Yup, it s cheaper to buy Italian milled fabric in the USA than in Italy. It is however, cheaper to b

About two weeks ago, Dan and I found ourselves with some vacation days to use and nowhere vancouver island seaside inn to go. After a quick consultation with our trusty advisor The Internet we had bargain flights and posh hotels booked and took off to Rome the following day. (Now, before you open your mouths to complain that Selfish doesn t deserve the charmed life she leads, I should mention that this was no dream vacation. We were called back home after 3 days due to an emergency followed by a tragic and heartbreaking loss that I can t even bear to talk about here, and that I wouldn t wish upon any of my dear readers!)
Rome, as you may know, is home to something really big. Something amazing, huge, epic, and legendary that you can t see anywhere else in the world. It s so enormous, it s monumental . One might even say it is COLOSSAL .
Bassetti Tessuti (try saying it five times fast) claims to house upwards of 200,000 bolts of fabric. Selfish, as it turns out, is not good at visualizing large numbers of things. She know that she is 100 times awesomer than anyone she knows, and 1,000 times meaner. But what does 200,000 bolts of fabric mean?  How many bolts are displayed vancouver island seaside inn in your average Jo-Ann?  2000?  10,000? What about the big Vogue fabrics flagship store in Evanston, IL?  20,000?  50,000?  What about Mood in NYC? 100,000?  500,000? vancouver island seaside inn Seriously, I had no idea.
Well, after visiting Fratelli Basseti Tessuti ( NY Times article here ), I feel fairly sure that I had never before seen 200,000 bolts of fabric in one place. The place is an endless maze of rooms packed from floor to (very high) ceiling with bolts and bolts of Italian milled fabric. Room after room after room. Need some sweater knit?  Here s just one of multiple walls of the stuff:
This should have been heaven for Selfish, but as wonderful as the store is, I found it quite overwhelming. (Though lately I find even Mood and New York Elegant fabrics overwhelming, which is why I seem to spend most of my NY time at the more manageable Metro and Paron.) There s no junk to be had at Bassetti- this stuff is high quality, and it looked like most (if not all) of the fabrics were Italian. I certainly didn t find bargains either (though to be fair I only took a close look at about .0001% of what they had.) Wool coating and suiting looked to be upwards of 100 Euros per meter, and I didn t even go near the silks or cashmeres. Selfish, who usually leaves no bolt unturned, was so intimidated by the sheer number of rooms and volume of fabrics, that she resorted to shopping by gut. If it didn t catch my eye immediately on the wall, I moved on.
So what did I get? Surely even an overwhelmed and intimidated Selfish doesn t leave a fabric monument empty handed. I ended up splurging on two pieces of beautiful stretch cotton sateen. Cotton sateen may not sound like a splurge fabric, but Bassuti prices put it somewhere upwards of Liberty fabric, albeit lower than Marimekko yardage. So we re talking some posh cotton for a vacation splurge. And even though 200,000 bolts were vying for my attention, I did something that I never do- I bought the same fabric in two colorways fuchsia and aqua. I just couldn t decide which was more stunning and would make you more envious.
Although cheerful florals are rare in my stash, I have noticed that I have a particular weakness for florals without greenery . I find them somehow modern vancouver island seaside inn and edgy in a way that cuts the usual sweetness of floral prints. I just noticed that most of the floral prints in my stash are leaf-free.
The service here is very nice, with plenty of staff around who will gladly scurry up ladders to pull down the bolt all the way up top that you think could be pretty. And they don t hold a grudge if it turns out that you re not that into it. Interestingly, you pay for your purchases at this old school bank teller-esque window while a guy at another table holds your fabric hostage:
A mere two blocks from Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti, I also discovered the charming Fatucci Tessuti (try saying vancouver island seaside inn THAT five times fast), a much smaller store at Via dei Falegnami 63. It appears vancouver island seaside inn they have yet to invest in a sign.
Boiled vancouver island seaside inn wool coating at 18 Euros per meter, silks for 13 Euros per meter, etc. I love how they have it written up like a café menu. The proprietor was very helpful and I found this fabric shopping experience to be much more comfortable. Here are some of their silks and other offerings:
vancouver island seaside inn This cotton is so smooth and silky and crisp it feels like a light taffeta. Using my broken Italian (which is actually better suited to fabric shopping than any other kind of shopping in Italy due to having read quite a number of La Mia Boutique vancouver island seaside inn issues) I first asked whether it was rayon because it was so smooth and sheen-y. Nope, 100% Italian vancouver island seaside inn cotton. I was drawn to it because these tribal prints are so popular and modern-looking right now.  Though I don t like referring to them as tribal because maybe actual tribespeople who read my blog are like, Pfft. That s not tribal.  That s fake tribal . Hello, vancouver island seaside inn tribal readership- thanks for visiting vancouver island seaside inn The Selfish Seamstress!
