~*NOW CLOSED* ~Sew Grateful - Lets start with a giveaway!

Are you excited?

 Its time for Sew Grateful Week.

If you haven’t come across it before, the idea is over the week we show how grateful we are for the online sewing community.

 But I was scratching my head, wondering what to giveaway. I don't have a massive stash of anything, and lets face it- if I want to give them away, why would you want to receive them?! But I am grateful for the sewing community, so I'm giving away something I don't really want to give away. Remember I said I had some fabric left from the Pin-Up Aprons?

Well....

It could be yours. 

As far as I know its not available in Australia, so here is your chance to grab a little bit of tacky goodness!
You know you want it. Maybe a kinky lining for a bag or jacket, or wear it loud and proud on the outside.
There is just over half a meter up for grabs.

Also up for grabs are two lovely 1970s patterns-

All you need to do is be following the blog and leave a comment. 
Let me know that you've spread the word for an extra entry!
Closes midnight sunday (West Australian time).
Open to all. Make sure there is a way I can get in touch with you- either through your blog or leave an email address.

I think its time to admit I have a problem...

My local Op-Shop sell fabric for $1 per piece, regardless of piece length.

Its getting bad.

Just today, I grabbed 4 remnants- the ones on the right. I only went in to see if they had any knitwear. The other four are recent purchases.

The rest is recent haul. The red is cotton stretch sateen, about 1.5m and really wide. I'm hoping to manage a princess seam dress from it. Because every girl needs a red dress, right?

The frogs are flannel, perfect for baby clothes or maybe some new me PJs. or both. There is plenty.

The pink with the roses was a steal, one of those moments where you feel you should force them to take more money... Its stretch sateen, >2.5m of it. I'm not sure if that dusky rose will suit me, but I'm willing to give it a try for a dollar. I did think I could maybe try dying to too, because I love those roses.

The green is aweome, but I have no idea what to do with it. I thought  it was silk, and from the results of the burn tests I'm nearly sure it is. But its lime green...

The flimsy synthetics I chose for their pretty large scale floral prints, especially the blue one. Its sooo pretty! I'm thinking the top from the colette book for them, to maximise the pretty print.

Do you have a place that makes it that bit too easy to add to the stash?

or how about an idea for what to use some of this fabric for?!

Tessuti Raponi - Milan Fabric Shopping 2

After a frustrating day attempting to fight my way through the Italian Post bureaucracy, and eventually having to move 80kg of rock samples to another town in order to find someone who was willing and able to give me the right form to fill out, I really wasn't in the mood for shopping. In all honesty, I just wanted to just get straight on a plane and go home. But I still had 24 hours until I could do that!

SO I came back into Milan, chilled out at the Duomo for a while and absorbed some calm air, had a shower and headed out in search of the two other shops south of my hostel. 

I headed down a Corsa di Porta Ticinese, with a fair few vintage shops and indie labels, including some awesome shoes. Turning onto Viale Gabriele D'Annunzio, I spotted the sewing machine shop,

And right next door: 

I laughed :D They looked good! You chose your burger, your topping(s), your sauce, and your side. Exactly what you want, designed perfectly for you!

And just further down I came upon Tessuti Riponi.

They had a wide range of fabrics for a very good price. Silks ranged from 15-25 euro, depending on thickness and intricacy, and their wool ranged from around 20 euros. 

There was some lovely felted cashmere, which whilst it was comparatively expensive at around 30 euro per m off a narrow roll, was a bargin for me and other Australians. It was so warm and soft! There was a hot pink one which I loved, but I would never end up wearing as it would be too hot... I did love the woven blue and grey checked one you can see too.

Downstairs were the remnants, sold by weight. From as little as 1euro per 100g to about 15euro.

There was also towelling, sheeting and table cloth type fabric, felt, netting, allsorts down here!

All in all the shop had a great range for what seems like a good price! They also have all the other bits, like zips and eyelet lace, and a wide range of colours of silk threads.

Tessuti Raponi

Viale D'Annunzio,27

ang.Via Panzeri

10 20123- Milano

Open: 09.00 to 12.30 and 15.00 to 19.30 

Monday morning closed

View Larger Map

Mimma Gini Tessuti ~ Milan Fabric Shopping 1

Tucked away down a side street, it took me a while to get my bearings and find this shop. Its actually not hard to find, I just wasn't that sure where I was to start with! I'd landed in Bergamo, bussed into Milan, metro-ed to the hostel, and was keen to start the shopping! At night...

So all the pictures are a little grainy and stealth-mode on the phone. What can I say, I'm a little embarrassed to try and explain why I wanted to take pictures!

