Shoppinghaul from London

As promised in my last post, here's the shopping haul from London!

Let's start in Notting Hill... I spent eunough at What Katie Did to get a complementary shopping bag... So cute! But best is still the goodies inside of it =)

A Glamour corselette and chocolate fully fashioned 45 den stockings! I happen to know my boyfriend also walked away with something from WKD... Can it please be Christmas soon?!


A fast hop to Gold Hawk road, and the staggering number of cheap fabric shops, all within 5 min walk of each other. Few of them accepted cards, but that was ok, as a tourist I came with plenty of cash, and oh boy did I put them to good use! All but the last are jerseys, and I doubt there's a single natural fibre in any of them, but they're lovely to touch, have a beautiful drape and a decent recovery. They were 4-5 £/metre, a bargain in my book =)

From right to left: a green dress (for me or for Malin, if she wants it), two red tops, a brown dress for me and a t-shirt for the mr, wool-like heavier patterened blue for a dress, black jersey with black lace for a fancier but comfy dress (blues dancing, work parties etc) and last a polyester silk-like fabric for a slip (test-run before cutting into real silk, and good to have a machine washable version).


Let's hop on to MacCulloch and Wallis on the corner of Oxford street and Dering street! They have an amazing collection of haberdashy, equipment and fabrics of all sorts. The store is divided so the fabric is on the groundfloor, most of the haberdashy and equipment is on the 1st floor, while the trims and so on are on the 2nd floor. While the girls on the fabric floor was angels, the people upstairs were... not so serviceminded. Now, I'm Swedish. I'm polite, patient and don't want to make a lot of fuss. But I still find it unpleasant when a clerk rolls his eyes when I ask for a band being cut. Yes, I wanted 20 metres of it, but still - rolling his eyes? Not so nice. I was very, very happy I had spent a few hours at their website and therefore knew what to ask for, as the store was pretty hard to navigate and not so well-labeled (most things were not labeled at all, actually).
I don't recommend against the shop, not at all! But I do recommend coming with a good idea of what you're looking for and be prepared to be ignored or sighed at when you ask something (they did answer my questions, though). Most important, I found some stuff that just can't be bought anywhere I've seen in Sweden... and def not to those prices! So I'm happy =)

At the top: Gripper waistband. Below it: 20 m of piping cord. At the bottom of the picture: designer tape, wax for handsewing, basting thread, kicktape (brown + black) and two twin needles.


Now, the fabric departement and the lovely ladies who worked there... Totally different experience! No fabric is left laying around in the store, instead huge sample pieces hang on clothing racks. Easy to browse through, cut a piece, feel the drape etc. I had of course a million and one questions about the different interfacings, the lady answered them all, came with suggestions, and ran off to the basement for my fabrics.
In the last minute - like 5 min before they were closing - I asked for a shirting with some specific qualities. She showed me the row of shirtings and I felt a a moment of pure panic. Five minutes and all of those to browse?!!! Then she took one out and said "This one is the one I think best fit's the description you gave...", and it was perfect. Relief! I didn't even glance at the other fabrics =)

Not much to look at like this, but am I weird to find this the most exciting photo of them all? Perhaps =) To the left, interfacings of different sorts (sew-in, fusible, horse hair, hair canvas, chest canvas etc). To the right, pocketing and the aforementioned shirting (a lovely cotton mix with beautiful fall and body. There's a small weave stripe, maybe 2 mm apart).

Leaving the world of sewing and lingerie, I found some books that just had to come home with me =) I had planned to not buy any books, the suitcase get's so heavy but... The gorgeous coffetable book about the Hollywood costume exhibition in Victoria and Albert museum I just had to have. I loved "How to be a woman" by Caitlin Moran, so I of course had to buy her new book. While searching for it at Waterstones, I stumbled over the little "How to be a welldressed wife" by Anne Fogarty and then... =)

This and that. The scarf and the coaster I picked up as we walked along Portobello road towards WKD. I loved the deep chocolate colour on the scarf, and I have a similar coaster that it'll be easier to use when I can also provide a retro-humour coaster for my guest =)

The tie is... a bit hard to see, but I didn't want to remove the protective plastic. It's dark brown with a diagonal weave, and it matches two of the three shirts the mr bought. It's going to look stunning!

That was the week's haul! Or rather, the haul from monday to wednesday, as we just danced during the weekend =) Hope you enjoyed the peek!

Love, Erika