Birmingham fabric shopping

Last Tuesday I’ve been in Birmingham visiting some friends and I managed to spare some times for some shopping.

Before the trip I googled and asked about fabric and haberdashery shops and everybody suggest me the Rag Market area near the Bullring.

What can I say? It’s great and full of good priced fabric and lot of haberdashery.

First, the Rag Market. It’s a covered market (with an uncovered section) where you can find fabric and haberdashery, dog food, lingerie, ethnic and halal food, phone accessories and so on. The fabric and haberdashery stalls are a lot, some of the them specialized in curtains and upholstery fabric, some in cotton, some in fancy fabric, some having a little of everything, but the common line is the cheap price: starting from £1 per metre you can easily grab a bargain.

Just outside the Rag Market there is another massive fabric store, the Fancy Silk Store. Four floors of fabric, from curtains to cotton, to exquisite lace. Great selection but not as cheap as the stalls in the market, good for when a reliable fabric is needed for some special project (don’t tell this to my husband if not he will remind about that suit I promised to make for him…)

I missed another big shop just next to the market, Barry’s, next time I will make sure not to miss it.

And here’s what I’ve bought: a teal stretchy lace in the Rag Market for £3 a metre, a beautiful lace £4 a metre (this stall is outside the covered market and has a massive selection of lace and trims), 08 spools of Moon thread, £0,60 each, a real bargain and good quality thread.