The Business and Pleasure of Philly

I really don't want to talk too much about the business conducted in Philly, but because it was the reason I visited the City of Brotherly Love it would be wrong if I didn't at least mention it. Anywho, the main purpose of the trip was to attend an advisory meeting on Friday. And since there was no flight that would get us their before 8:30am, we had to fly in Thursday. Two of other vendor clients are located in Philadelphia, so we met with them on Thursday afternoon. I was able to steal away from the meeting a few minutes before 4:00pm, with the boss lady's permission, of course, to meet Karen. So I hopped in a taxi to meet her at the "Clothes Pen", 15th and Market. Funny name the 'Clothes Pen', right? I thought it was a store. It was actually a clothes pen statue in front of a building.

(BTW- I didn't get a chance to see much of Philly, but I did see the bell and the treasury building. We drove right by them on the way from the airport. I saw a couple of huge bridges, but these one or two day business trip do not allow for time to really enjoy.)

Hailed Karen from the taxi, she jumped in, and off to Fabric Row. Karen and I traveled to the 700 south on 4th Street where we shopped and talked about our favorite hobby, life, family,.., . We were able to stop and shop at four or five shops with less than an hour and half shop time. The merchants closed between 5:00 and 5:30pm weekdays.

This is a picture of the shops we stop in. Oops forgot the name of it. But there are rows and rows of button boxes.




Two of the shops that we visited reminded me of shops in my home town. Kincus Fabrics at 754 South 4th Street is similar to Vogue Fabric on Roosevelt Road, only smaller. Kincus Fabrics has a little bit of everything. Their fabric ranged from high end to very affordable. The sales people were friendly; Edgar (Ed) cut fabric for me and shared a story or two about sewing done by his wife. As Karen blogged a few days ago. Ed was sporting a very well made shirt stitched by his wife. She could go into the shirt making business. Of course I asked if she sewed for others. Ed's response, "Only for family and friends. People really don't appreciate the value of handcrafted garments." Here is a photo of me and Ed, supplied by Karen (I forgot to bring my camera again. I did take a few pictures with my camera phone, though.).






I only purchased two cuts of shirting fabric at $6.98/yard. Fishman's in Chicago has shirting of similar quality, but $3.00 more per yard. Here's Karen surveying the land of fabric.




Like Karen, I'm trying to sew more and buy less fabric. So I tried to shop with a purpose, and not buy so much because it's "pretty". This spring/summer I want to make a few button down shirts.





PA Fabric Outlet at 747 South 4th Street put me in the mind of Textile Discount Warehouse on 21st near Damen Avenue. They had some leather pieces that you can buy by the pound, invisible zippers for 50 cents, and other notions for a discounted price. I grabbed some rayon ribbon, snaps, and hooks and eyes. All of which were of very good quality.




My third cut of fabric was from Maxie's Daughter, Inc. 724 South 4th Street. This picture does not do it justice. May be once it's made into something it will look better.






After shopping, Karen and I got something to eat. Guess what?..., Philly cheese steaks. It was finger lickin' good. We had a good time. Short but sweet.

Friday was all about business. The project team attended an all day session at the University of Penn hosted by our vendor, InfoEd. Here's a photo from the 14th floor of Huntsman Hall on Walnut Street.






At 4:30pm we were off to the airport to take a flight back to Chi-town. Sometimes my job is exhausting, but I do enjoy the work that I do. I like helping people and am grateful to have a job (my bread and butter). The sewing is like strawberry jam, sweet.

Up next, projects finished over the weekend. Mojo is back!

Happy Sewing!