On to fabric shopping in Rome. I had read reviews of Fratelli Bassetti Tessuti as THE store to fabric shop in Rome. I had also heard it is overwhelming and expensive. I headed to the store on my first day in Rome (excited, much) to see for myself. As I walked in, my first thoughts were 'holy frick'. High ceilings with fabric all the way to the top, 5 rooms of it! Names popped out at me - Versace, Armani, Valentino. Yes, it was overwhelming to say the least. After an initial inspection it was pricey also. I did go in with some what of a plan which was to focus on wool crepes. Any fabrics with wool in them are stupid expensive and hard to find in Australia. Go figure with the amount of sheep in Oz! So this was my chance to pick up some woolen fabrics with the high reputation Italian wool fabrics has.Wool crepe is a perfect fabric for shifts that are very Mad Men. I'm hoping to make up a couple of Joan from Mad Men style dresses. Perhaps a tad smaller in the bust.




I asked one of the staff if they had Missoni, but alas they did not stock it. I went over to the walls that had wool crepes in various thicknesses and colours and attempted to try and figure out what I would get. I also had in mind a 1960's shift dress pattern that Simplicity recently released too. After some broken English discussions with Marcello I walked out with a gorgeous jade coloured 100% wool for my 1960's shift and I plan to head back there tomorrow for another 2 metres of deep blue light wool crepe for another shift, and a hot pink wool crepe for a pencil skirt. All outfits for work as my work wardrobe for Winter is looking very sad at the moment. Most of the fabrics were about 20-30 Euro a metre, but given they cost about $80-90 a metre in Oz I am getting a good deal.



Stay tuned for construction and completion of my Italian dresses!
1 comment
Black lace | Bobbin and Baste · 4 years ago ·
[…] the opportunity whilst I was over there to buy up some beautiful Italian fabrics – blogged about here. During my few days in Milan I visited a tessuti store and bought up some divine black stretch […]
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