So Friday morning at 4:50am Elizabeth and I were pulling out of my driveway on our way to the airport. For a long time now we’ve been wanting to take a trip to the LA fashion district and Friday was the day!
Now neither of us enjoy flying but for this…we were willing to make an exception.
On the way to the airport we were so nervous and so busy talking that we missed the exit to the airport which led to a chain of events worthy of an I Love Lucy Episode including Elizabeth talking the security guard into letting us move to the front of the line, me running to the gate without my shoes on, and us being the last people on the plane.
But we made it and soon we had arrived at the Long Beach Airport.
There we rented the cheapest car we could find, fired up the GPS, and were on our way…the 405 to the 110 to the 9th street exit and after some lane changes and laughing we found our first stop.
The FIDM Scholarship Store.
This place was AWESOME!!!!
It was actually our favorite stop. It was clean and you couldn’t beat the prices. Among other things they sell fabric for $1 a yard—$1 A YARD PEOPLE!!!!
Each of us bought a giant garbage bag full of things like knits, denim, and cotton blends for just over $20 a piece.
Next we drove further into the fashion district and parked in a lot that we used as home base for the rest of the day. The lot was on top of a building on the corner of 9th and Maple and gave us a good view of the surrounding area.
Our next stop was at Michael Levine’s to use the restroom—where I walked in on some dude and then was walked in on by another dude—and then we walked across the street to “The Loft”.
As you can see by the sign…this place was going to be a place that we liked:
As you can see by the sign…this place was going to be a place that we liked:
And liked is an understatement. It was SO FUN!!!!
We were there just after they opened and had the entire place to ourselves! Which was perfect because the whole place is just a room full of bins where you rummage through yards and yards of fabric and Elizabeth and I were having a hard time focusing.
We were like kids in a candy shop—looking here and running over there and loading up hampers and hampers worth of fabric—and apparently our excitement was contagious because before long the guy who worked there was helping us search for fabric and giving us tips on other places to find deals.
So after I don’t know how long we finally made our purchases and headed off to explore the rest of the area. We found lots of cool shops and bought loads of knits, sheers, polyesters, cotton blends, whatever and we didn’t pay more than $2 a yard for almost everything.
After we were done we headed down Santee to find the notorious Santee Alley.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of Santee Alley but I have this picture where Santee intersects with 9th and I can tell you that when you are here you should go down the Olympic Bl. way and not the 8th street way unless you want to be run over by a hobo in his wheel chair or are interested in spandex body suits with the booty cut out.
Santee Alley was fun…we bought shoes, skirts, shirts, dresses, and cardigans. Down there you could buy just about everything imaginable. And it was fun—even if I’m an obvious fashion reject and came out of a dressing room full on wearing a dress backward. (The people in that store thought Elizabeth and I were CRAZY!)
There is A LOT more to say about the sights, smells, etc. in the alley and the entire district for that matter but this post is getting long….
…just like our day.
We left LA around 5:00 pm that evening and headed back to the Long Beach Airport, turned in our car and then spent the next 2 hours in the airport trying to record everything we saw and writing down all the ideas that were falling out of our brains.
That is, after Elizabeth lugged a duffel of fabric on her back into the airport that was big enough for me to crawl inside. (From the back I could only see the top of her head and her legs from the knees down….she looked like a hobo!) They guys at the check in gave her a hard time about how she was carrying it until they picked it up and it weighed in at 47 pounds! Then they just gave us a hard time about having the same names….
Anyways by the time we got back on the plane we were tired…so tired that when I started messing with the guys TV controls on the seat ahead of us (so he couldn’t watch the show with the women dancing around in bikinis) we laughed until we were crying and then couldn’t stop….especially when he couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was painful.
But then we encountered “some weather” and ended up in a holding pattern because the winds were too strong to let us land. And as I mentioned before Elizabeth and I are not the biggest fans of flying so that 20 minutes in a holding pattern bouncing around in serious turbulence wasn’t the high light of the trip…although now, thinking about Elizabeth holding on to the emergency exit for dear life and me complaining that watching Carrie Underwood sing better not be the last thing I see in my life is kind of funny….
So after a scary half hour we finally landed…Elizabeth again hoisted on the duffel and I loaded up the other bags. We made it to the bus, to our car, and home. It was midnight.
We had been gone just over 17 hours, had made our first trip to LA, and returned with over 100 pounds of fabric! (Yes, we did indeed come home with over 100 pounds of fabric!) It was a good day…except for the turbulence…and that dirty Gatorade we drank…and the guy we saw walking around without pants on…
We can’t wait to cut into all our new fabric! It is so exciting. But we didn’t just think of ourselves. Did you think we would go to somewhere awesome and forget about you?
No way!
We brought you back a little something as well…but I’m not going to tell you about that today…you have to wait for at least one more day…
Until then I’m off to put away all my new purchases!
