Fehr Trade: Inspiration

Inspiration

Vintage Navy uniform detail photos

18 November 2008, 13:05

I realise I’m an entire week late for Veterans Day and Remembrance Day here, but I thought that my dad’s vintage 1960s Navy uniform would still be just as interesting today.

Here’s my dad leaving Boot Camp in 1960:

(Compare that to his Santa-look these days – he blames it on all the beer and bratwurst when he was stationed in Germany!)

My dad was cleaning out his closet and thought I might like his old uniforms, so he dry cleaned them up and sent over the navy wool dress uniform first (the whites are coming later!). Much to my surprise, his old uniform fit me exactly – it was almost eerie, I tell you! Apart from the arms being an inch or so too long in the cuffed-sleeve top, it’s like it was made precisely to my measurements. And apart from one worn hole in the trousers, they absolutely look like new…

Me in 2008:

I suppose we’ve got boats in the blood in my family – my dad was in the Navy, my brother works for the Navy, and I’m lucky enough to live on a boat with a photogenic wheelhouse to pose in!

I took a bunch of detail photos of various parts of the uniform, because I found them to be extremely well sewn and I was really surprised at the level of detail that went into these uniforms, especially when you consider the sheer number of these which were made. I’m sure my dad can fill us in further in what the two different tops were worn for, as one is much more detailed than the other. But first we’ll look at the less-detailed top, with the straight sleeves and plain collar…

Navy top 1:

I just love the curved yoke seam on the front and back – it almost reminds me of Western wear… And as I said, the collar on this first top is just the plain navy blue wool, with no braid or embroidery. Underneath the collars on each of the shirts is a tag that must’ve given a sailor’s number, name, and rank so they knew which one was theirs when it came back from the laundry, but these have since faded to nothing, I’m afraid.

This second top was much more richly decorated and I’m guessing was used with more formal ceremonies, in conjunction with a white hat and navy tie (as you can see in my Dad’s photo above) which have since been lost (unlike the peacoat, which was abandoned in Taiwain, much to my dad’s regret and my horror!).

Navy top 2:

This one also has that great curved yoke, front and back…

The photo on the left is the outside chest pocket, with the beautiful welts and embroidered diamond ends (somehow I doubt the uniforms today have that!). The photo on the right is the interior chest pocket on the opposite side, which is clearly much more secure…

Apart from the beautiful work on the sleeve placket and braiding, how much do you love that all the buttons have anchors on them?!?

And here’s the collar, with its sewn-on braid and embroidered stars! You can see the underside in the last photo, with that faded ID tag I was talking about earlier, too.

Finally, the stereotypical sailor trousers! These are huge on the catwalks these days and there are quite a few patterns out there that replicate the button placket front, so I thought that detailed photos of an original pair might be helpful for those of you sewing your own.

Navy trousers:

Here’s the placket with all the buttons closed (yup, the central button got lost somewhere down the line!). I love the decorative reinforcement at the stress point, and the last photo shows the placement of two hidden pockets! Can you believe I wore these all night before I actually discovered they were there? They fit just behind the button closuree and are about the same interior size as jeans pockets today.

And here’s some photos of the placket unbuttoned, so you can see all the seam binding and facings. You can also see the size of those hidden pockets, and to my surprise, I found my dad’s initials stencilled on the interior underside of one of the pockets, too!

At the back waist, there’s a gusset with a bunch of lacing to tighten or loosen the fit of these trousers, too. You can see the inside of the lacing in the second photo, where they’ve attached a triangular facing so you don’t show any skin!

I was struck not only by the decorative touches put into these uniforms, but also the practical ones – the seams are all taped (what we’d call a “Hong Kong finish”), the crotch area is completely reinforced (though you can just see the wear hole in that middle photo, just outside the reinforcement!), and the hems are reinforced in the inside with what looks like grosgrain ribbon (the hems of the shirts are similarly reinforced).

So, even though I’m a week late, I think we should appreciate our veterans more often than one day a year anyway. So if you’ve enjoyed these photos of my dad’s uniform, please make a point to thank a veteran today (no matter when you’re reading this).

Edit: I got more information from my dad regarding the uniform!

What a surprise! You look great in Navy Blue. Too bad I didn’t have a black silk neckerchief to finish off the “Dress” blues. Oh, and you need a brand new white T-shirt to be “in uniform.” The DRESS blues [2nd top -mf] were always worn for inspections, parades, winter travel and other formal occasions. The “Undress” blues [1st top -mf] were more comfortable, lacked the white piping that required frequent toothbrushing with Wisk to keep clean. No neckerchief is worn with the undress jumper, nor are any ribbons or medals, which are reserved for special occasions only with dress blues (or dress whites). obtw, black socks are worn with black shoes with both blues and the whites. Ditto for the “white hat” dixie cups.

