The only shopping I did on this trip was for fabric (my friend is a sewist, too) and items at the Japanese dollar store. That’s my kind of vacation!

I flew into Oakland, so we started first thing with Stone Mountain & Daughter in Berkeley, which…well done, hippies of Berkeley. Fantastic prices and selection! We spent three hours shopping and I was too excited to even take pictures.  I kind of want to move to the Bay Area to be able to visit this store more often. Here’s the spoils from Stone Mountain:

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From left to right, there’s a cotton print,  linen digital print, striped heavy knit, cotton “ikat”, and some stretch cotton shirting. (Not pictured: some fabric for pajamas for the nephew and some fabric for another friend.)

The next day, it was on to Britex:
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I’d never been to a “serious” city fabric store before, so I was gawking. Every floor–and there were 4–was floor-to-ceiling fabric, ranging from expensive to “please ask for assistance with the couture laces.”
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Again, I was so overwhelmed I didn’t take a lot of pictures. But I did visit the button wall (!) on the third floor and come come with some Italian brass domes for my cape (yes, I’m still making it):

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Oh, San Francisco. I left my heart in your fabric stores.