-liZ
oh you lucky girls!!
awww…i wish i had places like that where i could buy fabric from, and someone to go with that enjoyed it as much as you 🙂
Oh my goodness what a blast it sounds like you had!! How much fun!!
I moved out of LA last year. I MISS MISS MISS MISS MISS 9th street and you parked where I always parked. There is nothing like that street and block anywhere else.
My favorite thing is that you can go there and get $1 yard cottons along with pricy amazing designer cottons.
Here in DC it is almost impossible to find the great fabrics I could get in LA.
Loved the read. Thanks for sharing. It made me smile.
Awesome trip! An adventure you’ll talk about again and again I’m sure. Thanks for sharing it and bringing a smile to my face this morning!
Awesome trip! Sounds like there are stories there that will be shared again and again. Thanks for sharing it!
Your post makes me want to jump in the car and drive there (since I’m in AZ it could be done fairly easily)! What an adventure you had.. can’t wait to see some of the fabrics you got.
HOW FUN!! I think you should definitely share more of your adventure – I don’t mind long blog posts 😉 I love your blog and have sewn a a starboard skirt for my little girl! My only complaint – I would really like to see what you both look like. LOL Hope that’s not weird!
Thanks for the mini trip “home”! I have flown in and out of LB airport so many times. I used to live 3 miles from there. When I got married my mom and I took a trip to the garment district to buy fabric for the bridesmaids dresses and little girls. It was so fun, we visited the shops where they want you to haggle, and that was awesome! All my bridesmaids wore silk, and I didn’t pay more than $5 a yard for any of it! I love that place and wish I lived closer now. Glad you all had so much fun!
Wow, wow, wow!! What an adventure…. Sounds like a few situations my sister and I would get into. This blog post made me laugh from beginning to end. Now, I want to see some shots of that 100 pounds of fabric!!!
Next time, you crazy girls, I want to come (and meet you…and buy more fabric…) so let me know the next time you come!
So jealous! Love this post, still laughing thinking about it:)
Oh my gosh, you guys are so much fun! I really must plan a trip down to LA for fabric shopping. I wish I had a partner in crime, I’m too scared to go by myself. Well, I can’t wait to see more of the fabric you snagged.
Your post was the most exciting thing I’ve done today. I also live in AZ, so I must plan a trip to this wonderful place! I had never heard of this before. I just need to make sure I don’t go with my husband because he would be a huge stick in the mud!
Your post was the most exciting thing I’ve done today. I also live in AZ, so I must plan a trip to this wonderful place! I had never heard of this before. I just need to make sure I don’t go with my husband because he would be a huge stick in the mud!
this so reminded me of when a friend and i went across to Sicily (we live on the island of Malta in the mediterranean)on the catamaran at 5.30am, shopped at markets, stores, had gelatos, granitas, lovely sicilian lunch, espressos, more shopping till we just couldnt carry out bags no more, walked back to the quay side as couldnt find a taxi for the return catamaran at 11.30pm…Fun but so knackering too…looking forward to see what you have for us all….hugs
That sounds like so much fun(!!!!!) except for the turbulence. I hate flying! I get sick almost every time. It was especially awful when my daughter was crying and I was throwing up and we had to get on another plane. . . .
No pictures of all the fabric!?!? I feel cheated!
That sounds like WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much fun! I would be in heaven there! Glad you girls had an awesome day!
So amazing!! I’m totally going to have to do this someday soon! But I’ll drive my car, you know, more space for all the stuff I’m going to buy. 🙂
What an amazing time! I had no idea you could buy fabric that cheap! You’ll have to do a picture-heavy post showing us all the fun things you bought.
I love the Loft! My hunny took me there last summer and I got some of the weirdest print knits (like the Mona Lisa on crushed stretch velvet? I still haven’t decided what to do with that one!) but it was so fun to find designer test prints etc!
There is technically a fabric district in DC, but it is useless! The nearest fabric district I have found to DC is in Philly, and even then, they mostly have home dec stuff. NYC is pretty easy to get to though for $25 round trip via the china town buses!
I live in GA,I am from LA and I always tell people besides my family the only thing i miss about LA is the Fashoin district! Every year when i go home for the holidays I have to ship two boxes home. One filled with xmas gifts my daughter received and the other with all my Downtown shopping goodies… mainly fabric and notions!
You guys are so fun! That is such a crazy adventure. I kick myself for living in southern CA for 7 years and NEVER making it up to the LA fashion district! I’ll have to make a quick trip one of these days like you guys. 🙂
so jealous!!! Love to see pics of the fabric you got!
what are the streets in NYC to actually go in and purchase fabric? I get up there relatively often on the cheap train and do overnights. I used to live on the upper west side of NYC but never really did the fabric thing when I lived up there. Thanks for the insight.