London: habby hell
June 18, 2010
When I say London is a difficult place to sew, this is what I mean.
The Project: Converting thrifted cashmere sweater into cardigan.
The Mission: A trip to the nearest haberdashery supplier reasonably likely to stock everything I need.
Supplies purchased:
- 2 m poly satin ribbon in color sort of vaguely approximating cardigan (they didn’t have any green grosgrain)
- 1 spool thread in color a bit closer to my cardigan
- 12 shell buttons
- 2 seam rippers
Total cost: £15.28 [convert this to your local currency]
- Seam rippers: £2 each
- Shell buttons: 60p each
- Ribbon: 40p/metre
- Thread: £1
- Tax (17.5%): £2.28
Total time spent: 2 hours
- 45 minutes’ cycle ride to shop
- 10 minutes in shop
- 1 hour 5 minutes’ cycle ride home (rush hour, multiple detours, coat fell out of basket at one point and had to be retrieved)
Reasons why I am sewing a cardigan in June:
- Current temperature: 55°F
- Average temperature drop after sunset: approximately 20°F
- Brora’s certainty that you will need a cashmere sweater even in summer: 100%
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Is TEMPTATION ALLEY at 361 PORTOBELLO ROAD
(W10 5SA) near you? Their selection is pretty amazing.
I live in orthern Ontario where our only local resource is a Quilt Cotton Store that has a few notions.
So I stock up when I can; Charity Shops, Thrift Stores, Garage Sales!
20+ years ago I bought 50 or so reels of Rayon Seam Binding; still have not run out; I have a ‘display unit’ of threads bought from an alterations hand going out of business, and always scour the crafts section in thrift shops for Patterns and notions. Sometimes you can pick up a baggie full of lace or trim, or of buttons, and t is always worthwhile.
Last month I got a big bag full of buttons; sat for two eveings sorting them and stringing them. Very few were singletons, some were a minimum of three and most were sets of 8 or more the same size or 4 of one size and 4 of another. So they all were sorted and strung ready for re-use.
Our thrift shops will have an end of season clearance when you can pay $5 or $10 for a Garbage Bag and fill it with textiles, clothing, or material. I select clothes to re-use as materials, to re-use the trim, buttons, or zippers, and even re-cycle the shoulder pads.
So my sewing room is better stocked than the shop in town and I always have a suitable choice of buttons or trim!
Dare I say that my one Gran crocheted a waistcoat for her fiancee; they were wed in 1916, and I still have the remains of the last spool of Silk Twist from that! Being a pack rat runs in the family!
Liz
I am lucky enough to be within a short drive of some wholesale haberdashery suppliers, who also do online. a stitch ripper will cost about £2.50 for 10. but you may need some sewing friends to share them with. reels of elastic (miles of the stuff) cost a couple of quid and they have every colour and quality of bias, ribbon, zip, etc you could want. Favourite finds are tape with hook and eye fastenings, (excellent for tutus) and bags of machine needle packs, at 20 packs for £3.00ish. Yes VAT has to be acounted for but it is so much better than a shop!
Try Taylors supplies in google, see whether it helps.
(no I do not work for them, just use them!)
whoa! what the what – £2 for a seam ripper? that’s seriously pricey – Macculloch and Wallis? They always catch me on the VAT-not-included prices. I buy my haberdashery almost solely from Wimbledon Sewing Machine co near Tooting Bec, or Rolls and Rems these days.
Nice colour for a cardigan though – and it’ll still be cheaper than a new cashmere cardi after all!
That is expensive, but I doubt I could find much better here in Sweden… Fabric and yarn can be found at bargain-prices at sales, but sewing supplies always seems to be expensive!
What strikes me is the time getting around. So glad I now live in a much smaller city!
Although a light summer cardigan (long sleeved, of course) is very much needed here as well, boy it’s sounds cold in London! At least it isn’t freezing here at night. I hope the weather will turn soon for you, and summer will come. They’re talking about proper summer weather for the coming weekend here, hope that reaches you as well!
