Relief may be in sight
The weekend was very busy with sewingness.
I skipped Newcomer's to sew, well, really I explored the new JoAnn's in Fremont. I did not go into the Half Price Books which has moved in next door. Washed fabric. Sewed. Painted the arabic arm bands for moriven's coat. That was really cool.
I was bummed to miss Goldenstag's birthday bash, but had a nice dinner with L&G, Moriven, and Brian & Noah at Flames instead. We'll have to carry the festivities into next weekend.
Sunday started with a nice trip to the farmer's market. I missed some of my favortite stands, but discovered that the egg merchant has really tasty eggs. Moriven and I were very impressed. After brunch, I went back to sewing.
I finished Jade's coat (not given a period pattern, grumble, grumble), except for the buttons. The pattern doen't show where they are supposed to go (grumble, grumble). Falzalot canme over and I cut out ian_hess' new persian coat while she ironed some of my newly-washed fabric. Then, we tried out the serger: no beans. I have to get it serviced. Sigh. She zig-zagged everything instead (how old fashioned!), while I marked the hem and sleeves of Moriven's green and gold coat. Then we alternated me pinning for her and she machine sewing while I hand sewed the hem and sleeves. We both are close to done.
Moriven spoke with Catherine of Wessex, and apparently she thought our silent auction was going to be at June Crown, not Beltane, and she is not planning on attending Beltane. I will have to confirm with her. I think having it at June Crown would be lovely. I have been very stressed out about making the hats I wanted to for this weekend.
A review of the new JoAnn's:
First, it's huge. Like Costco, huge. Easily twice the size of the old one. Second, they finally have enough staff to man the cutting tables, registers, and put away fabric. This is an improvement.
The selection has improved, merely because there is more room for the fabric. They had a little linen before, now they have a little more. As ever, you have to check the fiber content. The price is not worth it if you aren't getting a discount (on sale now for 40% off). The cottons are much the same. There are more decorator fabrics, but not much that's useful. They have a nuce selection of decorator silk shantungs, but at $30/yd, they're too expensive (on sale now for 50% off). The trim selection has grown, but is still marginal at best. The button selection is still nothing to blog about. They now have the full Gutterman's thread display, which is fantastic! There's more of all that crafty stuff, too (shrug). I had hoped for vast new reaches in the cake dec department, but it's still bare bones. They really seem to have put most of the expanded space into fabric.
The service is... different. The people are very helpful, but a change in policy is going to make things harder for them. Apparently they now will not sell any damaged goods, so they have to cut out the bits that are damaged. They do this so that they can send stuff back to get credits for defective merchandise and to ensure they aren't getting defective merchandise regularly. This is admirable and understandable. However, I think the policy is going to come back and bite them in the butt. Fabric is often flawed in small ways that are easy to work around. Seamstresses are a notoriously bargain-hungry lot. Given the opportunity to take a discount on a piece and work around a flaw or spot, most would. JoAnn's policy doen't allow this kind of bargaining, which I find disappointing. Also, this has the potential to make large portions of their stock unusable. For instance, if I'm making pants out of 3 yards of fabric, I can work around several spots at the 1 to 1.5 yard mark. I can't work with less fabric, not will it work for me to have them cut out the damaged bit in the middle, leaving a 1 yard and 2.5 yard piece. If that is all the fabric they have (since they average 8-12 yard bolts, this is likely), then I can't make my project and they lose the sale. Sure, someone eventually will buy the pieces, but they will have disappointed me today. And the "well, we can order it for you" idea just doesn't cut it. When I buy fabric (these days) I have an idea for it and want to start immediately, not at some indefinite time in the future. I am not willing to wait. I would rather buy the damaged goods and cope with the flaw.
Another change that will prove to be a problem is that their registers no longer can open up the cutting slip data, so if customers forget to give their 40% off coupons until they get to the register, the checkers will not be able apply it to fabric or trim. Speaking as a person who doesn't look at her coupon until she opens her wallet to pay, this will be a problem. They used to at least be ABLE to do it, though they'd bellyache about it. Now... no beans. I suspect that they will have a lot of unhappy customers who will abandon sales if they can't get their discount.