The Whites [were shipped and just arrived -mf]. Without the neckerchief, a dress white jumper converts to an undress jumper – there’s no piping involved with the whites. If one had dirty duty, you wore a light blue chambray shirt and a type of bellbottom blue jeans with “boondockers,” a low black boot. Otherwise, my usual office work atmosphere had me wearing undress blues and whites in warmer weather. Sorry, none of the comfortable, physical labor chambray/blue jeans survived.

Thirteen Buttons. Many sailors were often “out of uniform” by failing to have all 13 buttons buttoned all the time. The visible side buttons were always buttoned, but to save time to micturate, hitting the head for a bit of quick relief, the top buttons (covered by the jumper) were left undone. This conveniently reduces the risk of losing and re-sewing loose buttons.

If you’re interested in reading more about his experiences in the Navy, my dad wrote a book titled “Letters to Mom”, and you can read excerpts from it here, though he says he wants to clean up the coding over Christmas now that I’ve prodded him!

Tags: menswear, vintage

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Retail therapy

5 November 2008, 18:23

Ahh, the beginning of the month – when my sewing money comes in, then goes right back out again… I have no problems whatsoever in budgeting in real life, but for sewing funds, it’s gone as soon as it hits my accounts!

First up was a notions restocking from Sew Essential after Laura reminded me that they stock the Vilene bias tape that BWOF is so crazy over for knit seam stabilisation. So I got a bunch of that, plus upholstery thread in grey and also gold for jeans topstitching, and a ginormous spool of Gutermann Sew-All in black as I’m nearly out and hardly anyone seems to stock it in huge quantities anymore. I also picked up a few boring but essential tools like a loop turner (yes, I have survived with a pair of locking tweezers up until now!), and a tracing wheel with a much kinder-to-the-hands wooden handle for tracing patterns. I also got a big ol’ roll of freezer paper for quick stencilling jobs (it’s not available in supermarkets here), and some silver jeans buttons, which were accidentally substituted with the boring brass variety. A quick email later and they’re sending out the silver variety while letting me keep the brass ones – that’s how customer service should be done! My feeling is that everyone makes mistakes, but it’s how they’re dealt with that sets people apart…

With the exception of Pip’s silk, I hadn’t bought fabric in a good, long time, so I suppose I was ripe for falling off the wagon. I’m making a concerted effort to track what I actually wear this month (which you’ll see at some point), and I realised that in cooler weather I definitely gravitate towards trousers and knit tops rather than the dresses and skirts I live in over the spring and summer. So, after a brief tour round the internet, I fell prey to the charms of Crybaby’s Boutique yet again! You may recall that I bought some sturdy denim and chestnut print lycra from them before and was really pleased with the quality, so fingers crossed for this bunch, too.

Clockwise from top left:
Hannah Montana cotton knit (for my niece’s Christmas present), Vintage guitars thermal waffle weave (like what old-style long johns were made of), Vintage blue sparrow cotton knit, and “Punk Words Jersey”, which sold out immediately after I placed my order so I’m told I got the last of it, woohoo! And on top of that, it’s a limited edition print, too! I may have to do something more special with it than just the long-sleeved tee I’d imagined!

Tags: shopping

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The Best Budget Sewing Machines

30 October 2008, 13:43

Are you a beginner looking to get your first sewing machine as a Christmas gift or do you know someone who’s in need of a budget starter sewing machine?

A month or so ago you may recall that I helped a friend test a bunch of sewing machines for an article in The Sunday Mirror newspaper, and now that it’s been published I can reveal our results!

It was really difficult to assign ratings to all of these since most were good in so many different ways, but it was really eye opening to see how much value you can get in a starter machine these days. The article left off the one machine we found really frustrating and disappointing, but it’s nice to be able to say that all of the above were all decent value for money and I can recommend for beginners.

Top marks went to the Brother 2020, but we also really liked the Janome J3-24, the Toyata SPA 15, and the Brother XL21-20, though you should read the above article for more details. We were most surprised by the John Lewis Mini sewing machine, that you’d think for the price would just be a toy but actually sewed really well despite its feature limitations.

