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Sunday 23 January 2011

Fabric For Me #1: Shopping at Brick Lane, London

Given that I'm making the Burda Style #127 Trousers and Tasia's Pendrell Blouse - I really didn't need any more incentive to add to my ever growing stash buy the fabric required for these lovely garments.

I already have interfacing (the iron-on fusible kind which I've had lousy luck with usually *sigh*), and reading Peter's post it seems that I'm not alone in my fusing-woes LOL!  However, I did pick-up a good length of medium weight calico recently - so I might give that a bash as an interfacing layer instead sometime. But, I digress - so I needed some drapey fabric for my ruffle version of the blouse (I still have to fish out the cream lace from the loft this weekend for the sleeveless version), plus I needed some fabric for the trousers. So, one recent Friday lunchtime I popped onto the bus because Brick Lane and a handful of fabric stores are there and only a few minutes away from my workplace.

I already knew of Epra Fabrics from a Google search for fabric stores near to my office, however I forgot that they always shut early for Friday afternoons (doh!). Besides, the last time I visited there (summer 2010) they had a 10 metre minimum purchase in place (probably as they are a wholesaler). That was okay for me at the time 'cos I bought 10m of calico (muslin) haha!

BHOPHAL TEXTILES, Brick Lane London (Fabric Shop) EPRA FABRICS LTD, Brick Lane London (Fabric Shop) Z BUTT TEXTILES, Brick Lane London (Fabric Shop) 
Left - Right: Bhophal Textiles, Epra Fabrics Ltd, and Z Butt Textlies
Anywho... I read about Bhopal Textiles on Melissa's blog and thought I'd give them, along with Z Butt Textiles (another Google find) a whirl. The lovely lady proprietress permitted me to take some photos inside of the store (provided I omitted her visage - which I obliged). Bhopal's is stacked to the rafters with fabric - it's difficult to browse in there, in my experience (x3 visits thus far) you're best to ask her what you want and she'll ferret it out from behind several other rolls :)

Here's pictures from inside of her store:

Bhopal Textiles - Back Half of the store (fabric everywhere) Bhopal Textiles - Front Half of the store (doorway behind you) 
Bhopal Textiles - Back Half of the store (viewing from the back half of the store) Bhopal Textiles - Back Half of the store (fabric everywhere - floor to ceiling)
Inside of Bhophal Textiles - Fabric shop on Brick Lane, London

And this is what I bought...
BHOPAL TEXTILES
Z BUTT TEXTILES

Cotton, Blue & White Stripe
I think this'll be good for a nice work shirt/blouse for me!

 Viscose & Cotton Mix, Navy Printed Flowers
This is the fabric for the ruffle-version of my Pendrell Blouse.


Cotton, Black Sateen

When I get the fit right & I'm happy with my Burda Magazine 07/2010 #127 Trousers, I'll use this Black Sateen fabric to make a 2nd "going out" / "smart" pair for myself :)

Polyester & Wool, Charcoal Grey
I think I'll use this for my Burda Magazine 07/2010 #127 Trousers.

Polyester & Cotton, Black
I bought this to underline the trousers with.

Inspired by Melissa's Google Map of London fabric shops, (which was in turn inspired by Lindsay T’s map of the NYC garment district) I made one of my own for the above 3 shops:

View Fabric Shops - Brick Lane in a larger map

Ooooh, I've not forgotten to type-up re: how I got on with the muslin/toile for the trousers - however, I have a different plan re: getting them to fit, plus other stuff in general to fit better that I think will work out nicely... and I shall tell all on Tuesday!

2 comments:

  1. Aaahhh no crap, I didn't know you worked by me! (I'm at the very top of Brick Lane) We should do lunch sometime and bore the people at the surrounding tables with tales of fabric and patterns, pffff.

    Nice finds, too. I should really stop in at Z Butt some time...

    ReplyDelete
  2. you are participating in many sew-alongs! thats great! im doing casey's 1940s swing dress sew along too. excited to see your version of the dress:)

    chie
    vivatveritas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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