Fabric Shopping in Dalston

This post may not be of much interest to those who don't live in London, but there are some pretty pictures at the end, so stick with it.

I've lived in Dalston 17 years - I'm quite attached to it! I've seen it go from an undiscovered, slightly neglected little corner of East London, to the so-called 'New Notting Hill', with a new coffee bar/art gallery/cool pub opening every week. Where previously when you told someone you lived in Dalston, the reaction was usually 'Where?' or 'Ooh, it's a bit rough there'. Now it's 'I wish I could live there, but I can't afford it now that it's so cool.'

But I sort of miss the scruffy old Dalston that was here when I moved into the area in 1994. (Don't get me wrong - its got a long way to go before it's considered posh...) It worries me that all of this 'improvement' will drive out all of the things which made Dalston unique. The cheap and cheerful Turkish restaurants, the £1 jewellery stalls and cheap housewares on Ridley Rd market, and all the afro hair stores. And my favourites - the fabric shops and stalls. Normally, I like to keep all of my secret places to myself, but I'm going to share a few with you, in the hope that a few people will check them out and support them.

First, the stalls of Ridley Rd Market:

Fabric stall, Ridley Rd.

On any given day, there are at least 4 fabric stalls on the market, as well as several permanent shops, selling a variety of goods, mostly viscose and rayon, some cottons, sometimes even a bit of wool. And they're all cheap as chips! I love the 50p stall:

50p stall

 This is where I bought the fabric for my leopard dress from last Halloween. 

I also love this stall, just for it's craziness. I always find intersting buttons and trims here:

Haberdashery explosion!

A few more stalls:

But the store I seem to use the most is Dalston Mill Fabrics, which is a permanent shop at the end of the market.

Dalston Mill Fabrics, trading for over 30 years

This relatively small entrance hides an Aladdin's cave of fabrics and haberdashery. There isn't really anything they don't have, from everyday fabrics to fancy evening silks and beautiful woollens. It's not the cheapest, but the selection is brilliant. This is just 1 room:

A sneaky picture I took of the suitings room...

There's also an extensive range of haberdshery, as well as a small selection of knitting wool, beading, and embroidery supplies. They even have huge feather boas and fox furs hanging from the ceiling. Every time I visit, I go in with one idea and come out with something completely different. And they have a great selection of oil cloth's, of which this is one:

How insane is that?!

Next, another long established Dalston business - William Gee:

If you want a truly vintage experience, visit William Gee for linings, interfacing, buttons, zips, and all the paraphenalia you need for dressmaking. Established in 1906, this still has the feel of a shop from Edwardian times - you enter a somewhat bleak room with 2 long wooden counters, where you have to wait in line to be served by the next available member of staff. Everything you would ever need is stacked in neatly labelled boxes behind the counters, and unlike some stores which also sell wholesale, no request is too small. And they have some fab window displays:

A recent bias tape themed display

 That's it for my round up of Dalston's best fabric shops. if you're ever in the area to attend a Japanese Jazz workshop, or check out the latest in artistic, sustainable roof gardens, don't forget about all of these businesses that have been here through thick and thin to make Dalston what it is today.

And here are the pretty pictures I promised - rainbows over Ridley Rd Market, taken last week:

The Making of a Knitted Rock God

Watching 'Lemmy the Movie'

Can you guess who it is yet?

 

It's Slash! When I joined Lakota's blog swap project, I was pleased to get Liza at The Vintage Knitter. Brilliant! I was already a follower, and knew she liked heavy metal, vintage Twinkle annuals, and knitting (of course!) She sent me a great bunch of gifts, so I had a lot to live up to. I hit upon the idea of combining knitting and rock by creating the woolly guitarist you see above. I took a Joey Ramone dolly pattern from Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller and improvised the rest. And I was able to make it out of oddments, so kept it under the maximum spend.


Go check out The Vintage Knitter to see what she thought of it!
 

From Lumpy to Lovely

My home is in disarray because Mr Needles and I have decided to re-decorate, as we want to sell up someday soon, and as a neat freak/control freak, I find it a bit hard to cope with everything being all over the place (where did all of these shoes come from?), so I need stuff to take my mind off of it. 

