Big Barcelona Fabric Binge

It's always sunny in Barcelona...

Two weeks ago, we went to Barcelona. My favourite city on the Iberian Peninsula and definitely in my TOP-5 of all-time travel destinations, even with non-stop rain pouring down...

 

I love the vibrant atmosphere in the city, the different barrios, the great food, the contemporary ambiance and above all, Modernism, the pinnacle of human architecture and art. 

I even like the Catalan language, even though I don't understand a word they're saying. Written it is like French and Spanish combined with a twist, spoken it has a very Italian vibe... Sounds like the best combo ever to me...

Since our gettaway, I can absolutely positively add to this list; the fabric shopping! It is the best! My husband is very over-indulgent when it comes to fabric stores, but he confessed last week that he actually likes it too!  

 VICTORY DANCE

Let me give you a list of all the fabric stores we went to and afterwards we will roll on the floor wrapped in our bounty!

First off:

GRATACOS - the prettiest store.

Passeig de Gràcia 110

Every fabric hangs on a rail, so behind every roll you see, there are at least 5 rolls more!

Also the most expensive store, so I went out empty handed.

Next up was TEIXITS DONNA

C/Roger de Llúria 6

Great selection of fabric and an awesome remnants bin! I paid 60 € here for 7 pieces of fabric, including a niece piece of wool, my favourite fabric.

The woman on the right kept steering my attention to other fabrics in the bin, I think she was after my wool...
Ha, nice try Lady!

After that came RIBES Y CASALS, right across the street from Teixits Donna.

C/Roger de Llúria 7

I have to admit, I was very reluctant to go in here. I have been to their store in Madrid last year, and I was so disappointed (in fabric stores in Madrid in general) but the store in Barcelona is quite another story.

A remnants table as big as the fabric store here in Santander, with a great selection. And the store itself was great too, amongst other things I found fabric with multi-coloured feathers (think Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro) and gorgeous laser-cut leather lace. And the biggest selection of polka dots I have ever seen, but after all, the gorgeous Spanish Flamenco dresses have to get their fabric from somewhere...

All those fabric stores caused some serious silliness!

I went home with 3 metres of coating perfect for my upcoming Albion for just 10€. I also picked up a few fabrics off the rolls.

After all this, came NUNOYA.

Carrer de la Palla 6

They are the official distributor of a lot of Japanese fabrics for Spain. Everything here is cotton, and all of it is pretty expensive, 15€ per meter and up, no remnants table here because they make the remnants into handbags or zipper pouches or whatever. I went away with only 1 fabric here, but it is absolutely gorgeous.

My last stop was JEANNE WEISS AFRICAN TEXTILES

Carrer de Rauric 8

Just a 2 minute walk of La Rambla.

I saw a lot of pretty things in here, but the colourful prints couldn't really convince my man, and my wallet was beginning a peaceful protest action as well, so I bought only one piece of fabric here too.

They make those hilarious African shirts here too, you can get them made to measure...
We politely declined...

I added all these stores to my map of fabric stores, so feel free to use it to your hearts content and add to it!

A whole while ago Gillian made me a personal color palette using her very scientific method... And I am glad to say that my new fabric really is in accordance to the colours on my palette. I didn't bring the palette with me, but just knowing I have one is an unconscious guideline when I go fabric shopping. So I know that the clothes I make with these fabrics will actually work on me...

I should tweak it a little bit for autumn and winter, but I am lazy...

I can assure you that my little trolley was almost bursting at the seams when I started packing to go home...

Let's take a closer look shall we?

Now let's take an even closer look and disclose a few of the plans for these babies...

This is the fabric for my Albion. It's obviously brown, but the stripes you see are flocked and have a little bit of golden glitter in them. The cow fabric is really cute, it's hairy and has the texture of a real cow skin. This will become a sleeve for a tablet. I hope there will be enough left for a pillow too.

 A diamond-patterned knit that will most likely become a second Lola. On top of the knit is an assortment of suiting that will become a dress as soon as I get the pattern in the mail.

On the right, the African fabric and on the right, the Japanese fabric. One of these will leave its cocoon as an Anna Dress... The other pattern is not yet decided... Maybe another Bleuet.

 The black fabric is the lining for the polka-dots because it's pretty sheer. This will be a dress for dancing. I haven't decided on a pattern yet, I want something that looks good twirling...

Mustard coloured wool and pink herringbone and a supersoft cream coloured knit. I'm not sure what these are going to become. I would love for the knit to become a sort of cardigan, but I have no idea what pattern to use, I have been looking the interwebs a while now, but still  haven't found what I was hoping to find...
All tips or suggestions are very welcome!

Now I promise you, this is not all we did... Oh no! The main reason for our trip were ARCTIC MONKEYS. The best band in the world right now, not only their records but above all their live sets! We have seen these gentlemen 4 times now and they just get better and better. The first time we saw them in Belgium they were still very shy. The second time was in Amsterdam and I guess they were going through a fase then, because their music was great but they didn't really seem to care. The third time was in Luxemburg, headlining a summer festival and it was fantastic. All day we had been soaking up the sun, baking in our own skins, then when the sun was setting, Arcade Fire was playing, and after that came a hot steaming Arctic Monkeys set... And this was the fourth time and it was amazing. We had seats in the stands, but we were seated on the sixth row or something, about at the same level as the front row in front of the stage so we were still really close. And once they started, nobody around us sat down, but was singing from the top of their lungs, dancing, jumping and fist-punching the air like a bunch of crazy people. Which they were because they were Spaniards (and a lot of British) at a rock concert...

They have a tour lined up in North-America and another in Australia and New-Zealand, both for 2014. And after that it's the summer festival season...

Yes, we were this close!

My favourite song of the new album, how they played it in Barcelona. The entire CD is a declaration of love, if you listen closely to the lyrics, that are absolutely genious, my kind of poetry! I wouldn't mind being serenaded like that...
FYI, my favourite song by Arctic Monkeys is Crying Lightning, although I can not name one song of them that I don't like... I encourage you all to check out their entire repertoire! Long live Spotify...

On Sunday we went to CosmoCaixa, a scientific museum that's really worth the trip to the beautiful Tibidabo area. And with only 4€ entrance fee, quite on the cheap end as well.

So after this fantastic citytrip we decided we would do this more often (more often being once or twice a year...). Take a plane to Barcelona and spend the weekend there. The two-way airfare was a little over 50€ each, we found a great hotel in the city centre that has a great family suite for under 100 € per night, the price of good food is very reasonable and public transportation is very affordable in Barcelona (unlike London, my other favourite destination). Add to this all the great concerts, museums and other activities, and you need not look any further to know where your next trip should take you!