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!

 

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:

 

Inside of Bhophal Textiles - Fabric shop on Brick Lane, London

And this is what I bought...

BHOPAL TEXTILES	Z BUTT TEXTILES
I think this'll be good for a nice work shirt/blouse for me!   This is the fabric for the ruffle-version of my Pendrell Blouse. 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 :)	I think I'll use this for my Burda Magazine 07/2010 #127 Trousers. 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!