The Final Trip Tease

So... finally, the best bit of my Trip Tease...

I found the most amazing fabric shop in Rome.  I lucked into it, an aside in an old guide-book led me to think it might be worth checking out, and I saw this article when I did a bit of research on the Fancy Young People's Internet (thank you Tony Squires) - and OMG, was it ever amazing!

I have never seen so much fabric in one place in my life.  Honestly.  I've been to Liberty in London (mostly pretty but boring), fabric shops tucked away in the East End of London where I was studiously ignored because, the shop owners told me afterwards, they couldn't believe a white person would be interested in buying African fabric, shops where my Vietnamese friend helped me get the best cash-only deals, shops where every single fabric was made from some artificial fibre or other, shops where I couldn't afford to buy 20cm, let alone 3 metres, Spotlight, Lincraft, you name it.  I have never seen so much fabric in one place in my life.  Oh, did I already say that?  Yep.  But it was worth saying again:

So, I'm 168cm tall, that's 5'6" in old money.  This photo was taken at my eye level, and the rack goes all the way up to the ceiling - maybe 20'/3 metres?  

We must have wandered through 10 rooms, and apparently, there are two floors.  I must admit I didn't take pictures of the suiting, the sheeting, the linings, the Chanel-y type wools, the upholstery fabrics, the denims, the stretch fabrics, the knits, the damasks, the laces, the wedding fabrics, the sequinned masterpieces, the handpainted silks, the hand-embroidered silks and satins, the velvets, the really nasty shiny vinyls, the viscoses, polyesters and even nasty nylons, but I couldn't resist the shirting:

This rack also went up to the ceiling, and you must admit, my helper does have a great arse.  Oops.  That just slipped out, honest.  Can you believe how many different blue shirtings there are?  They had every colour you could think of - from white to black with every shade in between, pique, pin-striped, checked and spots.  Man, it was difficult to choose, but I did.  Trust me.

I also bought some beautiful lilac coloured silk jersey, don't ask me what I'm going to do with that, and some exquisite silk with a tiny tiny Houndstooth print, with fantastic drape, which would be perfect for a cowl neck blouse and I have just the pattern, Butterick B4132...

For the shirting, I'll probably use this pattern, or something similar. Ah, joy.  Nice to be able to feed the addiction...

And that's it for the holiday.  Admittedly there were other events, other venues, other meals and other locations, but I'm sure you're as sick of reading about it as I am of writing about it.  I'm going to bore you rigid now with planning my next one, in 2013, just in time for our 20th Wedding Anniversary.  Any suggestions?

Ciao!