28 Aug 2013

Fabric Shopping in the UK (well London really)

Having only achieved three of the 12 makes for the year and with only four months to go I feel that I need to step up a gear of my challenge.  I have found that the real delay in making is not the sewing but the sourcing of fabric and waiting for the postman to deliver it.  With this in mind I decided to hit the streets of London and forage for fabric.  Well I walked miles and went shopping.

I had planned to visit the Goldhawk Road mentioned in many a blogger site from the recent meet up.  I had also thought I would pop into Liberty's and as it was near go to McCullock and Wallis.  So this post is about what I really did.

I got into London at about 11 and went to oxford circus to go to Libertys.  It is a really nice store with lots of stuff, especially loved looking at their new season fabric but at £22 meter not really what i was after although the feel of the tana lawn is sooo nice - not something that can be done over the internet.

From Liberty I went to the famous MacCulloch & Wallis - the fabrics are all downstairs with the haberdashery upstairs.  All the fabric swatches are in the center grouped nicely together, with the bolts around the outside.  Although there was some good stuff , especially some navy peacock cotton which I had seen on the website I thought that I may still find what I need elsewhere.

I was in the area so dropped into Misan and Cloth House both lovely shops. For something unique this would be a perfect choice - the staff were really friendly in both shops.  Misan had a lovely range of fabrics and a whole downstairs section of reduced price pieces.  Cloth has a  much more natural and organic feel a really nice, relaxing place to be and browse.  On this occasion not what I was after.  I also noticed lots of silk in the area.

I had heard great stuff about a shop called Rolls and Rems in Lewisham but both Goldhawk Road and Lewisham seemed so far away so after a quick google found out there was three Rolls and Rems with the nearest being in Holloway.  The tube yesterday was sooo humid so found some buses going in the general direction and off I went

So glad I did.  The store is not vast - apparently Lewisham is much bigger but all the staff were friendly and helpful.   Its so nice listening to the conversations in the shop, what people plan to make and for what occasion and the Great British Sewing Bee were the hot topics.  So reasonably priced and with everything I needed I ended up with two large white bags of fabric, enough for all my foreseeable makes.
I plan to make...
A handbag
A jersey dress
A blazer
A top
2 hoodie tops
knickers

I had planned on visiting Raystitch on my way from Holloway to the V & A but the bus took me a different way so this is now on my to do list - Did notice that they are open on Sundays which is brilliant as not many fabric shops do this.
Ended my day with a walk around the V&A loving the fashion but also the patterns in the ironwork - this surprised me as i didn't know that I would love them so much.  With the two bags of fabric I was very glad for the cloakroom to store them as I explored the museum.  Also noted that the V and A sell Colette
patterns.  It looks like the fabrics are all moving to a new place soon so will be going back soon for sure.

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