Fun At Mood Fabrics

What's more fun than getting together with fellow sewers?  Getting together with fellow sewers to participate in a focus group, the subject being how to revamp Mood's website to be 'the' destination website for sewers.  There were some old friends there, Carolyn from Diary of a Sewing Fanatic , Elizabeth from SEWN and a couple of people I had met on PR shopping days.  There were also people whose work involved them in social media for their jobs.  Meg formerly of Lindsay T Sews was the moderator.  Many of you may know that she now works for Mood and she organized the group.  


Readers know that I have bitched loudly about Mood's website.  I love the store but the website is a frustrating experience.  They listened to our gripes and to our ideas on what the perfect website would look like.  Be patient, it's going to take about 6 months to get it up and running.  They aren't just revamping but starting from scratch.  There are some great fabric sites online, but no one has the resources that Mood does.  They want the website to be the destination for online shoppers, just as the store is a don't miss stop for out of town sewers and locals alike.  It was a fun time, unfortunately I couldn't stay to chat  but rushed off to catch my train or I was destined for the milk run if I missed it.  
BTW, the store has been getting revamped as well over the last year or so.  If you shop the garment district you know that most stores don't carry patterns or notions.  In other words you can't buy thread, zippers or buttons to match that fabric you just bought.  Mood has expanded to carry all the buttons, trims, zippers thread and almost any notion you'd need to complete your project.   
Of course I didn't  go in just to attend the focus group. It's about 2 hours door to door for me to get into the garment district.  I buy a lot of stuff online but there are a couple of places I like to visit in person that don't have websites.  I hit SIL to refill my zipper stash.  They have YKK zippers at about half the price of buying them at JoAnn's  You aren't paying for packaging so they can be a lot cheaper.  They have added a higher end metal zipper line in Excel.  Nice quality.  They also strangely, redecorated that aisle to look like a high end boutique in the midst of the bare bones of the rest of the store.  I found a mesh tape invisible zipper which is lighter in weight but they only have it black and white.  This is the place to find separating invisible zippers if you are in the market for one.  I also splurged and bought a gross each of hooks and eyes, in black and silver.  These are the heavy duty ones you put on pants or a skirt.  I have some that are no sew but I have a love hate relationship with them and would rather just use sew on hooks.  Of course I bought a few pieces of fabric.  I hit Metro Textiles which is not usually one of my regular places, but I was looking for inexpensive summer fabrics and I found two. Kashi of course would have liked me to buy more, but two was enough. On the right is a bottom weight cotton teal and black snakeskin for pants. You know how much I love an animal print!  It's pretty subtle though, which I like.  The white is a linen and rayon blend.  The black and white knit is from Elliot Berman is for a summer dress.  

Keeping these lovelies company are my sale purchases from Michael's half price sale.  The gray silk is much more gorgeous than you can see in a photo; that I'll put away until fall and the royal blue Zegna cotton will be another pair of pants for my blue collection. 

 By the time I got to Mood I was a bit shopped out, but there will always be another day.