Threads From My Sewing Room: We’re off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of...

...Goldhawk Road! Ok, so admittedly that makes no sense, but it was magical and all on one road, which, in certain lights, you could pretend it was yellow. No? Ok, moving on...

This weekend, for the first time ever, I visited the infamous (in the sewing-sphere) Goldhawk Road, and, as I predicted, fell madly in love! Forgive my gushing review if you are a frequenter of this street, but with it being my first trip, I felt like Charlie stepping into the Chocolate Factory (do I want to reference anymore classic films in this post?!*)

Fabric shops lined both sides of the street and they were filled with people – it was great to see so many people who love to sew all in one place (for the most part, watching people fighting over remnants can wear thin after a while...)

Where I live, fabric shops are in short supply and when you do find them, the variety can be limited and you can expect to pay on average between £7-£17 per metre. One of the reasons I make my own clothes is to be cost efficient, so when you are spending more on materials than it would cost to buy a dress on the high street, this justification is hard to make. Though, as my friend Sophie who came with me asked; “why do you need a justification to buy fabric?” An excellent point, my friend - I will shop with you again!

Sadly (and stupidly) I didn’t make a note of the names of all the shops I went to, instead we searched each shop in turn and mentally made a list of our favourite prints, if I had been on my own I would probably have bought something in each shop, only realising afterwards that I like something even more in the next one - I think this has been another lesson for me – don’t buy fabric alone!

Each shop had more fabric than I could fathom, sometimes, this almost became a hindrance, I probably missed some lovely fabric because I was blinded by all the others - oh well, I guess I'll just have to visit again, what a pity! In one of the shops, the owner was telling me that there is a chance his shop, and 3 others around it, may be redeveloped, he didn’t go into great detail, but I really hope this doesn’t happen! If anyone knows anything more about this I’d love to know.

Once we had revisited each shop (twice) we took a slight detour to Shepherd’s Bush market on a hunt for feathers resembling a hummingbird (as one does) and somehow found ourselves in another fabric shop tucked away behind one of the stalls - oops. In my world of excitement, I completely forgot to check the name, but I know exactly where it is so, I will definitely find it again! (I've just realised how very unhelpful this post is "I once went somewhere I can't remember which was near somewhere else the name of which escapes me..." - sorry everyone!)

In the shop, we were swiftly greeted by a man who revelled in telling us that the store was family owned and had been there for 94 years, he was such a character and was so passionate about his work and fabrics – particularly in telling me that one of the fabrics I was looking at was only for “old ladies” to buy – I’m frequently told by my boyfriend that I am old before my time, so this didn’t faze me at all! Aside from the great personalities in the shop, I was/am staggered by the prices, which ranged from £1 – £1.25 per metre!! (I’ll give you a minute to pick your jaws up from the floor) there is no way that you can go wrong at prices like that. Do the prices of fabrics as mentioned earlier stop me from sewing? No. Do they stop me experimenting with different projects and fabrics? Maybe. So when I found sheer fabrics that would make beautiful blouses and silky textures that I have up until now avoided, how could I refuse? As I discussed in my Miette post, choosing fabric for a project stresses me out, so being able to stock up and barely spend a thing took this pressure away and I am so excited to experiment!

Goldhawk Road “I’ll be back” (*yes, I do!)