Home Help: 14 September
The choice in clothing and furnishing fabrics has expanded dramatically over the years, while a parallel desire to customise, personalise and make unique clothes and soft furnishings has never been stronger. Haberdashery shop Kleins in London's Soho, founded in 1936, is still going strong and claims to have the best choice in the capital of zips, lustrous threads, buttons, eyelets and fastenings.
MacCulloch & Wallis (off Oxford Street in London) has three storeys of dress fabric, as well as fabrics that can be used in home furnishings (such as a toile de Jouy cotton print for about £15 per metre). M&W's pretty motifs, such as white cotton flowers and butterflies, can add that individual touch to plain linen curtains or blinds as well as dresses; the gold and silver cord make very smart tiebacks for curtains.
The relative newcomer on the scene is Annabel Lewis, who started out buying up ribbons and trims that John Lewis had no use for, and now paradoxically has a section in said department store under her brand VV Rouleaux (she also has two shops).
But for those who are keen to develop new skills – perhaps in crochet, felt-making, quilting, dyeing, embossing – then the only place to go is The Knitting & Stitching Show in October and November. There is so much to buy and learn here – from workshops for beginners and for experienced craftspeople, also, from what are known as mixed-media artists who combine anything and everything to make an individual work of art.
1 and 2 are a selection of trimmings from VV Rouleaux: 020-7224 5179, www.vvrouleaux.com
Lace butterflies (main picture) and cords (4) from MacCulloch & Wallis: 020-7629 0311, www.macculloch-wallis.co.uk
Haberdashery at Kleins: 020-7437 6162, www.kleins. co.uk
The Knitting & Stitching Show runs from 11 to 14 October at Alexandra Palace, London N22; 1 to 4 November at RDS, Dublin, and 22 to 25 November at HIC, Harrogate: 020-7688 6830, www.twistedthread.com
Email your design enquiries to Hugh St Clair at homehelp@lady.co.uk