Lihat-Lihat di Pasar Mayestik

Inspired by the beautiful photos at this website, driven by a need for pink buttons for a dress I am working on for Zoe, and buoyed by the enthusiasm of a new friend, I set out to lihat-lihat (browse) a little at Pasar Mayestik, a local/traditional market in my neighborhood.

While the market itself was a little bit strange and somewhat empty (it has been recently renovated and we think perhaps all the vendors have not yet returned), the market is surrounded on all sides by haberdashery shops selling hundreds of different kinds of fabric and all the little sewing do-dads you could ever want (except 1/4" elastic, boo).

I didn't get any photos of the fabric shops as I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of fabric as well as the overzealous salesmanship of the shopkeepers.   However, at the slightly more low-key, albeit quite claustrophobia-inducing Toko Maju, I was able to take a bunch of shots.  

This place is crazy, dude.  It's like a rabbit hole of sewing and crafting paraphernalia... buttons (soooo many buttons), ribbon, zippers, hooks, needles, beads, wire, elastic, strangely worded patches, toggles, lace, sequins... the list goes on and on.

The aisles are really narrow.  Not made for giant bule butts like mine.

As you can see from the photo above, there is an upstairs.  And an upstairs above that, too.  I went up for a moment, but it was eerily quiet up there and I was worried that I would get lost, starve to death and no one would ever find me, buried amongst the sewing notions.

 

So, yeah, let me know if you need buttons.  They've got a few here.

They had a lot, a lot of these strips of hook and eye closures.  I think they're used for the traditional kebaya, a blouse/dress that is worn with a batik sarong:

Ribbons galore, as well as lots of elastic waistband material in case you want to create your own knock-off Nike shorts, Tommy Hilfiger underwear or other such name brand items.

All around the market were lots of food vendors selling lunch, sweet snacks, and fruit, including this fruit that neither Brooke nor I could identify.  Anyone?

This guy was making these waffle/funnel cake hybrids (final result in back row of the next photo):

Aaaand, some more street art I saw on the way home, to cap it off.