Admit it, it's a bit lumpy.....

 I bought this jumper last year from a thrift store in a Miami suburb. I can't remember the price - maybe about $5 - and even though I wasn't quite sure about it at the time, I thought how bad could it be ...... because it has HUGE SILVER SEQUIN BOWS ON THE SHOULDERS !!!!!! -

Brilliant bows!

 Judging by the label (below) and the feel of the fabric (pure, luxurious acrylic!) it looks like it's from the 80', maybe late 70's:

 But when I tried it on, it's just a big shapeless thing with these big sequin lumps on the shoulder. Not one to be put off, I decided it would be much better as a little cardigan. I've noticed how vintage knitwear from the 50's and 60's is often faced with grosgrain ribbon along the buttonholes and buttonband.

With this in mind, I went off to Ridley Rd market for 3 m of black ribbon (total : £1.98) and then set about making it much less lumpy!

First, I found the centre front and ran some tacking stitches along this line. I also undid a few of the sequins at the neck and secured them with pins, to be re-stitched later:

Close up of un-stitched seqins

Next, I pinned a length of ribbon each side of the centre front tacking, on the wrong side of the jumper:

This was stitched in place, then the jumper was cut along the tacking stitches.Then I folded the ribbon around to the front, and stitched it back down:

I tried it on at this stage; the length is still a bit too long, and unflattering. I pinned ribbon about 4" from the bottom edge, and did the same as the front.

And voila!

Now it's more like a little jacket. As I'm a bit lazy, and I'm not that keen on the buttonholes my machine makes, I decided to just fasten it with a little crystal button at the neck.

I took these photos a little while after finding out that Amy Winhouse had passed away. Such a shame. Shooting stars shine brightest.

Knitting Mysteries

I made the jumper in this pattern a little while ago, and have worn it loads of times since. But there were a few mysteries on this pattern, which I've been attempting to investigate. 
  Number 1 -

I noticed this photo caption on the inside cover. It's this picture which drew me to the pattern in the first place - where was this crazy swinging 60's haunt, and was it still there? I had dreams of being able to re-create the photo. After some searching on the web (it's actually spelt Flanagan's), I found out it was a well known restaurant at 100 Baker St, seemed to be known for it's steaks, and is even mentioned on the website for Focal Point, a group based in Liverpool in the 60's, who hung out there when they were in London. Imagine - I was getting more and more excited about visiting! 

But it was not to be - Flanagan's is gone, and is now a branch of a popular pizza chain. Oh well......

 Number 2 -

I noticed this on the back of the pattern. It's something I've seen on loads of Emu patterns, ranging from the 50's to the 70's. Who was Janet Minton? Was she an all knowing knitting goddess, who could answer any knitting query? Or was it just a name used by a group of people at Emu, to give the impression of a personal service? When you Google the name, you just get more pictures of Emu leaflets, but no info on the great lady herself (I assume she is great - she must be if she can answer all knitting questions!)  Does anyone know anything about her?

Vintage Knitter Swap Partner Gifts

Best parcel ever!

The other Friday, I got home from a hard day at work to find the most brilliant parcel waiting for me. It was covered in stickers of all my most favourite things, even a picture of 'Meet Me in St Louis', one if my favourite movies:

 It could only be one thing - my swap partner parcel fom Liza at The Vintage Knitter! And it did not disappoint! 

All of the gifts were beautifully wrapped, stacked up in a little pile; one even had some lilac ric-rac trim (I love ric-rac; I should use it more...):

I greedily tore them open, to find these lovely things:

 All the best-est things in the world - 2 Stitchcrafts from the 1940's, a great coral nail varnish from Barry M, , a beautiful 1930's purse, a book full of great sewing diagrams (I love a good diagram!), and best of all, a great swallows necklace, made by Liza's own fair hand. Be sure you check out her work at Buttoned Up Betsy - her prices are so reasonable, it would be a shame not to.

Great Barry M varnish

  I've worn the necklace quite a bit, it goes with everything:

 I'm 3/4 of the way through my parcel for Liza, but the bar has been set so high, I don't know if I can meet these levels of wonderful-ness. It will be winging its way to you soon!