Trip Recap: I bought fabric
May. 21st, 2014 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mala_14The UK offers some fantastic opportunities for fabric shopping. In Edinburgh I went to a place called Edinburgh Fabrics. Like most places in the UK, it was a smaller place, but they carried a wide variety of fabrics, from cottons to faux furs to polyester to silk. The real show-stopper there is the Scottish wools. They have a gorgeous stock of wools, specifically tweeds, in a beautiful array of colours. I've never seen anything so lovely as the shelves filled with bolts of tweed in lavender, pink, emerald, and turquoise. I wanted to buy them all, but in the end I got a remnant of wool and a dress length of cotton muslin.
The wool is a blend of wool, cashmere, and 2% lycra. At 1.3 metres it is enough for a blazer and it only put me back about 16 pounds. It feels wonderful and the colours are lovely, a dusky purple herringbone speckled with white and yellow. The muslin was a really good deal and I wish I had bought more. It came in a whole rainbow of colours and the muslin is smooth and fairly sheer. It was 2.5 pounds/metre, so I got 4 metres. It is earmarked for an embroidered Regency dress and whatever is left will probably become Regency accessories and frills for my 1790 habit shirt.
I also picked up 8 metres of 1/4" cotton tape, but that isn't really exciting enough for a photo. It will be useful for covering the seams of my stays, though, and as ties for my 1790s chemise gown.
In London, I went to about half a dozen shops on Goldhawk Road. This is a place where the costumer for Game of Thrones does shopping! I was hoping to find a good brocade for my Tyrell costume bodice, but no such luck. The stores are a treasure trove, however. Gorgeous fabrics upon fabrics all packed into small rooms with just a small pathway through them. There are shelves filled with bolts and then fabric on rolls leaning against them. It is crazy. They have synthetics, but also tons of silks and wools and cottons, which were what I was focusing on. My favourite store was Classic Textiles, but I also really liked the other ones including A-One Fabrics, A to Z Fabrics, Fabric World, and another one or two that I'm not sure about the names of. If you're there you'll see them all; they are clustered together right near each other on two sides of the street.
I have NEVER spent so much money on fabric at one time. I also got upsold on some wool by a very convincing salesman. He gave me some wool that was priced at 12 pounds for 10, and got me to buy the 4 remaining metres on the bolt even though I only wanted 3. But really, we both knew that he couldn't leave just one metre on a bolt... ;p I bought the wool, it's a nice burgundy that I think will be good for a Regency redingote. I also picked up 1 metre of silk velvet in a yummy emerald colour. That was the most I've ever spent on a piece of fabric, 17.90 pounds/metre! But totally worth it. It will make a lovely spencer to wear over my muslin gown. And I got 4 metres of silk in cream (labelled as Thai silk, I would call it taffeta. I guess they're not necessarily mutually exclusive). I like the colour, but I was also sold on the fact that, as a light colour, it will dye well. I want to use it to make a Regency dress with matching spencer.
I guess you can tell that I had Regency on the brain for this trip, but really, it was also just the fact that the fabrics there were really suitable for Regency things. I had other things on my list, but couldn't find them. I was really tempted by the silk tulle I saw at one store, just because it was silk tulle, but I'm not sure what I would have used it for anyways so I resisted.
Anyways, the moral of the story is: when traveling, buy fabric!
The wool is a blend of wool, cashmere, and 2% lycra. At 1.3 metres it is enough for a blazer and it only put me back about 16 pounds. It feels wonderful and the colours are lovely, a dusky purple herringbone speckled with white and yellow. The muslin was a really good deal and I wish I had bought more. It came in a whole rainbow of colours and the muslin is smooth and fairly sheer. It was 2.5 pounds/metre, so I got 4 metres. It is earmarked for an embroidered Regency dress and whatever is left will probably become Regency accessories and frills for my 1790 habit shirt.
I also picked up 8 metres of 1/4" cotton tape, but that isn't really exciting enough for a photo. It will be useful for covering the seams of my stays, though, and as ties for my 1790s chemise gown.
In London, I went to about half a dozen shops on Goldhawk Road. This is a place where the costumer for Game of Thrones does shopping! I was hoping to find a good brocade for my Tyrell costume bodice, but no such luck. The stores are a treasure trove, however. Gorgeous fabrics upon fabrics all packed into small rooms with just a small pathway through them. There are shelves filled with bolts and then fabric on rolls leaning against them. It is crazy. They have synthetics, but also tons of silks and wools and cottons, which were what I was focusing on. My favourite store was Classic Textiles, but I also really liked the other ones including A-One Fabrics, A to Z Fabrics, Fabric World, and another one or two that I'm not sure about the names of. If you're there you'll see them all; they are clustered together right near each other on two sides of the street.
I have NEVER spent so much money on fabric at one time. I also got upsold on some wool by a very convincing salesman. He gave me some wool that was priced at 12 pounds for 10, and got me to buy the 4 remaining metres on the bolt even though I only wanted 3. But really, we both knew that he couldn't leave just one metre on a bolt... ;p I bought the wool, it's a nice burgundy that I think will be good for a Regency redingote. I also picked up 1 metre of silk velvet in a yummy emerald colour. That was the most I've ever spent on a piece of fabric, 17.90 pounds/metre! But totally worth it. It will make a lovely spencer to wear over my muslin gown. And I got 4 metres of silk in cream (labelled as Thai silk, I would call it taffeta. I guess they're not necessarily mutually exclusive). I like the colour, but I was also sold on the fact that, as a light colour, it will dye well. I want to use it to make a Regency dress with matching spencer.
I guess you can tell that I had Regency on the brain for this trip, but really, it was also just the fact that the fabrics there were really suitable for Regency things. I had other things on my list, but couldn't find them. I was really tempted by the silk tulle I saw at one store, just because it was silk tulle, but I'm not sure what I would have used it for anyways so I resisted.
Anyways, the moral of the story is: when traveling, buy fabric!