I skipped Newcomer's to sew, well, really I explored the new JoAnn's in Fremont. I did not go into the Half Price Books which has moved in next door. Washed fabric. Sewed. Painted the arabic arm bands for moriven's coat. That was really cool.
I was bummed to miss Goldenstag's birthday bash, but had a nice dinner with L&G, Moriven, and Brian & Noah at Flames instead. We'll have to carry the festivities into next weekend.
Sunday started with a nice trip to the farmer's market. I missed some of my favortite stands, but discovered that the egg merchant has really tasty eggs. Moriven and I were very impressed. After brunch, I went back to sewing.
I finished Jade's coat (not given a period pattern, grumble, grumble), except for the buttons. The pattern doen't show where they are supposed to go (grumble, grumble). Falzalot canme over and I cut out ian_hess' new persian coat while she ironed some of my newly-washed fabric. Then, we tried out the serger: no beans. I have to get it serviced. Sigh. She zig-zagged everything instead (how old fashioned!), while I marked the hem and sleeves of Moriven's green and gold coat. Then we alternated me pinning for her and she machine sewing while I hand sewed the hem and sleeves. We both are close to done.
Moriven spoke with Catherine of Wessex, and apparently she thought our silent auction was going to be at June Crown, not Beltane, and she is not planning on attending Beltane. I will have to confirm with her. I think having it at June Crown would be lovely. I have been very stressed out about making the hats I wanted to for this weekend.
A review of the new JoAnn's:
First, it's huge. Like Costco, huge. Easily twice the size of the old one. Second, they finally have enough staff to man the cutting tables, registers, and put away fabric. This is an improvement.
The selection has improved, merely because there is more room for the fabric. They had a little linen before, now they have a little more. As ever, you have to check the fiber content. The price is not worth it if you aren't getting a discount (on sale now for 40% off). The cottons are much the same. There are more decorator fabrics, but not much that's useful. They have a nuce selection of decorator silk shantungs, but at $30/yd, they're too expensive (on sale now for 50% off). The trim selection has grown, but is still marginal at best. The button selection is still nothing to blog about. They now have the full Gutterman's thread display, which is fantastic! There's more of all that crafty stuff, too (shrug). I had hoped for vast new reaches in the cake dec department, but it's still bare bones. They really seem to have put most of the expanded space into fabric.
The service is... different. The people are very helpful, but a change in policy is going to make things harder for them. Apparently they now will not sell any damaged goods, so they have to cut out the bits that are damaged. They do this so that they can send stuff back to get credits for defective merchandise and to ensure they aren't getting defective merchandise regularly. This is admirable and understandable. However, I think the policy is going to come back and bite them in the butt. Fabric is often flawed in small ways that are easy to work around. Seamstresses are a notoriously bargain-hungry lot. Given the opportunity to take a discount on a piece and work around a flaw or spot, most would. JoAnn's policy doen't allow this kind of bargaining, which I find disappointing. Also, this has the potential to make large portions of their stock unusable. For instance, if I'm making pants out of 3 yards of fabric, I can work around several spots at the 1 to 1.5 yard mark. I can't work with less fabric, not will it work for me to have them cut out the damaged bit in the middle, leaving a 1 yard and 2.5 yard piece. If that is all the fabric they have (since they average 8-12 yard bolts, this is likely), then I can't make my project and they lose the sale. Sure, someone eventually will buy the pieces, but they will have disappointed me today. And the "well, we can order it for you" idea just doesn't cut it. When I buy fabric (these days) I have an idea for it and want to start immediately, not at some indefinite time in the future. I am not willing to wait. I would rather buy the damaged goods and cope with the flaw.
Another change that will prove to be a problem is that their registers no longer can open up the cutting slip data, so if customers forget to give their 40% off coupons until they get to the register, the checkers will not be able apply it to fabric or trim. Speaking as a person who doesn't look at her coupon until she opens her wallet to pay, this will be a problem. They used to at least be ABLE to do it, though they'd bellyache about it. Now... no beans. I suspect that they will have a lot of unhappy customers who will abandon sales if they can't get their discount.