Or if you’d rather go vintage, check out the reviews of vintage sewing machines on the Zigzaggers site, including my own vintage sewing machine!

Tags: machine, shopping

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A Tale of Two Shops

24 October 2008, 16:04

Two different lots of sewing shopping arrived for me yesterday, and my experience with both shops couldn’t have been more different!

The first was from myfabrics.co.uk:

I ordered this stuff on September 12! It was so long ago I could hardly remember what some of it was for, and as it turned out, the jeans buttons were actually elaborate snaps, and what I thought was LauraLo‘s excellent fusible bias tape is actually just hemming tape. Grr. But that’s not the least of it – go read my store review here so as to keep the bile all contained in one place. Needless to say, I will not be shopping with them ever again.

The second parcel that arrived was ordered the day before (Wednesday), from the wonderful Pennine Outdoor:

I just needed an open-ended zipper and some cordlocks for my nephew’s sweatshirt, and they came through just as I knew they would! Less than 24 hours to get it from Yorkshire to London is pretty awesome. This is the third time I’ve shopped with them and I honestly can’t recommend them enough.

And because of their speedy shipping, I was able to complete my nephew’s hoodie this morning before work. Fingers crossed I can bribe our ten year old neighbour with some Wii time to come and model it for me…

Tags: shopping

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Patrones 272 - the Fall fashion holy grail

16 September 2008, 13:22

The new September Patrones that’s on sale now is quite possibly the best they’ve ever created. Almost everything in it is wearable, and made with normal fabrics you can actually buy without having a couturier’s budget and contacts – entire sections full of classic winter coats, tons of CUTE capes and cropped jackets, and a plethora of wool trousers. One whole feature is JUST high waisted skirts and trousers, and another is entirely vintage dresses! Even the maternity section is styled in such a way that every piece can be worn by the breeding and non-breeding alike (showing two photos of every piece).

I’m actually feeling overstimulated and giddy just flipping through it. #264 used to be my favourite issue, but this one has totally trumped it.

(Or click here to see it in a new tab/window)

Finding Patrones to buy can be notoriously tricky, but trust me when I say this issue is worth whatever you pay for it, whether it’s in pounds, euros, dollars, or English biscuits (thanks, Cintia!!).

Here’s some of my favourites, though I actually had a really hard time excluding any. I could’ve chosen the entire magazine, I swear…

This is a knit dress so I think the button-down front is just for aesthetics, but I love the sleeve detail. I’m not in love with the buttoning, though, so I’m feeling pretty confident I’ll take the sleeves off and do that on another pattern’s body, Frankenpattern style!

Here’s another knit dress, gathered in the Grecian style and with absolutely lovely gathered, bracelet-length sleeves. The waist section is a different piece, rather than just gathered above and below it, which I also found interesting. I think this style really rests on having the perfect, slinky knit, so I’ll have to keep my eyes out next time I’m on Goldhawk Road.

I’m in love with this boxy little jacket! At first I couldn’t quite figure out why they kept calling it (and another style) “Japanese” but then I realised that this must be what the Spanish call dolman sleeves! I just adore the sleeves and the bust lines and that beautiful back seam! This pattern calls for wool, but the more I think about it, the more I want to make this out of the green sweatshirting in my stash, using a standard zip closure and adding a hoodie. It’s kinda going for the “couture sweatshirt” look I love in this ASOS jacket.

This wool A-line skirt just looks SO wearable! The wide waistbands are always very flattering (especially if you bone the inside so they don’t wrinkle when you sit down!), and the added zipper is both pretty and functional, and it’s even got big deep pockets! This is a look I could wear all winter long with thick tights…

This is my favourite dress from the vintage dresses feature – I’m such a sucker for the airline stewardess look… I love that in this dress the back view is the interesting side, and the front is only anything special with the sewn, raised central detail (it’s not a separate piece, but rather topstitched).

And finally, here are two trousers from the high waisted feature (with both skirts and trews!). These call for stretch wool suiting, which I just happened to impulse buy off eBay last week. I really like both of these and I’m torn which one to make – the Spagnoli trousers have that front leg seaming that works so well on me, but the Jucca ones look to have more usable pockets and a more conventional waist styling…

This issue has just got me so excited for Fall sewing that I’m finding it almost hard to focus because there are too many things I want to sew NOW!. I mean, just this Saturday I sewed up the better portion of the wool and satin three piece suit in my hive of activity. I’ve got just finishing hand sewing left on that and already I’m got a mental pattern battle over what to start next!!

Tags: magazine, patrones

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KnipMode twist top now in Plus sizes!