I feel your pain! My mum works in London but couldn’t find the right colour satin bias binding for a T-shirt alteration she had planned whilst she was there, so asked me to get it in Barcelona! Seriously? What’s up with the sometimes lame-assed/expensive selection in London? To be fair to London, my mum didn’t know about MacCulloch and Wallis until I sent her the link. Hope the cardi is keeping you cosy! xxx
I do think that’s high. You paid $23.14 CAD for your purchases. I just spent $50.00, tax included, at a half-price sale in Ottawa, or rather my sister shopped for me and brought it to me. I got three patterns, six metres of fabric, four spools of Gutermann thread, a coat zipper, a package of glass-headed pins, a package of good needles for hand sewing, a package of tracing paper and a tracing tool. I paid more than twice as much, but I think I got more for my dollar. Now, if I’d been paying full price, it would have been $100 CAD or 66.01 your money, and then I’m not sure I’d be ahead. I suppose London stores have higher rentals to pay, and that puts prices up.
Your post brings to mind a pet peeve of mine, which is businesses that don’t sell what they’re supposedly in business to sell. Why would a haberdashery have no grosgrain ribbon? Why did my sister have to leave a fabric store and go to a quilting store to buy decent handsewing needles? If you’re in the business of selling sewing supplies, why don’t you STOCK them? (Oh, my, did I get carried away? End of rant. Can’t wait to see your sweater.)
I’m not within walking distance of a haberdashery but I’m within a short drive of a Hobbycraft (HUGELY expensive!) and some Asian fabric stores that have a pretty good haberdashery section. Otherwise – it’s Ebay or other online stores, and hoping for the best! I’m sure that this is why I have such a big stash of stuff – you have to buy plenty of whatever’s available!
Is that expensive? Things are just as bad in Australia. I went to the shop the other day to buy thread and sewing needles and general bits and pieces of nothing exciting and it was $100!!!! I couldn’t believe I spent $100 on nothing really. Outrageous!
Can’t wait to see the finished result. I love nothing more than a cashmere cardigan.
It’s the weight of the final package I find distressing. For £15 I kind of expect something at least as heavy as a bag of candy. Don’t get me started on how few bags £100 in groceries require…
You just made me feel very grateful for the two resources I have within walking distance! I have a friend who lives in Wales and I love when I get to speak to him about University and we share the complete and utter differences in our countries!
~Kelli @ Smidgens
Yikes those are expensive buttons! And how weird that the tax had to be added afterwards.
I think it’s most of central Europe that is so expensive. I live in Belgium and have to spend a lot on sewing as well. I’m always shocked by the Americans with their 10$ skirts and such. I just made a circle skirt that needed 4 metres shell fabric and 4 metres lining. That together with all the notions I must have spent close to €80.
I have problems with finding a good haberdashery too, now that I live in Gent there is only one that I’m reasonably happy with. I miss the one from where I used to live, that one had everything you could ask for.
Ouch! I’m a Londoner to and it was definitely the price of the buttons that got you! I agree crafting resources are probably better in the states but there can be some cheaper places here, Fabricland has cheap buttons (and far too cheap material, ie not good quality) and John Lewis is always reasonably priced.
Wow! I didn’t know that London was so poor on sewing resources. Bad form, I say. I am doubly grateful to have easy access to resources now.
I have some great online resources, too. They ship internationally (reasonable costs) and have great sales: http://www.hawthornethreads.com. It’s run by a husband and wife team.
I heart you so much for using schadenfreude as a tag!
ouch!that’s like $30-45 new zealand dollars.I would pay maybe $10 tops here and I live in a small town…
I should thank my lucky stars that I live within easy walking distance of no less than three very decent haberdashery shops, one of which has great fabric and a staff discount. It is a small consolation for living in the middle of a sub-tropical nowhere. You live in the center of the universe!
(I hated London while I lived there, too. Love-hate. Very fierce and passionate. At least its pretty and interesting and full of amazing free museums.)
I would love living in London if I had a personal teleporter. It’s the hours of my waking life I spend on transport that are breaking me.
Unseasonably cool here in Southern California (about 30 miles inland from the beach, where it’s much cooler) …. in the 80′s, sometimes even the high 70′s (brrrr!)
I’d still love to be in London….
rena
55°F summers are what my dreams are made of. I’m not man enough for the 101°F heat index over here.