Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Fabric shopping in Germany II

Gwen (http://allmyseams.blogspot.com/) asked about fabric stores in Germany. Since I really enjoy Lindsay's ( http://www.lindsaytsews.com/) and other's reports on fabric shopping in their part of the world, I thought I'd return the favor.

"Fabric shopping in Germany part I", unbeknownst to me at the time, was the Dutch fabric market. So we're at part II already! (And I have a series in the making, aka if I never finish sewing my jacket you won't even notice because I'm busy posting about fabric!)

Well, today's "installment" isn't on a brick-and-mortar-store, or an online store either, but this lovely offering:

They call themselves "Wollweberei", or wool mill in German, but I don't think they produce (all of) the fabrics themselves. There's a homepage as well (http://www.wollweberei-nietzel.de/), but not for viewing fabric. The neat and unique way it works is this:
They have a collection of fabric swatches, grouped together as "outfits", e.g. two blouse fabrics, one bottom weight and one jacket fabric in colors and patterns that go together well. Of these swatch grouping they have ca. 60 or 70 which change according to what they have in store and the season. These swatches can be ordered for free (one only has to send them back) to look at for 10 days. On the back of the paper sleeves there are care instructions and material information on the fabrics.
They also have lots of tools and notions. I think it would be possible to get all one's sewing equipment from this company, barring sewing machines and decorative buttons/borders etc. (here we go again...) The fabrics are right on trend, maybe a bit "conservative" for my taste. You know, not so many of the trendy fabrics one would find at H&M, but rather more sedate quality fashion. That's not to say the fabrics aren't very nice, the quality is superb, and I would certainly buy some if it weren't for my stash... And they have basics like good quality wool crepe in every conceivable color. Their prices are not so low, but they have good deals on linings, interfacings and such.
There's a swatch to look at and feel for every fabric, lining and interfacing, and for every color.
You can also order all the patterns from the Burda collection from them, and they include a booklet showing the line drawings, fabric requirements and difficulty of every Burda pattern.
I have not personally ordered from them so far, and I'm not sure whether they sell abroad, but I would recommend that German sewers have a look at this company.

3 comments:

  1. Very interesting way to shop for fabric and notions. Basically, they take the guesswork out of coordinating a wardrobe.

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  2. This would be so much fun to get in the mail. I love reading about fabric shopping in other places!

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  3. Thanks so much for this info. I'm really looking forward to your series. I live in Germany but still buy most of my fabric from online US stores. I just don't really know what's out there.

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