Hong Kong: Fabric Shopping in Sham Shui Po

In anticipation of our trip to Hong Kong, I did a little bit of research on fabric shopping, figuring it could be a jackpot for that type of thing.  Sure enough, it was!  

Thanks to bloggers here, here, here and here for leading me to this fabric Valhalla! 

Relative to the big, shiny skyscrapers elsewhere in Hong Kong, like Kowloon or Central, the Sham Shui Po area has a very throw-back feel to it... lots of old buildings and street markets. Check out all the crazy signage... looks like something out of a movie:

Apparently it was one of the first areas in Hong Kong that was settled back in the day and is now where many working class Hong Kong folks live.

Ok, back to the fabric shopping. There are a ton of fabric shops in the Sham Shui Po area.  Some are regular stores with bolts of fabric:

Many of them, though, only have fabric swatches. They seem more geared towards wholesale shoppers:

Lots of leather, button and findings stores, crammed to the gills with product:

Most of my shopping, though, was from carts and makeshift booths in the street out in front of the shops. There was fabric on rolls and pre-cut pieces, all being sold for crazy cheap prices. Mostly garment fabrics- nary a piece of quilting cotton to be seen!

What did I buy? A lot. 

I came home with a ton of lovely stretch wovens: 

- stretch denim in two colors

- cool grey stripey stuff

- weird, but awesome silver-on-black stuff

I also got some nice knits: 

- an enormous piece of super soft black ponte (some of which I already used to make my Tilly and the Buttons Coco tunic

-some light blue and grey heather jersey

All super cheap: nothing more than $3/yard!

In the pile on the right:

- two pieces of seersucker, one striped and one small checks

- a piece of bright coral gauze

- pretty mustard lawn

- gorgeous blue and green floral voile

- lightweight chambray

- some linen-y bottomweight stuff... maybe a blend?

What did Tim get out of this trip? Practice with the camera and dim sum.

I read about a great dim sum place, Tim Ho Wan, not far from the fabric district and used this as leverage to convince Tim to join me in fabric shopping. Plus, dim sum.  Mmm.

This place was no frills, but had the best BBQ pork bun I've ever had.  It was baked rather than steamed and had this amazing sweet, crispy crust on the outside... after we inhaled our first order, we got a second:

Also, "phoenix talons" might be the best euphemism for chicken feet I've seen:

Silk City

Another fabric field trip for me this week: the Jim Thompson Factory Outlet. 

I'd read that the outlet is the place to find high quality, but discounted silk fabric.  Yes, please!  The outlet did not disappoint:

 

The best part about the whole Jim Thompson thing, though, is the interesting back story: 

During WWII, Jim Thompson was an American operative in the OSS (the pre-cursor to the CIA), which brought him to Thailand.  Eventually he left the government and founded the Thai Silk Company, which is credited with rejuvenating Thailand's hand-woven silk industry, which had been floudering in the face of the rise of cheaper, machines-produced textiles. 

But the most interesting part of the Jim Thompson story is his mysterious disappearance in 1967 while on vacation in Malaysia's highlands.  There are lots of conspiracy theories about the cause of his disappearance: Attacked by wild animals while walking in the jungle?  A murder connected to his past in the CIA?  A government hit to silence his vocal criticisms of the Vietnam War?  Jealous business rivals eliminating the competition?  It's like a real-life, unsolved Scooby-Doo episode!

Bali: Weaving Ikat

Earlier, in Jogja, we saw a demonstration of one of Indonesia's two major traditional textile techniques, batik.  While in Ubud were able to catch a glimpse of a woman using the other technique: ikat.

Ikat is a technique that involves pre-dyeing strategically bound bundles of threads (either the warp, the weft or both, in the case of double ikat) using a method similar to tie-dye in order to make a particular pattern.  Then the pattern takes shape as the dyed threads are woven into cloth. For tie dye, as you may remember from making it as a kid, the fabric is woven or knitted first, then bound and dip dyed.... 

 

In this case, the woman was weaving weft ikat, meaning the pattern only shows up as the weft strands are woven through and carefully adjusted (although the blurry edges where the alignment is a little off is part of the appeal).  You can see how the one thread is being lined up with the pattern and will then be smooshed in (a technical term) with the others:

Pretty cool!  We also made some ikat purchases.  Hopefully I'll be able to share a final ikat project over at the other blog soon!