The shop is a mix of hand crafted homewares, bags and some clothing, pus some fabrics in the back room. The fabric is gorgeous, but not very clothing oriented. There is lots of upholstery weight cotton and silk, plus some gorgeous stiff gauze which caught the light wonderfully.

I was taken by their silks. Stiff and crispy silk, that I could imagine being a good dress to play up pleats, especially as many had stripes or different sheen in different lights.
Quite expensive though, at around E50 per metre!

Mimma Gini Tessuti

Via Gian Giacomo Mora 11,

20123 Milano

Tel. 0289400722

negozio@tessutimimmagini.it

Open:

Monday: 15:00-19:00

Tuesday-Saturday: 10:00-19:00 

View Larger Map

I might have accidentally bought some fabric already...

I was in town trying to get things sorted for my immanent departure from the mountains (tomorrow- whoop!) and it happened to be market day.
Which was a pain, because the town isn't very big, so all the centre was closed off to fit the stalls, including the main carparks, which meant I had to drive around for ages trying to find somewhere to park in the side streets and compete with all the shoppers from the surrounding villages for the few available spaces since space is at a premium in the valley.

I might have been slightly distracted from my tasks. After all, who can resist a foreign market?! There were lots of clothes, fruit and veg, cheese and meat, some handcrafted wooden items (timber and woodwork is the traditional industry of the valley, along with wool and cheese).

But then I spotted the fabric :)

It was a remnants stall, and mostly had sheer curtains and bed sheets. But they had some nice clothing fabric mixed in. All of it felt synthetic, but the small remnants (1-2m) were only 1 euro. The large ones were 5 euros. But they looked huge.

In amungst I spotted this fabulous stripy fabric. I love the mix of olive greens, sea blues then the shocking orange. Its just the colours that I love to wear as well. Its something synthetic-ish, but quite light.

I instantly saw a top. Maybe not my usual sorbetto style one... I think this fabric needs a bit more of a fitted look. Maybe it can be the first make of the New Look 6829 I won in Fars giveaway! I'm hoping there is enough fabric for view D. The piece is about 150 x 120 cm. Fingers crossed!

Milano Tessuto Ricognizione

Would it be bad to book a hotel based on where the fabric shops seem to cluster?!?

 I'm not that fussed by churches, or art, and if all goes well I'll be back at least twice next year. This year I have 2 nights, and probably one day and a few hours in Milan. I know where my priorities lie- so I want to search out the fabric shops!

I've been putting together a map of fabric shops in Milan. - Negozi di tessuti a Milano

View Fabric Shops Milan in a larger map

The main ones on my list are

Tessuti Raponi - They seem to be the lower end of the market, and apparently used to/still do sell by weight, and include lots of remnants of good fabric. There are 3 in Milan, so I'm sure I cam make it to at least one.

Emmepi Tessuti - They describe themselves as "The Emmepi-Fabrics specializes in the retail sale of fabrics for clothing, classic and trendy, and its supply includes scraps and cuts of excellent quality, prefering those made from natural fibers."

Tessuti Mimmi Gini - they look to have some nice silks and linens in their online store. So definitely worth a look!

And I would like to see what Il Veccio Drappiere has to offer. They look much higher end, but I would love some nice woolen fabric. SO maybe it can be a birthday treat to myself. 

There is also Tessuti Scampoli made famous by fellow sand-groper Carolyn. Its a bit far out of my concentration, so I might have to save it for next time... We'll see how time pans out!

Maybe I will have to mail them back to myself. I think my suitcase will be full of rocks!

PS: Google translate is your friend when it comes to these websites! Or my chrome browser automatically offers to translate for me.

New Patterns!

Since my stash of fabric is growing, I decided to treat myself to a few vintage patterns from BessieAndMaive on etsy.

Butterick 9804 - Since I decided I needed more easy wearing clothes, I thought this might be a good buy. 4 variations, which will probably get made out of cotton lawn or some of all the slightly shear poly I've been stashing (such as this one I got for $1 from the Salvos!). I love the neckline in view C!

Simplicity 8702 - I liked the simple lines of this dress, and it can be shortened into a top easily.

I'm thinking it might go well made from this slightly stretch cotton from the sale last weekend (I think it was about $3 a meter)

And then Style 1157. I loved the bodice on this dress- very different from anything I've made before. 

I love it in the mustard colour in the middle!  

And for this I might play with the direction of these oversized spots/scallopy stripes on the different pannels. $2.50 a meter! 

Or maybe some plain black with coloured/white piping?

Now the question is... which first?!

What would you do with these patterns?