I said ages ago I was going to blog about the crafty things I bought on my Big Europe (and Africa) Trip a year and a half ago. There wasn't a whole lot of stuff, because at the time I didn't knit quite to obsessively as now, and I didn't sew at all.
Nonetheless, in the Liberty after Christmas sales I knew I was onto something when I saw women carrying STACKS of pre-cut pieces of Liberty print fabrics. I just about died at the price (even at half price, the cost of a pre-cut metre seemed abhorrent). Couldn't understand why women were walking out with twelve, fourteen pieces. I contented myself with a single piece of the Ianthe print. It's a pretty iconic art nouveau Liberty print - they also emboss it on journal covers and photo albums, and recently I saw a girl in Perth wearing the most amazing sundress with the Ianthe print blown up so a single repeat took up the whole length of the skirt. Recently when I unfolded and measured the piece I discovered it's actually about a metre and a half long. Generous metre.
The spools are Moroccan silk, for embroidering special-occasion djellabah (kaftans). I was suspicious as to whether they were actually silk, but the fact that a burn test didn't smell bad, and that they are wrapped around spools of bamboo (indicating they've likely come from China) would seem to point to real silk. Thing is, they were 80c a spool, Australian. So, 60c American? (Probably four or five times that if you aren't accompanied by a guide who genuinely seemed to have some kind of mafia connections - only time ever that we paid local prices). They're unplied, and made up of so many fine filaments I honestly can't work out how you'd embroider with them. And they're sold in every single colour. I was told the metreage to a double-spool, but I can't remember it. Something very long, anyway.
Don't mind my washed-out face a bit. That's just the flash. Look at the store/ stall! Makes Gutterman thread look a bit limited, doesn't it? And there were three more just like it nearby.
If anyone has great ideas on what to make with my fabric and/ or my thread, do speak up.
7 comments:
That thread shop - wow.
Is it just me or do those threads go perfectly with the liberty? I'd love to see some embroidery on a piece of it and then framed or stretched! =)
Look at that freaking thread store, oh my word!
Love it all! the thread, the fabric, the store. It looks like something out of a dream!
they do match - it was a sheer coincidence (or an unconscious colour-set-fetish, you know how you go through phases) because they were bought about two months apart with no thought for each other.
Drool! I have no ideas. I'm sorry. But that fabric and those spools and that shop! Just drool!
Now that's what I call eye candy!
Just discovered your blog - that thread show. Amazing!!! Liberty is wonderful to wear in summer, so cool and soft
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