After returning vancouver island seaside inn home, I discovered as I often do that the newest vancouver island seaside inn fabric in the stash is the most exciting. Out came one of the sateens and Simplicity 2473 (previously made up as the English Tutor Dress ). Apologies- they re not the best photos and the skirt is a little wrinkled from wearing, which I didn t notice until after taking the pictures:
I wanted the midriff in a black contrast fabric. I found some black suiting remnants in my stash that I think are a poly or perhaps vancouver island seaside inn poly rayon blend.  This seemed like a good idea because it had a little bit of a smooth sheen to it that I thought would go better with the sateen than a black wool flannel or other matte suiting.  I m not sure about it now though because it s also got a little bit more drape than I was expecting, vancouver island seaside inn which causes the midriff vancouver island seaside inn to sag a little bit, making it look sort of like a cummerbund.
The slim skirt variation is shaped more like a straight skirt than a pencil skirt- it doesn t taper to the knees. So I ended up skipping the back vent as there is plenty of walking ease (plus the stretch in the fabric). I also skipped the neck and arm facings and instead went for a full lining in ivory rayon (again, wrinkled from wear- sorry):
I ve got ideas for the tribal print though it may be a while until I get around to it. I m not sure what I want to do with the aqua version of the floral sateen though, as I want it to be substantially different from the fuchsia version. Maybe something full-skirted and sundressy- something to wear on my next Italian vacation.
OMG Selfish how did you know that I am going to Rome in two weeks and that I planned to find fabric shops? Not only are you 100 times more awesome than anyone else, you re also psychic. Thank you! It also amazes me that you know Italian, or at least enough to go shopping in an Italian vancouver island seaside inn fabric store. Nothing stops you, does it? Will I be able to make my way through these stores vancouver island seaside inn sans Italian fabric-speak? I can t wait to try, and I ll let you know how it turns out.
100 times more awesome, but 1,000,000 vancouver island seaside inn times more egotistical :) My Italian is limited to greetings vancouver island seaside inn and pleasantries, food terminology, and whatever can be gleaned from La Mia Boutique, namely fiber and garment names and colors :) And it s bad enough that people generally answered my questions in English. So yep- you ll do just fine in those stores even if you don t speak Italian. Pointing and writing numbers on scraps vancouver island seaside inn of paper help too :)
Yup, it s cheaper to buy Italian milled fabric in the USA than in Italy. It is however, cheaper to buy British wools in Britain than in America (based on my London/New York experience.) Funny. I wonder why that is?
It s a great Monday morning when one of my favourite bloggers posts on the fabric store I was at in October vancouver island seaside inn on a trip to Italy that I won through work. My pictures are not as good. I was supremely overwhelmed when I was there—I told the girl that I went with that there was a distinct possibility that I would loose my mind and run from the building. I worked through my hot flashes and in the end bought 2 metres of houndstooth wool suiting for $30/m. I was in there for so little time that I thought I may have missed a sale room or something. Good to know that you had the same experience with the pricing. I m planning vancouver island seaside inn on winning the same contest again this year, and going back. I m excited to check out the other store you mentioned too. Thanks for the post!!
OK..here s the only word in Italian I know, Bravo!! The dress looks great. Actually all the fabrics look great and I certainly know of the overwhelmed of which you speaketh. I can only go into a place such as even Mood or Parons with a specific shopping list in mind and ask the helpers things like, I m looking for lightweight medium grey wool flannel. Please show me where to go. Otherwise, I start to get dizzy and have to sit down and there is never a place to sit down (much less get a cup of tea and a cookie) in these places so I m better off with my shopping vancouver island seaside inn list.
Oooh fabric store with tea and cookies is a really good idea. That s how they keep people vancouver island seaside inn at Ikea for days on end- with cheap meatballs, right? vancouver island seaside inn Maybe I ll open up a cookie stand right outside of Mood. Except I d probably just eat all of the cookies myself and then waddle vancouver island seaside inn in to buy fabric.
Bellissima! I had never thought about why I dislike traditional florals, but having greenery is surprisingly accurate. Certainly without the greenery, these prints look much more modern. I can t imagine getting vancouver island seaside inn my head around that much fabric. I think my husband would cry on the spot at such a sight knowing what that would mean for my day. I can spend 3 hours at dinky little places. 200,000 bolts? Mind-boggling.
I read somewhere that the Great American Dream (or Italian, in this case?) is to have unlimited options about everything, but time and time again, the humble brain seems to pull back when said scenari