When it rains, it pours!

So, I've been faced with a minor setback.

 I can't find my sewing kit! If you knew the state of my life right now, you wouldn't be surprised; most of what I own is in boxes right now, split between my dad's place, my place, and my boyfriend's place. Both my boyfriend and I are in itsy bitsy apartments, and I'm spending most of my time at his place, so it's gotten pretty messy over here, despie the relative lack of boxes... So I assumed that my sewing basket was here! Under a pile of rarely-worn winter clothes. But I guess it's not. And it might be in a box. Somewhere.

At any rate, I'm frustrated to the point of thinking I may just buy whatever basics I need and then just have backups once I find my sewing kit. Honestly, it's not a bad idea to have a second "backup" sewing kit in case something breaks in the middle of a major project with a deadline, or I need to take a smaller sewing kit traveling with me. And of course, re-purchasing these tools is probably the fastest way to find the originals. Doesn't that always happen?

However, I did make it out to an awesome fabric store, Mill End Fabrics in Reno, and just about bought the whole place up before showing some restraint, and leaving with a cool 16.5 yards of fabric. I found cotton twill to line corsets and bodices with (only 3 yards though, boo!), a red knit for Star Trek TOS uniforms (11 yards, so I can self-line!), dusty eggplant cotton velvet (this is what I really wanted for my Tudor corset, so that pink silk is getting repurposed for something else), and a black and white herringbone wool that looks surprisingly light from a distance. I'm thinking I want to do a steampunky corset with this, but we'll see; I bought enough to make a skirt, if I change my mind!  They  had a bunch of really neat things, but also some glaring omissions. For instance, I couldn't find a basic black knit to save my life. Navy, yes, other very specific colors (they even had the TOS medic blue, but not enough!), yes, but no true black. I couldn't find a heavy twill fabric, either; what I bought was with the bottomweights, but is actually kind of medium weight. Oh well, I guess that's how it is with these fabric stores that get the bolt-ends from the textile industry; they have a ton of awesome-sauce things, but they might not have all the bases covered.

 Anyway, I guess I'm off to JoAnn to buy pins, thread, needles, a measuring tape, tracing paper, chalk...