15 September 2008, 12:49

Plus-sized ladies, you need to stop right now and go buy a lotto ticket, because today is your lucky day!

You may remember earlier in the summer I made a blue twist top from the April 2008 KnipMode magazine, and then my mom fell in love with mine so much I tweaked the sizing and made her one, too. This is probably my favourite pattern of the entire year – I have to restrain myself from wearing it more than once a week, and I even turned it into a dress to get more wear from the pattern.

Well, everywhere that I can see is sold out of April’s issue (it’s proved VERY popular!), so imagine my surprise when I opened up the October issue and saw that they’ve reprinted the same exact top, but in Plus size!!

This is just utterly fantastic news, because it’s such a flattering cut that it looks good on so many body types, and the pattern is really straightforward if you line up the symbols and follow my instructions. Even if you’ve never bought a KnipMode before and don’t speak Dutch (I don’t, either!), I still highly recommend you buy the October KnipMode issue before it sells out. This is one seriously great pattern.

And if you need any further coaxing, that jeans pattern on the same page looks pretty awesome, and this issue also comes with an extra supplemental magazine full of winter hats, mittens, and scarves to use up those fleece scraps…

Tags: knipmode, plus

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Vintage Sewing Books

29 August 2008, 18:10

I recently had a spate of vintage book buying, and I’ve finally had a chance over the last month or so to properly digest them. Most of them were purchased from AbeBooks.com, which I’d used and loved years ago and then promptly forgot existed until they sent me a “come back to us!” voucher out of the blue. Well, it worked because I ended up with Kwik Sew Method Swim Wear and Kwik Sew Method Lingerie, both by Kerstin Martensson, plus The Complete Book of Sewing by Constance Talbot, and a reproduction of the famous WWII pamphlet Make Do And Mend (bought from Bletchley Park‘s gift shop).

The Kwik Sew books were very 70s in both illustrations and fashion styles, but I was pretty disappointed in the Swim Wear book in particular. I’d seen it highly recommended online, but even if you look past the outdated styles, there actually isn’t that much information of sewing techniques here. There’s lots of info about sewing suits for children and adapting them as they grow, but this isn’t really that useful to me! In the end, I learned a lot more about sewing my first swimsuit from the ladies on Pattern Review. The Lingerie book has the same outdated styles, but has a nice section all about tweaking fit and a general order of construction for sewing bras and overall, looks a lot more useful for someone about to sew their first few bits of lingerie, like myself.

The Constance Talbot book, though, is utterly fantastic. I’d go so far as to say it’s a must-have for anyone learning to sew even today! When they say “complete”, they mean it, too – there is absolutely everything you could think of covered here, from refashioning worn dresses to sewing slipcovers to laundry tips! I’ve yet to see a modern book that even covers half this much information!

This still goes for pennies on Abe Books so you really have no excuse for not buying this! I mean, look at some of these example pages, they’re nearly works of art!

This page about sewing and interlining for a winter coat is actually priceless for me as I’m still in the throes of the Great Coat Sewalong!

And the wartime Make Do and Mend pamphlet is also a real winner. It’s only a short booklet but it manages to cover everything from recycling leftover food scraps to refashioning clothes (including nicking your poor fighting husband’s clothes to turn into your work clothes!), to unpicking and reknitting sweaters, and manages to do so without being preachy. In fact, a lot of the recycling tips plucked from 1943 wouldn’t sound terribly out of place in 2008!

These have become a nice addition to my sewing reference library, which also includes gems like Modern Pattern Design, by Harriet Pepin, which has the luck of being out of print and entirely digitised to view online!

In other news, I actually (very nearly) finished my dark green corduroy trousers this morning before work, so I’m going to try and do a photoshoot for those and the olive green BWOF twist dress while we’re in Norwich this weekend. It’ll be strange to have some photos on dry land again, it’s been a while…

Tags: shopping, vintage

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Vintage wedding gown detail photos

19 August 2008, 13:29

My grandmother’s wedding dress arrived safely on Friday! I person, it’s absolutely jaw, droppingly gorgeous, even 59 years later. The preview photos I drew the technical drawing from didn’t do it justice, so I’m hoping these photos on James’s DSLR will help to show some of the amazing vintage details.

