Bonjourno! And Fabric Purchases

Bonjourno!

We are currently on the last few days of our Italy trip… so sad. We’ve just finished a magical 8 days in Rome, and are now ending our trip with 3 days in Venice. I can’t believe a month has gone so quickly.

I had planned to do an outfit post while away… I had my Jasmine blouse and Clover trousers all ready, but the invisible zip busted on the Clovers - I think because I have made them in denim, the zip is not strong enough - have you any thoughts on this? I took them to a tailor in Rome, who inserted the worst looking zip I have ever seen in my life, for the princely sum of 13 euros. So no outfit post.

But… I have done some significant fabric shopping! I couldn’t come to Italy and not buy fabric. Without further ado…

In Rome, I visited Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti (the Fratelli Brothers’ Fabric).

The Assorted Notions blogger has visited there, which was how I initially learnt of this store. It is amazing. There are hundreds and hundreds of fabric rolls. It was kinda hard to sift through due to the sheer volume of fabric. It is organised according to fabric type. I was wandering through it, and came across a wall of silk. Beautiful, luscious silk.  A salesman came over to me (all the sales-people are men), and started to pull out the ones I had touched. I asked how much and he took out a little notebook and wrote 60 euros per metre for each fabric on the wall. I was horrified. That is a lot of money, especially when converted into Aussie dollars! After a short pause, he then crossed out the 60 with flourish and wrote down 25 euros. I smiled. A lot more affordable (though still not that cheap). So I bought two types:

The grey, black and cream is a silk wool. The red and white is a silk twill. Simply divine.

Earlier in our trip, I visited Trieste, which is close to Bassovizza, where Michael’s work was. One day in Trieste I happened across a fabric store (how fortunate!). They were having a summer-weight wool sale (again, how fortunate!). All summer-weight wool was 5 euros a yard. Woo-hoo! So I bought these three:

Sorry for the bad pictures - the grey is a medium-ish weight, and I plan to use it for a tailored jacket. I don’t know if you can see it in the pictures, but there is a light-weight black with a fine but large-scale bright blue check – I think wide-leg trousers - what do you think? There is also a relatively light black with a self-stripe that will be great for a skirt.

Finally, I also went fabric shopping in Singapore. We had one night there. I went to Arab Street, which is an entire street of fabric. I was like a kid in a candy store - we just don't have that in Australia. I bought two Japanese cottons for $12 a metre (which is one of my most favourite fabric types, and much cheaper than I usually pay).

So there you have it! So much fabric to remember our trip by. I'm in a small amount of trouble for adding so much weight to our luggage!

It has been wonderful so far. Little M has been an angel, and is much beloved everywhere we go. I think she’ll think she’s starved for attention when we go home. She’s quite the social butterfly. I don't particularly want to go home, but am looking forward to seeing my friends and family - and sewing of course! And I'm really not looking forward to the flight home - Little M was perfect on the way here, but I'm dreading the way back - wish me luck!