Fabric shopping

One of my Delhi shopping buddies, the darling Kati, left Delhi over 12 months ago (and I miss her terribly) but she did leave a lovely legacy with me ....  that of trawling through the fabric shops of Lajpat Nagar and Nehru Place, looking for beautiful fabric, buying a few metres .... and then figuring out what to do with it later!  

Today I bought a few metres of this beautiful thick chinese satin to be used for a table cloth for Chinese New Year dinner.  What would you pay for this in the UK, the States or Australia?  $20, 30 or more????? a metre?  Two metres of this fabric, purchased at Nehru Place, equates to one adult movie ticket back home! 

If it costs me more than $2.50 to have it edged by the tailor up the road I'd be surprised.  I'd do it but my sewing skills are so attrocious that I'd end up sewing it onto itself and getting it all caught up between the foot of the sewing machine and the bobbin!

I do love to trawl through the fabrics.  The selections are amazing, the saree fabrics simply gorgeous, the range of colours of satin astounding, the silk so soft, and the linen sooo cheap!  I really have to contain myself because I don't really know what to do with half the stuff I oggle, ooh & ahhh over but it's all soooo beautiful, even the fluffy cookie monster fabric!  God I wish I could sew!  Why ohhhh why didn't I listen in Home Ec class?

Most of my curtains came from Lajpat - poly silks for 50roopies a metre (that's about 85c a metre!!!!).  

I have had a few duds, but I guess that's what you risk when you're only spending 100roopies a metre!  One fabric that just pulled apart when my tailor tried to cut out a pattern, and shirt fabric I'd bought to have work shirts made for Dean .. had holes all the way through when I opened it up ... note to self, don't get distracted when the assistants are cutting the fabric!

For Emmaline's sewing lessons, I bought this assortment of plain cotton at 100rupees a metre.

Anyway, last time I was at Nehru Place I took some pics of the fabrics at only two of the multitude of shops, this is just a small selection .......

blingy sari

even blingier!

it just goes on and on.....  

 can't wait to take Mum fabric shopping when she's here next month!