I’ve been to fabric shop heaven again, AKA Goldhawk Road in West London! I went for the first time last year and was a bit overawed by the sight of fifteen or so fabric shops all next-door to each other,this time I wasn’t hampered by the constraints of carrying it on the train back to Yorkshire either, so I could really enjoy myself!

We were staying in Richmond, a town on the outskirts of London, thanks to a £1 raffle ticket prize! We went to a charity dinner a few months ago and this was the last prize drawn, we thought it might be a bit of a booby prize so we were amazed to find it was a two night stay in a 4* hotel in Richmond, including dinner!

View from Richmond Hill

My immediate thought was ooh, fabric shopping! I suggested to my OH that we had one day doing something together and one day doing our own thing. He was more than happy with that as he wanted to go to the Imperial War Museum again.

We arrived at the hotel on Friday morning and had a lovely day wandering round Richmond (named after the Yorkshire town of Richmond)  we were staying at a hotel on the top of Richmond Hill so we had great views across the countryside, it always amazes me just how green it is just a few miles out of London. We walked along the Thames path to Ham House which was built in 1610.

On Saturday I traveled by bus to Goldhawk Road, it was only about 15 minutes longer than tube and train and I much prefer buses. I like looking at the architecture as I’m going along.

Goldhawk Road didn’t disappoint! I thought I was pretty restrained, I only bought just over 25m!

I went with the idea that I wanted some summer dress lengths, I fancy some shirtdresses and just some pretty cotton everyday dresses. I found a few lengths I liked, the pretty pink one was only about £5/m, Liberty Tana lawn was about £10/m. My favourite is the blue geometric print, it’s a silk and cotton mix, about 30% silk, 70% cotton, it feels gorgeous, the assistant reckoned it would be washable on a delicate cycle, I think I might test a scrap first! I thought it was a bargain at £7 a metre.

I bought a couple of knit fabrics, the printed grey lace effect is a really pretty jersey, probably for a simple dress, the cream knit has tiny sequins in too and I thought that would be nice for a cardigan.

The cream cotton is actually a broderie anglais with the pattern stitched in stripes. My original plan was for a shirt / top, so I just asked for 1.5m as its 150cm wide. It left about 1.3m at the end of the roll. The assistant was trying to persuade me to buy it, I could have it for £17 instead of £20, I can be a tough cookie when it comes to bartering, I offered £15, he wasn’t happy but I stuck to my guns, I did offer to have my 1.5m of another almost identical roll, eventually I got the piece for £15! I’m undecided now whether to make a shirtdress or a Gabriole skirt!

The other three lengths were some polyester dupion, I just loved the plum colour, some black denim for some Morgan Jeans (I am going to get round to making some jeans, promise!) and a jacket length in a purply tweed which I’m hoping doesn’t look to stripy when it’s made up.

So my stash has increased somewhat in June, not only have I just bought several lengths at Goldhawk Road, the three sari’s I bought off ebay are about 5m each…

June Stash Report

Stash at end of May 79.4m

Fabric used 5.2m

Fabric purchased 40.8m

Total stash at end of June 115m

I think I need to make some high yardage clothes, watch out for dresses and Gabriole skirts!!