Like a kid in a candy store...
Jul. 17th, 2004 02:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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myrtlelarson's birthday is coming up, and soon after that octopedingenue's and clodia_risa's. In keeping with my plan of giving them each a present consisting of something bought and something made, I headed over to JoAnn, the nearest big fabric/craft store. Fabric = crack. (Insert your own crazy old lady joke here.) I quickly found what I needed and immediately started browsing through the fabric, scanning all the cards on top of the shelves for anything interesting, when I saw the words:
ASIAN BROCADE
Now, bear in mind that I had NEVER seen this stuff at JoAnn before. In fact, the only place I had been able to find it, ever, was a small fabric store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. But here it was, the most beautiful type of fabric in the world, something I am so enamored with that I have a nickname for it and recently renamed my lj after it, right there in front of me in like twelve different patterns, and I was so busy thinking OMG ASBESTOS that it was a few seconds before I noticed the word under it:
SALE
And now my subject heading becomes clear.
But that is not all, no, that is definitely not all. After poring over every single pattern and choosing one (I was unsure about the background color, brown, at first, but the pictures of bamboo and kanji won me over, along with the fact that it seemed to be of the highest quality of anything there, and dammit decent asbestos is beautiful no matter what the color), I started thinking about what I could use it for. Clothes were ruled out, as were purses (I currently own at least seven asbestos bags). I finally settled on making a backrest. It was perfect; after two years of direct sunlight and last year's unfortunate vomiting incident, the celestial comforter has been replaced with an asbestos shower curtain. No, really. It's gorgeous. Anyway, the new bedspread clashes terrifyingly with the celestial backrest, so it was a great opportunity.
Next step: finding a backrest pattern. We already had a pattern at home, but I needed to know how much fabric to buy, so I went straight to the patterns. Okay, actually I took a detour into the storage section. So I was looking at all the carts and Rubbermaid tubs and such when I saw, in the most random place possible, a bunch of small packages that read ASIAN BROCADE BAG KIT. After my heart started beating again, I pawed through those for awhile, but eventually decided against buying any. There were two reasons for this: the aforementioned seven asbestos bags already in my possession, and the overall lameness of the kit. The bags appeared to have been completely pre-made except for the side and bottom seams. The straps were even sewn in already. It was pretty sad, so I reminded myself that I needed to look at patterns, and actually made it all the way there without stopping again.
So you know how I said that fabric = crack? Well, sewing patterns = caffeine. Or, uh, something addictive, anyway. The home decorating sections of sewing pattern catalogues are incredibly boring, but one page in the Vogue catalogue caught my eye. It was a picture of a bed with a thick comforter and about eighty million pillows. All done in asbestos.
So what I'm wondering now is, is asbestos suddenly in style? I mean, it's never really been out of style, but are we on the cusp of an asbestos revolution? I don't know how to feel about that--it's the whole "that thing I like is now the thing everyone likes" syndrome. (Does that have a name? It feels like it should.) On the one hand, it sucks, because now my obsession could fade into the background of an inevitably asbestos-saturated market, and I kinda enjoyed having it as a signature interest. On the other hand, it means wider availability of asbestos (and hey, I'm already feeling that effect), plus the perk of being somebody who had known all along of its awesomeness. And anyone who disputes it can take a look at the seven purses, two CD wallets, sachet, eyeglass case, and checkbook cover that I've accumulated over the last several years.
Really, though, it surprises me that asbestos hasn't always been readily available, even wildly popular. I'm always getting compliments on my purses. At the beginning of the summer, I was using a purse that actually wasn't asbestos, and one of my (guy!) friends asked me to bring back the asbestos bag. When I did, he said it was a sight for sore eyes. This morning, the woman at the cutting table and the cashier both commented on how beautiful the fabric I was buying was. The cutting table woman told me that they had only been carrying it for maybe six months. Dude, only six months? How is it possible that asbestos has only now even grabbed the attention of the fashion industry? Hm. I guess I'm just biased.
