BERLIN HABERDASHERY STORES

I'm sure a while back I may have mentioned my little trip to Berlin. Whenever I go away somewhere I'm always excited to have half a day or so to myself searching for shops that sell fabric and wool. Berlin was a bit disappointing in that respect and I only really managed to find 2 shops (Maybe I didn't try hard enough!). On my next visit I think I'll be spending a little more time online searching for shops as there do seem to be more places scattered around.

The first shop I found was Fadeninsel and it sold mostly wool. I only managed to snap an image of some of the wool inside but after doing some research I have found the shop has a lovely sign on the front and so have borrowed an image from here for you to see. Fadeninsel can be found at Oranienstrasse 23, they have a website here, it doesn't show anything really but has the contact information. I did make a purchase here for my Mum's birthday, I'm not sure she'll ever use it though, it's a yarn divider for when you're using more than one colour on a knitting project and you pop it onto your finger! I'll get her to take some pics soon.

The second shop (which I found online!) was a fabric store in Charlottenburg. It's called Kumasch and although small, it did host a wide variety of fabrics. I didn't buy any in the end as I thought most of the stuff they had there I could probably buy back at home and a tad cheaper too.

We were a bit more successful on finding lots of other interesting things in Berlin though, some of which I haven't blogged about yet. Others I have and they include Polish poster design, an independent artist run space with some fab pieces of graphics inside. The colourful beer, mmmmhhh! A double decker bus cafe, the worlds largest open air gallery, lots of inspiring graffiti, and much more to come! So as you can see we were hardly disappointed really!

MORE NEW FABRIC

Mmmmhh, I just couldn't help myself. I was up that part of town last Wednesday and thought I'd pop in to Abakhan Fabrics in Liverpool. I started out not liking much, but then after perhaps my 5th round of the baskets I managed to dig out a few beauties. I'm planning to make tops from all of the pieces and have chosen a lovely shirt pattern for the stripy piece. I think I'll have to put a ban on buying any more until some sewing gets done!

NIPPORI, TOKYO'S FABRIC TOWN MAPS

I get quite a lot of interest in the Nippori, Tokyo's fabric town post and when rummaging through the drawer the other day I came across the maps I picked up whilst I was there last. The portrait one is in English and the landscape in Japanese. If you click on the images they should load as a larger image in a new window for you to see closer and to take a copy too if you like! They are free in Nippori and can be picked up at pretty much all of the fabric shops there.

MORE BEAUTIFUL MAYAN CRAFTS FROM MEXICO

A follow on from my previous post! A local shop was also part of the day trip we went on whilst in Mexico which sold all of the crafts that the Mayans made in the villages. It was really clean and really nice to see all of the other things that were being made. Each person or household could have their own section in the shop and there were sometimes photographs of the people who had made that particular piece or pieces, so you sometimes recognized some of the people who you'd seen previously in the village. Dad got a bit bored but for Mum, Sarah and me well, we just couldn't decide which bits we wanted to buy as there were so many lovely pieces! Here are a few of the delights we feasted our eyes on! Oh, also outside there were what looked like two weaving machines. One was hidden away and all wrapped up but had a piece being worked on whilst the other was just out in the open. It was a shame no one was around to show us how they worked, the colours did look just lovely in the Mexican sunshine.

MY FIRST PAIR OF SLACKS!

Well Mum you were right, in one afternoon I was able to make myself a pair of trousers from scratch. It was possibly the easiest pattern I've had to follow and with the genius help every now and then from 'the sewing book' which I will shortly be adding to the library how could anything go wrong? I bought the fabric ages ago from Abakhan in Mostyn North Wales and the pattern was a vintage vogue one that I was given by my Grandparents over the easter holidays. It doesn't have a date on it but it was from back in the day when trousers were called slacks! There will be a few minor adjustments I'll be making on my future slacks from this pattern, which again is a first for me but I'm am just so happy to have found a pattern that works well for me. Smiles all round for the slacks please ladies as they will soon be replacing my pipe leg dark jeans! Mum will be so happy!

MONA CAR BOOTY TAKE 2

...Sarah on the other hand had discovered (and we didn't know this until we got back to the car!) a suitcase full of small pieces of fabric which she bought a select few whilst Mum and me were distracted by the patterns and trying to not let them blow away with the strong Anglesey winds! The Mona car booty is usually on every Sunday, there were only about 2 tables that we bought stuff from but still it's nice to know that they are there if you're heading in that direction, look here for more info.

NIPPORI, TOKYO'S FABRIC TOWN

Ahh! Nippori : ) I was uploading some books to the library yesterday and thought I'd post about Nippori! (Mum, Sarah and Grandma have heard it plenty of times though!) When in Tokyo my boyfriend likes to spend a bit of his time in Ochanomizu (aka music town) looking at guitar after guitar, so I needed to find something that I would enjoy doing that didn't involve guitar after guitar with the odd effects pedal thrown in of course. Well what a discovery I made! I usually get the JR line to Nippori station (I love traveling on my own in Tokyo) and just around the corner is a whole street with either side full of fabric and haberdashery shops. You go inside and most have floors and floors of things to look through, my favourite last time I went was a shop called Tomato because I found the massive sale section they had which had really nice fabric selling for less than £2 a metre. I couldn't believe my luck, my bag was so heavy returning from this holiday!! I also found a beautiful button shop tucked in just off the main street. It has a big button as it's sign, it's a bit expensive but if you're looking for that special button to treat your cardi with, this is the place to be! You can usually find your way around using one of the maps that they have in most of the shops there.