aHi everyone,

When I moved to London two years ago, I looked for the shops to buy fabric. It’s only recently that I’m feeling comfortable saying that I have found my favourite shops. So here is a list of them!

Fabric shops of Goldhawk road

My first favourite place is Goldhawk Road in Sheperd’s Bush area. I like the fact that there are several shops close to each other, which means if I go out of the first shop with an empty basket, I didn’t make the journey for nothing as there are at least 10 other shops to explore! The variety of fabric is amazing and they’re quite cheap I’d say. I’ve seen people bargaining so it can be even cheaper, if you feel comfortable bargaining. These shops reminds me of some of the fabric shops in the area of Montmartre in Paris, the small ones at least. To list only the ones where I’ve bought fabric:

• A One Fabric, 50-52 Goldhawk Rd
• Classic textiles, 44 Goldhawk Rd
• Misan West, 21 Goldhawk Rd

There are many other stores in this street and in Sheperd’s Bush Market that are worth a visit, and again, they are close to each other so you could actually spend the day there in theory.

Fabric shops near Oxford Circus

My second favourite place is Oxford Circus. Not that I particularly like Oxford Circus crowds, but from there, I also like the fact that I can explore several places to buy fabric. To list only the ones where I’ve bought fabric:

• John Lewis, 300 Oxford St
• Liberty, Regent St
• MacCulloch & Wallis, 25-26 Poland St

I put them all in the same basket, but they are obviously very different…the only common point is that you need to have some budget if you buy from these places! I

like John Lewis selection and the way the fabrics are presented. There is always something I want to buy there.

In Liberty, I’ve always bought the fabrics on sales. I’m not a big fan of all the flowery prints, but there are some amazing non-flowery prints too.

For MacCulloch & Wallis, I like the fact that you can cut swatches from the samples in the middle of the shop, and the selection is huge. I feel that the fabrics are a bit in disorder though (or maybe it’s me getting easily distracted by all sorts of fabrics!).

In this area, there are other places that I like, but where I’ve never bought any fabric from: Misan Textiles in Berwick St (the layout and price are quite intimidating to me), the Cloth House (I love all the cottons and linens there, so weird I haven’t purchase anything yet!) and quite a few more in Berwick St.

Other fabric shops in London

Then, there are other shops that I like, in different places of London:

• The Cloth Shop, 290 Portobello Rd, close to Notting Hill: I bough furnishing fabrics there, but they have some you could use for dressmaking. I love the atmosphere of this shop!

 

• Sew Over It, 319 Essex Road, in Islington: love the selection there.

 

• The Village Haberdashery, West Hampstead Square, in West Hampstead: I just discovered that one, and it’s the closest to my place!!

 

• Rainbow Fabric, Kilburn Square market, in Kilburn. This tiny shop is a hidden gem in London. Go search for an ex-designer fabric in the fabric rolls of this shop.

 

I have probably missed a lot of shops that true Londoners know about, but I still have to discover a lot.

In a next post I’ll talk to you about my favourite places to buy fabric in Paris and online!