Habadashery P**n

I could spend a whole day in a good dressmaking shop, handling the fabrics, drooling at buttons, salivating at trimmings, throbb- okay, I'll stop, but you know what I mean.

Well, almost as good is looking at MacCulloch & Wallis' web site. The photography is stunning!

One of their silk and velvet roses in the bridal section;



The hat blocks are so beautiful I'd like one just to look at and touch.



Go look at the bridal section and click on the flowers! Look at the buttons, and closures! Magnetic closures, leather trimmings, gasp. And the wool fabrics, so beautiful, wonderful colours, but very pricey as they are made in England.

As Brenda Dayne moaned in her blog a couple of weeks back, the UK has lost most of it's dressmaking and haberdashery outlets years ago. But, we do still have John Lewis', where you can buy fabric and notions. However there are only 25 stores in England and Scotland, (I've just been to their website and counted, more than I thought actually). But, there are none in the Southwest or Wales and you have to visit their Oxford street store in London for the greatest choice of fabrics. Some larger towns still have a fabric shop, where you will have a limited choice of buttons, including fish-eye plastic, where would we be without those, plain zips, a bit of Vilene and some velcro.

But MacCulloch's, I'm in heaven. When I get back to England that is one place on my list to visit.

I think I've done a bad thing, I was busy looking at the pictures and saving the images - JUST SO THAT I COULD SHOW YOU - but all of a sudden my browser wouldn't display any more images on their site. I guess it can tell when people are copying? Oh dear, I'm embarrassed now....