This weekend, I used the excuse of cheap flights and the need for a weekend away to get over to London and undertake some fabric shopping.
To get to London, I took the Eurostar from Brussels Midi to St. Pancras Internatioal in London. What a treat - no fuss with security, liquids, gels or the like. Straightforward and simple. What a pity that there isn't such a service between Dublin and Brussels - it would beat the pants of the combined depressing, soul-sucking experience that is Brussels Airport and Aer Lingus
We stayed at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Shoreditch High Street. The region of Hoxton and Shoreditch has become quite cool and trendy of late, with some cool bars and restaurants to be found along Old Street, Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road. We had a relaxed time wandering around the locale on the Friday and Saturday night, taking it easy and absorbing the London cool.
On Saturday morning, we headed off on the tube to Goldhawk Road, home to many fabric shops, which sell fantastic selections at fantastic prices. The shopowners can be a little pushy as they try to sell to you, but hold tough and take the time to browse the shops. You will not be disappointed.
My first purchase was an embroidered brown satin material at £2 per metre. I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do with this, but at that price, I wasn't leaving it behind.
My next two purchases were in the same shop. First was this textured black cotton fabric, which I can see becoming a smart work dress or suit. If I remember correctly, this was £2.50 per metre.
My other purchase was a patterned satin fabric. Again, this is great material for a dress or skirt. It's nice and lightweight, with a nice drape. The pattern is nice without being too busy and I think it came at £2-3 per metre.
My last purchase was the reason I had gone fabric shopping in the first place - my material for a Christmas party dress. I like the idea of a raw silk, but lots of the bolts that I saw were of the wrong colours, or had vertical threads running through the fabric. In the end I opted for gun-metal grey and steel-blue taffetas priced at £2.75 per metre. Now I just need to find a pattern that I can work with to make in two colours.
2 comments
Next time you are in London, you should try Material World in Acton, just off the high street.
Fabric Shop in Atlantic Road Brixton - go to the end of electric avenue and turn right in to atlantic road, its on the right hand side about 2 mins from eletric ave. Both these shop have a good choice of fabrics - always changing. N othing over £5 per metre
I am really excited for my trip to London next month, I've been hearing lots of good places to visit particularly fabric and haberdashery shops.
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