Social Winning and Sew Much Better.

As I mentioned, yesterday I was playing with the idea of signing up for a sewing class. There is no avoiding it now, I’ve put down a deposit, and next week I’ll be there. Now I have to find some supplies before the class (or if I can’t/don’t find them, I can get everything I need at TheWorkroom. But that just seems too easy.) This seems like a great opportunity and excuse to explore the Fashion District (that we live so very close to) and find fabric I could imagine myself sleeping on (we’re going to be sewing a pillow cover!)

Materials List

• 1/2 yard (1/2 metre) of fabric at least 45″ wide (recommended choices: cotton canvas, linen, wool, dupioni silk, denim, ultra suede, and upholstery fabric.) For ethical reasons I’ll be skipping the wool, silk and suede, but everything else is fair game.
• a spool of matching all-purpose thread
• 16″ square pillow form

Other than just picking everything up at The Workroom, I might try to find some smaller stores around the city to visit. Like Sew Sisters, which is a quilting store far far away in north Toronto (Downsview TTC station – oh my!) Or Designer Fabrics (1360 Queen St W) right on Queen West. Being a fabric shopping newbie, I looked for advice and direction from Toronto Bloggers, finding a post about Designer Fabrics on little House blog and I found an inspirational blog from a biomedical engineer with some lovely projects on it: Sewing in Toronto.

In the process I also rediscovered The Sewing Studio, (1225 Yonge Street, Toronto) from which once upon a time at the 2011 Foursquare event on 4/16 I won 5o% off a class, but never followed through with it (and I’ve since lost the voucher). They also offer introductory sewing classes, but they are more time consuming and require more long term commitment ($310 and 2hours a week for 8 weeks) which might be worthwhile if this introductory from The Workroom goes well. Another benefit of taking classes at the Sewing Studio is that while it’s not near my house, it is close to my office.

I’ve learned something about myself, and it’s that if I have to go out of my way to take a class, it reduces the likelihood of actually attending. I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Last night we went to the Yelp Ping Pong event at Spin Galactic.  I went, JC joined me right at the end. We had been talking about it on Sunday night when Jordan was reading Toronto Life, and I thought, ooh ping pong bar. But I never thought I’d go the very next day. Yelp Elite events are always a little strange. I never really know anyone, and don’t spend enough time on the forums to build up any rapport with people, so I tend to drink like a fish and eat my weight in Popchips. This event wasn’t much different. Though, that said, it was still fun. Watching professionally dressed suits playing Ping Pong like they were in the olympics, was totally enjoyable.

There were three drinks being tested that night with Tanqueray Gin, a red, blue, and yellow. The only two that stuck in my head were the Tiny Tim and the Tenacious (blue), blue wins as usual. I also tried Hop City’s Mr. Huff, and while I’m not  a big fan of beer, it was a resounding okay.