Adorn Me

Finally made something this week: a lace applique tank from this great and easy tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff (a fantastic blog, LOVE!)  That's also the necklace by Lauren Haupt that I posted about before.  I always make things when I have the least amount of time, like Christmas and Valentine's and Easter, guess I like the pressure, so I've been zipping all over town gathering trimmings and adornments for a work project (and fitting some exploring in at the same time):

The flower market is just bursting with peonies lately, I've been in awe.

And saw this little, pink pouf, not sure what it is, but it was pretty cute.

Then I headed to Beads of Paradise on 17th Street, which I mentioned in my first resources post.

Their selection is really quite varied: so many colors and sizes and materials and all different price ranges, my thanks to the very patient staffer who helped me!  My search also took me to Beads World, Inc. on Broadway between 37th & 38th where they have a huge array you could pore through for hours:

and close by on 6th Ave to Toho Shoji where there were even more beads, beads and more beads!:

I also found CJS (Crafts, Jewelry Supplies) on the 2nd Floor of 16 West 36th Street -- piles and piles of boxes all being unpacked and organized, who knows the treasures that could be all around.  This was on my way to Gettinger Feather.

I learned from Dan Gettinger that they only supply feathers from farm-raised fowl, not from the wild, and we chatted about the different feathers from different kinds of birds, fascinating!

Over at M&J Trimming there are walls and walls of lace, appliques, ribbons, threads, tassels, fringe, braids, rhinestones, sequins, amazing....and a whole room of buttons! 

The saleswoman who helped me was so sweet even though I had no idea what I was doing, and she happily cut me 1/2 a yard each of two styles of black Venice lace.  

Got a little lost on 37th Street on the way to my next stop, but passed Stretch House, Inc. (now I know where to find spandex!) and Kiki Riki (I'd like to make a pastel pink mini skirt!)

But finally I made it to Mood Fabrics, THE go-to-place on Project Runway.

SO inspiring: all of the colors and textures and materials, solids, prints, stripes, shirting, weaves, silks...I had so many questions!  I eyed the fancy lace:   

but ultimately was there for a more sheer fabric and decided on 1/2 a yard of silk chiffon.

I made sure to pet the shop's adorable dog, who I've loved since I saw him in this tutu pic.  I was also looking for fusible to meld my lace applique onto my tank top and the very nice staff directed me to find double-sided fusible at Steinlauf & Stoller, Inc. just 2 blocks uptown:

And they have a fantastic supply of sewing notions, threads, needles, zippers and more.  So, at last I had enough of a haul to head back to the office:

Yep, that's a real ostrich egg with real feathers: different sizes come from different parts of the bird.  And we needed gold and black beads so I had a bunch:

And at home I looked over my findings:

Might not look like too much now, but I have some nice plans for these things.  The tank was adorned in just minutes and I was so happy that I wore it for yet another day of work today.