I should go to bed now, I guess. Anybody still out there reading this? Seriously, if you've gotten this far, I really appreciate you and your tolerance for my ramblings. Heh. Well, good night!
myrtlelarson's birthday is coming up, and soon after that octopedingenue's and clodia_risa's. In keeping with my plan of giving them each a present consisting of something bought and something made, I headed over to JoAnn, the nearest big fabric/craft store. Fabric = crack. (Insert your own crazy old lady joke here.) I quickly found what I needed and immediately started browsing through the fabric, scanning all the cards on top of the shelves for anything interesting, when I saw the words:ASIAN BROCADE
Now, bear in mind that I had NEVER seen this stuff at JoAnn before. In fact, the only place I had been able to find it, ever, was a small fabric store on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. But here it was, the most beautiful type of fabric in the world, something I am so enamored with that I have a nickname for it and recently renamed my lj after it, right there in front of me in like twelve different patterns, and I was so busy thinking OMG ASBESTOS that it was a few seconds before I noticed the word under it:
SALE
And now my subject heading becomes clear.
But that is not all, no, that is definitely not all. After poring over every single pattern and choosing one (I was unsure about the background color, brown, at first, but the pictures of bamboo and kanji won me over, along with the fact that it seemed to be of the highest quality of anything there, and dammit decent asbestos is beautiful no matter what the color), I started thinking about what I could use it for. Clothes were ruled out, as were purses (I currently own at least seven asbestos bags). I finally settled on making a backrest. It was perfect; after two years of direct sunlight and last year's unfortunate vomiting incident, the celestial comforter has been replaced with an asbestos shower curtain. No, really. It's gorgeous. Anyway, the new bedspread clashes terrifyingly with the celestial backrest, so it was a great opportunity.
Next step: finding a backrest pattern. We already had a pattern at home, but I needed to know how much fabric to buy, so I went straight to the patterns. Okay, actually I took a detour into the storage section. So I was looking at all the carts and Rubbermaid tubs and such when I saw, in the most random place possible, a bunch of small packages that read ASIAN BROCADE BAG KIT. After my heart started beating again, I pawed through those for awhile, but eventually decided against buying any. There were two reasons for this: the aforementioned seven asbestos bags already in my possession, and the overall lameness of the kit. The bags appeared to have been completely pre-made except for the side and bottom seams. The straps were even sewn in already. It was pretty sad, so I reminded myself that I needed to look at patterns, and actually made it all the way there without stopping again.
So you know how I said that fabric = crack? Well, sewing patterns = caffeine. Or, uh, something addictive, anyway. The home decorating sections of sewing pattern catalogues are incredibly boring, but one page in the Vogue catalogue caught my eye. It was a picture of a bed with a thick comforter and about eighty million pillows. All done in asbestos.
So what I'm wondering now is, is asbestos suddenly in style? I mean, it's never really been out of style, but are we on the cusp of an asbestos revolution? I don't know how to feel about that--it's the whole "that thing I like is now the thing everyone likes" syndrome. (Does that have a name? It feels like it should.) On the one hand, it sucks, because now my obsession could fade into the background of an inevitably asbestos-saturated market, and I kinda enjoyed having it as a signature interest. On the other hand, it means wider availability of asbestos (and hey, I'm already feeling that effect), plus the perk of being somebody who had known all along of its awesomeness. And anyone who disputes it can take a look at the seven purses, two CD wallets, sachet, eyeglass case, and checkbook cover that I've accumulated over the last several years.
Really, though, it surprises me that asbestos hasn't always been readily available, even wildly popular. I'm always getting compliments on my purses. At the beginning of the summer, I was using a purse that actually wasn't asbestos, and one of my (guy!) friends asked me to bring back the asbestos bag. When I did, he said it was a sight for sore eyes. This morning, the woman at the cutting table and the cashier both commented on how beautiful the fabric I was buying was. The cutting table woman told me that they had only been carrying it for maybe six months. Dude, only six months? How is it possible that asbestos has only now even grabbed the attention of the fashion industry? Hm. I guess I'm just biased.
I should go to bed now, I guess. Anybody still out there reading this? Seriously, if you've gotten this far, I really appreciate you and your tolerance for my ramblings. Heh. Well, good night!
