Fabric Shopping Outside of Rome

Now, outside of Rome.  You can see the post on fabric stores I visited in Rome here.

The market in Mantova (Mantua) was my favourite fabric buying experience, and my favourite shopping experience in general.  The market takes over all of the streets in the older part of the city, where there are stalls selling everything from clothing, to kitchenware, to sandwiches.  There were two main fabric stalls with some beautiful fabric at low prices, and another couple of stalls selling ribbons and buttons and so forth.  Everyone knew the names of the owners at the first stall, and the poor woman in particular was being run ragged by everyone shouting for her.

In Florence I stumbled upon some of the most exotic fabric I had ever seen.  Let's take a closer look at the right hand most window.

You may look at the skirt on the right mannequin below and say to yourself, "Self, is that fabric made of what appears to be emu feathers?"  Yes, yes it was.

And how much might a meter of feather fabric set you back?  248 Euro.

Here is the last set of photos for you today.  This was a lovely little shop in Vicenza across from the Basilica Palladiana at Piazza dei Signori.  I believe they specialized in some of the most beautiful wool and silk fabrics I had ever seen.

Fabric Shopping in Rome

Since my last post, life has been pretty crazy.  I spent a few months in Italy.  While there I, of course, checked out the fabric stores, and I brought back a few pictures (and pieces!) to share.  The first two posts will be focused on the shops themselves in Rome and outside, and the next posts will cover fabrics and pattern magazines.

This first shop I found was located in the Jewish quarter of Rome and had reasonable prices and some cute prints.  They took only cash with a one meter minimum.  There was another shop in the area which sold patterns, buttons and laces, but I went back several times and couldn't find it anywhere.

This is the inside of the famous Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti.  Rooms and rooms and rooms 

of fabric, but interestingly nothing that really caught my eye.  This may be because I was so overwhelmed by the sheer volume, but it seemed the vast majority of the fabric was very "ordinary".

I'm not sure of the name of this place, but it was right along the Via delle Botteghe Oscure.  They has some lovely fabrics at a range of moderate to higher prices.

This was a shop I stumbled upon by accident while on my way back from the aqueduct park one night.  It's out in the "real" Rome, outside of the old city walls.  It's called Settanni Tessile Arredamento on Via Tuscolana and they sold fabrics, as well as household linens and other fabric/household things at everyday sort of prices.   I was lucky enough that they had a new hire as of two day who spoke English, and I picked up two lovely pieces here.

A few doors down was a sewing machine store.

So that was my fabric store experience in Rome.  Up next, part 2 outside of Rome!