed bolt with all of the various trims I also purchased at the same time:
Not pictured is the five yards of narrow blue velvet ribbon that I recently used on my Blue Wool Spencer. I bought the entirety of what was left on the spool of it and of the three other velvet ribbons pictured.
The lace neckline appliqué piece was $5, I think. They had bins and bins of appliqués!
The petersham ribbon was sold by the spool, for next to nothing!
None of these purchases were for a specific project, but my thinking at the time was it can't hurt to have miscellaneous velvet and petersham ribbons on hand, and I'll never not have a use for white cotton voile.
Fast forward to last month, when Brian the Engineer and I were back in Iowa for Christmas with the folks. I managed to talk Brian into another trip to SR Harris, but this time I wanted to check out the new location they had recently opened in Burnsville. He reluctantly agreed, and my mom and I had a lovely hour (not long enough) to browse the wares before going back to the airport. (My parents graciously agreed to mail my fabric to me, along with the Christmas presents that were too large to pack. They all arrived this last week.)
Here is my haul:
More velvet ribbon! I may have a sickness. More cotton voile, but in fun colors and patterns this time! One flannel remnant, two styles of lace, six fancy frogs, a flower appliqué, and a butterfly clip.
It figures I would find these blue frogged appliqués right after I finished trimming my Blue Wool Spencer! :p Oh well. I bought six just in case I decide some day to replace the looped braid design I did on the front. The flowers are one big piece that will probably end up on a hat someday, and the butterfly was just pretty. I'll find a use for it.
I took photos of everything with the sales receipts so I can remember how much of each I purchased and what each one cost.
The narrow velvet ribbon was $.25/yard, and the wider ribbon was $.75/yard! The light blue and the lavender ones I bought all that was left on the spool. The maroon and dark blue ones I had to constrain myself a bit because there was a lot on both of those spools. I got 10 yards of the maroon because I actually have a project in mind for it. I only got five yards of the dark blue because it's not for anything in particular. When I was setting up these photos I realized it was the same as one of the ribbons I had gotten the year before! The flannel was a remnant, and I have no specific plans for it yet, but it was too fun to pass up.
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| All of the voiles! |
I wanted to remember where the fabric came from. Of course, this proved to be unnecessary, since the same information is printed along the selvedge:
Oh well. :p I bought what was left on the bolt. It ended up being 3 5/8 yards. Then I got four yards of the black, ten yards of the plaid (it's going to be an 1860s gown soon!) and five yards of the pale blue. I'm thinking it's going to be a Regency gown. It's rather sheer:
And it has a beautiful sheen in person that is difficult to capture in photos. Here is my best effort:
The lace was $1.00 and $1.49/yard, so I got ten yards of each. The blue frogs were $1 each, and the flower appliqué and the butterfly clip were each $3.
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