I've been to fabric porn heaven and back....

Rodney and I went to Melbourne for 4 days to celebrate a friends 80th birthday. Getting me to leave home is always a challenge akin to separating objects joined with superglue....so I went with a pouty lip big enuf to trip over....

We arrived Saturday and went into the city centre to meet Rodneys twin sister and have a wander around. The fabric shop Tessuti is near Flinders Station and I've bought fabrics and patterns from them online so I went to check them out. It is a very tasteful and upmarket shop with a great range of high quality imported fabrics from Europe. Exquisite linens and prints were available. Unfortunately they were rather too expensive for my budget, average price range being $15 to $100 metre. The 2 fabrics I liked the most were $18 and $45 a metre so I made myself resist the temptation....

On Monday we had a few hours to fritter way in the morning so idly wandered up the main street of the suburb Glen Huntley where we were staying....and then...tah daaaah!....drumroll, trumpets....

exterior of Darn Cheap Fabrics, Glen Huntley, Melbourne AUS

....I came across "Darn Cheap Fabrics" the best fabric shop I've been in for probably 20 years! This is the kind of fabric emporium that ceased to exist a few decades ago since the Spotlight marketing strategy from the 1990s drove little independently owned shops to the wall and out of business. It was redolent of the "old days" when we truly had diversity and difference and speciality. I was in swoons-ville at the great variety of fabrics  -  AND! so many in the very affordable price range, like $5 -$50.

Heres some pictures inside the shop...

Its not a huge shop, but big enough to have such a wide variety of good stuff that it'll probably take hours to drool over! Also a fantastic selection of trims and buttons.

Needless to say, I had to post the 10 kilos of fabrics I bought to my home address, as to take the excess baggage home on the plane would have cost $70!

They have a website and do mailorder - www.darncheapfabrics.com.au

me with my booty from Darn Cheap Fabrics