Oh what a day! Yesterday, I received an email from Tessuti announcing their in-store sale. You know, I follow their blog, and browsing their website for months, and I decided that today was the day – finally! - for a visit into town to their store in Flinders Lane.

I hardly go into town these days. Back in the day, I spent so many Saturdays walking around. My favourite stores were Georges – anyone remember that one? If you said “yes”, you’ve now aged yourself! Ha! And after that, my next favourite stores were, as I’ve mentioned on my About Me page, Buckley and Nunn’s fabric floor, and occasionally, Clegs.

Today, I caught the train into Flinders Street, then walked up Swanston Street to Flinders Lane, crossed Russell Street, and opened the door into 141 Flinders Lane. Tessuti. What a beautiful shop this is! Wide open floor space, beautiful fabrics catching my eye on every shelf, a fabulous, long wooden table to sit at while flipping pages of the pattern books, and lovely staff to answer your questions and help you find exactly what you’re looking for. This morning, they were “flat-out”, they said, as they busily priced fabric rolls to reflect the sale pricing. But I have to tell you, you wouldn’t know they were flat-out. They seemed calm, had seemingly plenty of time to just hang out with you while you talked to them about what you needed, what you were looking for, etc. Such a fabulous atmosphere. I can see myself spending heaps of money time there!

So, what did I buy today? First, I bought one of their Japanese pattern books, “Sewing Talk”. I walked around the store, talked to Nic, she found me some stretch fabric that would be perfect for the pants I want to make, found out that they don’t actually sell patterns there, they just have the books for inspiration purposes. So, with book in hand, I walked back down Flinders Lane to Swanston Street where I caught the tram to South Melbourne to have lunch with my daughter, Gitta. Have you been to Hunky Dory in Clarendon Street? You should try it if you haven’t. Fabulous seafood for lunch, and don’t forget to have a glass of one of their wines with it. We have a lovely Sav Blanc.

After lunch, I went back into town on the tram, got off at Collins and Elizabeth, and walked down to Clegs. I hadn’t been there in decades, and to be honest, I don’t remember what it looked like back then to be able to say how it might have changed. If in fact it had. Flipped through the Vogue Patterns book, didn’t really find anything I liked, and decided I would stay with the Burda patterns I’d scribbled down the details for in my notebook. On my way out though, I remembered that I needed some interfacing to trace off my patterns, and asked for some “cheap and nasty” interfacing. The shop attendant said with a knowing smile, “for patterns?” She knew exactly what I was looking for, and I walked out with 10 metres she’d put on a roll for me. I figured at $1.95 per metre it’d give me quite a few patterns. Perfect. Then, back up along Flinders Lane, past the group of shops where my parents had their dress shop – “Hartelle” is was called – and across Swanston Street back up towards Tessuti. You should have seen my face. I was smiling. I hadn’t done anything like this in years, as I’ve said, and I enjoyed it so, so much. And you know when there’s that glimmer of recollection of having walked those steps before, back in the distant past? And how that makes you feel good somehow? Yeah, I felt good.

So here’s what I walked out of Tessuti with. I couldn’t decide. The softer, paler turquoise, or the stunning blue. Of course I bought both. I mean, they were on sale! What’s a girl to do! They’re perfect for dresses, skirts, perhaps even a jacket. I also bought some of that fabulous green (well, it’s really more of an olive-brown, but Nic called it green, and who am I to argue!) fabric to make my pants. It’s 60% cotton, 35% rayon, 5% polyurethane, and machine washable. Perfect.

you realize that this image does no justice whatsoever to how beautiful the fabrics are, yes?

For my pants, I could use either one of these patterns:

Burda 7863

Burda 8341

Or I might be bold and cut a pattern from a pair of pants I just love to wear that are in my closet. I’ll go down to Darn Cheap and pick up some cheap denim fabric perhaps with about the same stretch-value as the green fabric to make a toile. I can give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, I can pull out one of the patterns above. If it does, I’ll have another good pair of pants to wear. Win-win. Love it!

Ahhh. All in all, this was a completely satisfying day.