The dress is entirely silk satin with no lace, embroidery, or beading (just from a mesh panel around the neckline), and the weave of the silk is still perfectly and soft and so very strong still. Granny told me she bought this in a shop on South Street in Philadelphia in 1949, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you the designer as there’s no label and she’s long since forgotten the details. But the workmanship speaks for itself, and it’s very interesting for me to see that they’ve not wasted any silk where it couldn’t be seen – the mesh fabric is used for all facings, the seam allowances are only 1/2 inch, and there’s no lining.

Laid out on our table:

Our table is 6 feet long and this dress uses the entire length of it, cascading for a good two feet past the end and at either side. She wasn’t lying – I’ll have a lot of material to work with when I reconstruct it. Forgive the lack of a proper full length photo – I want to show it off when it’s at its best after a proper cleaning and pressing, not after the poor dear has spant a week crossing the Atlantic in a tiny box…

Colour comparison:

If anything, I think the aged colour is actually more beautiful than a stark, bleached white. Though I am thankful I shouldn’t have to colour match any additional fabric at all!

Brooch and collar:

The headpiece has these same flowers in a crown/tiara, and this brooch is detachable.

Gathered, piped, front waist seam:

Bust pleats:

The bust treatment on this gown is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before in a pattern – a vertical waist dart opens up into several pleats on both sides.

Side lapped zipper:

This zipper is the only opening on the dress, apart from the buttons on the back neck, which only go down as far as the collar at shoulder height:

Sleeve buttons:

Notice the tiny mesh facing at the sleeve edge. The edge of the sleeve ends in a point, which is off-centre to point to the ring finger on each hand, as is traditional. Even though these sleeves look absolutely tiny, I was actually able to get my arm in it up to the bicep, where my weight training makes my upper arms decidedly un-vintage in shape and muscle tone.

Sleeve elbow darts:

Back peplum:

The back waist of the dress has a peplum which is constructed rather uniquely. Each side is a tube, open at the side seams and at the centre back, and lined with the mesh fabric. So I could stick my arm entirely through it and out the other side, and I’m guessing this was fluffed up to stand out from the body originally. The underside of the peplum has the same beautiful, piped seamwork as the front waist seam.

Finger loop inside train:

This was to allow my Granny to lift the heavy 3 foot train out of the way of her (and others’!) feet for the reception dancing! Notice how the clever seamstress cut the train pieces with the edges on the selvedge so that these wouldn’t fray as they dragged along the floor. The seams further up the skirt and in the bodice weren’t done in this way and have frayed slightly (nut not alarmingly so).

Interior shoulder “pads”:

The only place where the bridal silk satin was used inside was where the mesh neck meets the off-the-shoulder collar, where these silk semicircles were placed. There’s no padding, so I’m not entirely sure of their purpose, really.

Interior gathered waist seam:

There are a few places where the stitching has come undone in the bust and sleeve seams, and there’s one small stain from the blue tissue paper it was wrapped in for 60 years (unfortunately placed at thigh height in the centre front skirt panel), but apart from that, the dress is in exceptional shape.

I’m afraid this is as much as you’re going to see of it for a while, though, as we’ve got a bit of major demolition and construction work coming up in the next few months. I’ve decided the dress is safer rolled up in its box (in white tissue paper this time!) the way it is so I’m not going to get it dry cleaned until after the dust has settled and I’m all set up in my new sewing room with enough space to hang it…

In other news, I’m now blogging for BurdaStyle! I’ve been a member of the site from even before it was live and running so it’s a great honour to be asked to regularly contribute! My first post went up last week, but I’ve got another in the works, too. I’m not anticipating repeating FehrTrade content, so make sure you subscribe to their RSS feed so you don’t miss anything…

Tags: dress, vintage, wedding

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Versace vs Burda WOF

14 August 2008, 11:41

Breaking news!

Burda WOF have just posted a full preview of their September 2008 issue (though only for members at the minute), and this dress practically jumped off the screen at me:

Gorgeous, right? Well, the reason it stood out to me is because those central bodice seams are a spitting image of a Versace dress from Fall 2007. I saw the ad with Kate Moss last year and I loved the design so much that I ripped it out and have had it hanging on my sewing room wall ever since:

So let’s have a closer look at those bodice seams, shall we?

I’ve turned up the contrast on the BWOF image above so you can see the seamlines better (the technical drawings aren’t up yet). If anything, I think BWOF 09/08 #114 is an improvement on Versace’s original since the new neckline is much, much more wearable by anyone who isn’t a world-famous supermodel!

