Seams Enjoiable: Back from La-La Land and in a Great Mood

This was a ~~crazy-as-hell~~ very busy work week, including a three-day trip to Los Angeles. LA consisted long days and long nights. However, I was able to eek out a precious hour of fabric shopping. I had a few stores I wanted to hit (when I thought I would have hours to shop), thanks to the Threads Magazine "Sewing Destination LA" article in issue #165. As I looked online to try and find the article, I ran across this update. When I started to think about my schedule, I realized I had to pare down my hit list. By Thursday night, I'd decided that there were only two things I had to do in LA, get the garlic noodles from Crustacean and visit Mood Fabrics.

After a morning of fire drills from the office, I had to figure out the ONE thing I wanted to do most in LA. You are familiar with my addiction, so you already know -- fabric won over food. Oh how I suffered later when I realized I was sitting through an almost four-hour flight and I hadn't eaten anything all day! I was in row 39, so by the time the food cart made it my way, all that was left was a salad, a cheese tray and random junk food. Cheese tray and venerable Chex Mix -- the breakfast and lunch of champions.

Back to Mood. The store was like a breath of fresh air! It was very clean and contemporary. This brings me to my main beef about fabric stores in general. I feel like I'm in a time warp once I'm in the store (especially the independents I've seen). I want shopping for fabric to feel like shopping at Target. Fabric stores just feel old -- poor lighting, bad displays, antiquated purchasing procedures (including a refusal to embrace technology) and dust. Jo-Ann is sort of the exception. One advantage I will give to the chain stores is fabric content and care info on the bolt. I love being able to snap a picture of this and post it to my fabric stash secret board on Pinterest.

Look at how organized everything is! Sorry I don't have more pictures, but I was soooo pressed for time.

I loved that fabrics were grouped by type. All of the cotton and rayon jerseys were grouped together, organized by color. There was an entire wall of what looked like ITY jersey, but I didn't have time to investigate. The wool jerseys were together. There was an aisle for cottons. I saw some nice embroidered options, but sadly they weren't on the shopping list. The selection of shirtings was magnificent; it's where I scooped the sateen below. The last pic above shows the silk jerseys.

I'll admit to user error with my shopping experience. Mood is not to be rushed on a first-time visit. One of the things I really wanted was swatches of all of the Bemberg linings. Well, there is a section for linings, but everything is kind of mixed in. Ordering from the website is definitely the way to go for that.

While my fabric was being cut, I was at another counter signing up for the rewards card. I think that for every $500 spent, you earn a $25 credit. This is where Mood confuses me a bit and makes my marketing eyebrows raise. I couldn't find any info about the rewards card on the website. In the store, I couldn't find the lower prices I saw on the website. Where were the $8 rayon jerseys?? Again, this could be user error since I was rushed. However, I am wondering if the rewards card is in-store only because the prices are higher. Since my trips to LA and NYC are few and far between (like years), I'm not sure how I feel about that. The obvious solution is to just to buy more when I do go :-) But seriously, are the in-store fabrics that different from the web fabrics?

What I loved most is how efficient things were. I was able to drop the bolts off and have the fabric cut while I browsed the rest of the store. I could come back and add more fabric when I found something new. I got a computerized order ticket for the fabric and one for the notions. I took them to the counter and had them rung up together. This may not sound like much to you, but things are very different at one of my Chicago haunts.

Here's the moment of truth -- the haul. I got a cotton sateen and two rayon jerseys. The swatch is a beautiful salmon silk jersey. The tone in the pic is off; the colors are actually cooler. The pink jersey is a little more lightweight than I would have liked, but I fell in love with the color.