Lucky me!  I just came back from a visit to London.  My hubby was there on business and I got to sneak in for a much-needed vacation. He had arranged for us to meet an old colleague and her family at the National Portrait Gallery.  I wanted to bring some handmade gifts for them and here’s what I made.  I created the purple zippered pouch using some of my most favorite fabrics. There’s just something about purple that makes me happy.  The fabric ball was for her son and has sock monkeys playing sports.  Given that we visited during Wimbledon and the World Cup, it was perfectly themed.  I love being able to whip up a quick gift rather than purchasing something?  Her son loved the ball.  I smiled when he called the soccer ball a “football.”  I had actually forgotten that it’s called football in most of the world!

My go to gift for friends.

My go to gift for kids.

On the plane headed to London, I sat next to a woman from Cincinnati who was traveling to London just to see the baby Trump balloon.  You read that right..the sole purpose of her trip was to see the balloon!  We struck up a conversation and when I learned that the balloon would only fly for a few hours, I agreed to go with her to see it.  We landed, took the tube right to the Parliament area and for several hours, we joined the throngs of people angling around the balloon.  I met some lovely people and as demonstrations tend to be, there were some wacky people there as well.  Eventually, my lack of sleep caught up with me and I headed to my hotel for much-needed rest.

While Trump was the big news as I got to London, and his meeting with the Queen stirred things up in all of the UK, luckily it didn’t consume my entire trip.  Hubby and I saw the Tower of London, visited the Churchill rooms (a must see!), saw two shows and had had some wonderful meals.  Then, on a day when he went to work, I went fabric shopping!!  I had researched Liberty of London fabric and found a discount store, Shauket, that advertised tremendous savings.

Shauket is a family run discount fabric store that was fairly easy to get to by tube.  They have their own line of fabrics, including Tana Lawn, which imitates Liberty of London.  However, their Lawn fabric is almost the same price as Liberty, so why bother!?  They carry a great deal of authentic Liberty of London fabric at a nice little discount, but the best is their huge pile of remnants.  The remnants are about 12-15″ and double that size.  The price is 2-4£ depending. 

While I had fun and got some great fabric pieces, it’s unfortunately not an easy shop to deal with.  Shauket isn’t the friendliest of places and the staff there are not all knowledgeable.  The first gentleman that helped me gave me inaccurate prices and answered yes to questions regardless of the actual answers.   The store will only cut yardage in half metre increments so you’re out of luck if you want 3/4 of a metre.  They make their own line of lawn fabrics and while it’s lovely, the price is the same as Liberty.  In addition, many of their own fabrics are sold precut at 3 metres only.  On more than one occasion, they tried to sell me non-Liberty fabrics without informing me of the actual manufacture.

These are some of Shauket’s own Tana Lawn prints.   While they mimic Liberty of London designs, you can see that they are brighter and more modern in appearance.

I was able to manage by finding an expert staff member who pointed out which remnants were authentic Liberty and which were not.  If you go for a visit, be certain to ask questions until you find an expert.  Even the pile of remnants can be confusing as they contain many different brands of fabrics.

Was it worth the trip to Shauket?  Probably only for remnants, and not for yardage. I wouldn’t recommend it unless someone has time, a car and patience.

My Shauket-bought  Liberty of London remnants which were £2-4 each, depending on size.  I had a difficult time sorting through the fabrics and not choosing all of them!

My Shauket-bought half metre Liberty yardage.  I have had my eye on that pink Wiltshire fabric for a long time.  It makes me happy to know I now have a cut of it!!   At £20 a metre, these were only a slight discount from the regular Liberty price.

Of course I couldn’t be in London without stopping by to see the iconic storefront which takes up an entire block.  The Tudor Revival building is an historic site with a rich history.  It’s a landmark in London that sticks out among the more modern storefronts along Regent Street.  The building was created in 1922 and was built with the timbers of two ancient ‘three-decker’ battle ships. More than 24,000 cubic feet of ships timbers were used, including the ship decks which are now the shop flooring.

The Liberty building interior was a surprise to see.  The floors were built around 3 atriums, with amazing wood carvings in abundance.  I admit to getting just a little dizzy navigating the various floors.  According to the Liberty of London website, which I failed to read beforehand, there are hidden gems all around the building.  While I saw some stained glass windows, the specifics were not known to me and thus, another visit is in order some day.  If you plan a visit, please be smarter than me and check out the Liberty website for the fun finds like portraits of Henry the VIII’s wives, carved animals and more.

The bottom floor had gorgeous handbags and wallets in Liberty printed leather.  They were stunning, but unaffordable.  For example, one small 5″ zippered bag was $75!!  The silk scarves and belts were beautiful but also beyond pricey.  While just browsing, I spied these little fabric-covered deer which were for display purposes only.  How cute are they?   I had hoped to find more animals, but alas, these were all that I came across.

This gorgeous Liberty-covered deer was on display in one of the unused antique fireplaces on the first floor.

Another little fabric guy on display at Liberty of London.

Are you wondering if I got fabric at the famous Liberty store?  What!??? Do you know me?  Let me not keep you in suspense.  I chose the four prints below, and a lovely lady helped cut me a half metre of each.   The white floral fabric and the sweet one with the deer were both 1/2 off in the children’s section.  In addition, they had a remnant bin with 1 metre bundles.  I chose several of those as well.  Yeah me!

These are my Liberty of London store splurges  that were cut from rolls.  I asked for half metres of these tana lawn prints.  I especially love the white floral and sweet children’s deer prints, which were on sale at £15.50 per meter.

This Liberty of London store purchase was bundled out-of-print one metre tana lawn cotton remnants at £13.95 each.  I just love how they are wrapped with sweet strips of more fun fabrics.

There are many things that I hope to make with the Liberty of London fabrics.  I’ve always wanted to make an entire quilt out of Liberty fabrics.  It may take me years, but who cares…it’s going to be gorgeous!  Stay tuned and I will show any progress on these or other endeavors.

Linking up:

Monday Making

Linky Tuesday

Fiber Tuesday

Too Cute Tuesday

Let’s Bee Social

Needle and Thread Thursday

Canigetawhoopwhoop

TGIFF

Finishedornotfriday