So who else is on the lookout for aqua fabric now? Perhaps I need another run to Goldhawk Road…

Tags: bwof, dress, knockoff

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London fabric shops: Goldhawk Road

8 August 2008, 17:04

I can’t believe that I’ve lived in London for 6 years and not been out to the Goldhawk Road fabric shops yet. I mean, I’ve heard people talk about them, but it’s a full hour on the tube for me to get there, so I’ve just never really seen the need to explore…

Until yesterday, when fellow sewer Anwen took me by the hand and showed me around her favourite fabric shops there.

WOW. I was prepared to see a lot of fabric shops with an awful lot of fabric stuffed inside, but I wasn’t prepared for the incredibly high quality of the fabric in the shops. Polyester was in the minority, with a huge range of silks, woollens, suitings, and other really luxurious (and usually hard to find!) fabrics being the norm, and at really reasonable prices, too.

I had a strict budget I imposed on myself, and I only spent twice that. Ummm. But I still came away with a nice stack of fabric, and a ton of research for next time!

Just like my review of London haberdashery shopping, I thought I’d give a rundown here of the highlights from yesterday, though there are at least six other shops next to these that we went into but I didn’t write down the names and addresses of. Most of the shops seem to be open Monday-Saturday, though I imagine they’d be really very crowded on Saturdays if you decide to go then. Goldhawk Road tube station is on the Hammersmith and City Line, but you could easily walk from Shepherd’s Bush station (so when the Central Line station there reopens that might be more convenient). See the map at the bottom of the page for details, but roughly, turn right out of Goldhawk Road tube station and prepare to enter FABRIC NIRVANA….

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A to Z Fabrics – 53A Goldhawk Road

Our first shop, where I ended up blowing all but £6 of my initial budget. Oh dear, I thought I’d peaked too soon, but I got three lovely fabrics for winter…

(left) Black wool sweater knit with purple flecks – £5/m (talked down £6 after I ummed and ahhed)

(bottom) Speckled black and white 100% wool British suiting – £10/m

(upper right) Super super soft grey marl jersey – £4/m

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Classic Textiles – 44 Goldhawk Road

The most silk charmeuse I have EVER seen in one shop. This stuff is like golddust here in the UK, usually going for £50+ per meter. And here it was, in a million colours for £7.50. I was lightheaded and giddy at seeing this, and I don’t think it was just from the heat upstairs… If you go here, make sure you go all the way to the back of the ground floor because the stairs down to the basement are easy to miss, and the rolls of fabric down there are no kidding, about 20 rolls deep on either side.

At this point I was beginning to see why they don’t list anything online – even just documenting the first five feet inside the door would take a month!

Also silk jersey for £14/meter (£8 for silk blend jerseys that felt just as nice), wool jersey for £9, slk double crepe for £9/m, a huge range of British-loomed wool suitings…

I didn’t actually buy anything here due to a bit of overstimulation on my part, but Anwen got some amazing finds, and I’m definitely coming back for wedding fabrics! I love a store that puts the silk jersey swatches right by the tills for impulse purchases! They certainly know their clientèle..

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Fabric World – 49C Goldhawk Road

I only had some change in my purse after the first store, but I still had trousers on my mind, so I made a savvy purchase and used up exactly the change I had left!

Silver grey denim with a slight crosswise stretch – £2.99/m

Yes, that’s right – silk charmeuse in a million colours for £6.95/m (there’s actually a whole other rack to the left of this that’s not in the photo

Also a beautiful range of coloured leather skins (I very nearly bought some mustard yellow for a new purse, but decided I could get it cheaper than £15 at a leather shop by my office), waterproof trench coat fabric, and a huge array of denim.

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A One Fabrics – 50-52 Goldhawk Road

Walking inside, I tried to keep myself on track by chanting “Must think ‘bottom weights’, must think ‘bottom weights’, don’t be distracted by the pretty shiny things…” in my head. I think it worked, because I came away with some brilliant cords for fall and winter trousers…

Red and olive green corduroys – both £3.50/m

1 meter remnant of beige corduroy – £1 (I found this after I was debating whether to buy 1 meter of beige anyway for a particular BWOF skirt! Score!)

Lycra knit – £3.50/m (as were the whole rack of similarly beautiful lycra knit prints, including this in a red colourway, too)

Plus Gutermann thread, buttons, zippers and other bits of haberdashery, and 100% cashmere coating.

I restocked my trouser zipper and thread supplies and alas, out came the card since I was down to 60p in my purse!

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I’ve added all these to my London sewing and haberdashery stores map, which you can see in a larger window, complete with reviews, by clicking the link underneath…

View Larger Map

Tags: shopping

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