On Saturday we took a “cheer me up” trip down to Brighton, with the dual purpose of taking me back to my student days (I studied at Sussex for a year in 99/00) and buying some more fabric in some new uncharted ground! I did a bit of research first and found there were a few fabric shops clustered around the North Laines and again on Western Road, so we made our attack plan based on these…
New Fabric Fair
51 Gardner Street, BN1 1UN, 01273 605512
A small shop stocked to the rafters with bolts everywhere, including leather offcuts outside. A huge variety of braided trims, dress polys, stretch lace, and zippers for a pound each. Some great linens, wool suitings, and soft brushed cottons here and the husband & wife team were very attentive, though bring cash as they don’t do cards or cheques!
I bought this super soft brushed cotton (and a matching peach zipper) with this BWOF dress in mind…
Ditto Fabrics
21 Kensington Gardens, Brighton, BN1 4AL, 01273 603771
www.dittofabrics.co.uk (though the owners stress that not everything in store is online because it takes so much time to photograph everything!)
Really great quality stuff here – lots of designer name offcuts and really nice quality viscose knits, denims, silk charmeuses, and solid colour interlocks. The staff were super helpful and reminded me to prewash the fabrics and started talking about other customers who’d made tops from the fabric I bought. They stock Gutermann threads and a full range of Big 4 + Burda envelope patterns, too. My favourite of the 5 fabric shops I visited in Brighton!
I really needed some plain black cotton interlock so I grabbed a bunch of that, plus some kiddie print cotton for baby gifts (SO many pregnant friends due in Aug & Sept!!). And then I fell in love with their viscose/lycra knits, which they had in about twenty different prints and were soooo soft with great recovery. I finally settled on this black and white swirling dots print which is an offcut from Dolce & Gabbana (at a very reasonable £6.99/m, too!). I resisted the temptation of the many silk charmeuse prints (at £10.99/m they were cheaper than the prints at Goldhawk Road!) and grabbed another designer fabric, this time a 100% cotton suiting from Prada, with either the BWOF June cover dress or one of KnipMode’s shirt dresses in mind…
Michelle LeMaitre
20 Church Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1RB, 01273 738836
A small shop just off the North Laines that stocks only quilting cottons in fabulous designs. I noticed a huge variety of Alexander Henry and Michael Miller here, with even a Merimekko or two thrown in. The A. Henry designs were a bit steep at £12.99/m but you’re paying for the name and print here. I didn’t end up buying anything here, but I was sorely tempted by the buff half naked cowboys print…
Fabric Land
76 Western Road, Brighton, BN1 2HA, 01273 822257
www.fabricland.co.uk
The biggest of the Brighton fabric shops, spread over two big floors with loads of trims, lace, buttons, haberdashery, costume fabrics, and jeryes. Beware though as some of the cotton jerseys felt kinda cheap, but everything was well labelled for price and some for fibre count. It was really nice to see the shop bursting at the seams with lots of people on a Saturday afternoon, and their site says this location is open Sundays, too.
I must’ve felt a hundred cheap cotton jerseys before I found this really nice quality navy hoop stripe jersey, and then directly after finding that I scored this lycra jersey in the remnant bin, which I think should be just big enough to make a sleeveless cowl top from this dress pattern my mom just brought.
I’ve added photos of all of these individually, with details of the amounts and price to the bottom of my Fabrics gallery if you want more details. I think the short version here is that if you’re going to Brighton for the day, first head towards the North Laines (which is a great area anyway, with lots of quirky shops and cafes) and then come back towards the clock tower and follow Western Road out to Fabric Land, and if you’ve got time (which we didn’t) hit up the two shops in Hove.
View Brighton fabric shops in a larger map.
(Remember, I’ve got my favourite London fabric shops in a map already!)
James even did some shopping and got this hilarious canvas shopper in the style of Keep Calm & Carry On!
We felt it wise to obey the bag, and bought more fabric! You’re all welcome.