Fabric Shopping in Sydney

I have something to confess, which will mean more to the Aussies than others… I had never been to Sydney until last week. I’ve passed through the airport twice, but that soooo doesn’t count. But at last, I remedied that when my husband whisked me away for the night. He had a one day meeting there, we had my cousin staying with us, so we had the perfect excuse, and babysitter already in place, to make the most of the situation and go up a day earlier. So on Tuesday, we played tourist in the city and around the Harbour, and on Wednesday while he went off to work, I went off to play with Molli Sparkles!

Yep, after taking him fabric shopping in Tokyo several times, it was now his turn to lead the way. And lead the way he did! We started off at Achieve, a sewing op shop. Yes, that’s correct, an op shop purely dedicated to fabric and patterns and notions, oh my! It’s a fantastic concept! Run by volunteers with all proceeds going to an adults with disabilities service, they take donations of fabrics, patterns, kits, notions, books, and even unfinished projects! Some of which volunteers will finish off to sell, others are packaged up to sell as-is. I grabbed an adorable vintage print – it reminded me of something from my childhood, and the colours spoke to me! And also some super cheap embroidery hoops, and a crochet hook. I have deep buyer’s regret at not picking up some of the very vintage patterns just for their history and cute covers, though! As we thumbed through the patchwork fabrics, Molli and I truly realised how great we are at fabric shopping together – we both have very different tastes and pretty much never want the same stuff, so we don’t have to fight over bargains!

Next, we headed to Material Obsession. When Molli mentioned that this was on the agenda, I squealed, haha! I had forgotten that MO was in Sydney, and of course I wanted to go check it out! And I was not disappointed. The shop is actually in an old house, and with 3 rooms full of fabric to dig through, it was like going on a little treasure hunt – you never knew what you would find on the shelves, or in the baskets, or stacked up in the Sale Hallway – $10/metre?! Yeah baby! Note – fabric in Australia is usually about $25/metre, hence the excitement. I grabbed an AMH True Colors print and shared the rest of a bolt of Alison Glass Handcrafted with Molli from the Hallway, and dug out a couple of other 1/2m cuts from a basket. Delicious!

After grabbing some lunch at the outlet mall next door, the third stop was Logan’s Patchwork. I gleefully found a couple more blue fabrics for my Tula Blue quilt, including a Star Trek print! This quilt is for me and my husband’s bed, at long last, and Star Trek is a favourite of our’s, so it’ll be fun to fussy cut a bit of that in.

We ended the day at Quiltsmith, which is a glorious store! Not only is it huge, but the staff are incredibly lovely. The owner and I bonded over the Making The Australian Quilt exhibit currently running in Melbourne, as she cut my Cuzco fabrics. Oh yes, they have some old-school Kate Spain still on the bolt! We’re talking as far back as Central Park! As soon as I realised that, I went on a mad treasure hunt, double checking that I had found all they had so I could make sure I had gotten some of my absolute favourite prints. They didn’t have any of the peacocks print from Cuzco left, but I did grab a half metre of my other favourite Cuzco prints. These are destined to become pillow backings for sure! I’ll even make them with a zipper, so as to not lose the integrity of the print 😉

On the way back to the airport, I popped into his place and reassured Mr Sparkles that Molli’s stash is actually quite modest, as we discussed the problems that come with organising stashes in deep cupboards. I then met my husband at the airport and reassured him that my purchases were nothing compared to what Molli picked up… Yep, you all know those discussion well, I’m sure!