Cloth House

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Just because times are frugal girls, it doesn't mean that we don't still want to look good does it? Trawling Oxfam and augmenting that with top-ups from Primark will save you a bit, but it's not going to keep you on best dressed lists. To be a fashionista for less, sisters, you're going to need to get out your sewing kits and get down to .

There's nothing thriftier than making your own threads, and it's so much more inspiring if you're working in the most beautiful fabrics imaginable – and the buyers from certainly have the right kind of imaginations when it comes to beautiful. The two cloth house stores, at numbers 47 and 98 Berwick St. Soho – otherwise known as 'Haberdashery Central', in the heart of the tailoring district – are stuffed to the rafters with rolls of material, buttons, trims and other dressmaking essentials. Neither 'house' is big, but where as some of the fabric stores on Berwick St. can seem like jumble sales you need to wade though, is always neat, with their lines of offerings grouped by fabric type and then by colour. Wools, denims, velvets, corduroys and other heavy fabrics can be found downstairs in number 47, and lighter, summer fabrics upstairs and at the back of the shop.

As well as their clearly carefully, and fashion consciously, selected material ranges, also has a collection of vintage buttons and trims, as well as precious and unique looking odds and ends that appear to have been discovered in an old trunk found in the attic of someone's Grandmother who spent a lot of time in what was then know of as 'the far east'.

Shopping for fabrics is one of those consumer experiences that definitely requires a bit of assistance in the way of customer service. I usually appreciate hints on which gauge threads to use on which materials, tips on which lining of backing is best used with which pattern and even a bit of friendly advice on which colour would suit you best. And recognises that, their staff give the impression of being friendly fashion school types who seem, in most instances, to be entertained by your plans for hand made feats of fashion. Whether or not they mean it.

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