Loading ...Speaking of lace, have scouted out a few places to buy and I think this list of craft sources on a local blog, Bees & Tulips, is pretty comprehensive. My experience is summed up as below:
Spotlight (Dhoby Ghaut MRT): Not a great selection. It’s a large enough shelf but seems like most of them are repeated in a number of rolls of the same thing. It also seems quite expensive relative to other sources. But it is rather neat and browsing is easy.
Golden Dragon (Chinatown MRT): I know a lot of people like this place a lot but for the items that I look for (yarn, buttons, etc.) I don’t find a great selection and neither are the things that inexpensive (their Jap yarn selection is not extensive but more than I’ve seen in other places, but be prepared to pay top dollar). The lace look abandoned and some look kinda discolored or dirty. Not much of a selection, especially in terms of color, but I did find a pretty ruffled one for the blythe skirt I did.
Shops in People’s Park (Chinatown MRT): As far as my explorations have uncovered, there seems to be three main shops selling lace. There is one on the second floor full of sewing things that have quite a nice selection of lace (and buttons in small IKEA jars) neatly arranged by type and size. They look clean at least. Just supervise them when they are measuring and cutting cos one time they gave me the end of the roll and stuck on another small piece to make one yard (!!). And again, I got had again when they gave me this horrible pearl string – I wasn’t vigilent enough!! I had already rejected one string cos part of it was barren and I didn’t supervise her when she cut a new yard for me. I really don’t think she could have missed this. I had to cut that portion off leaving two parts one of which I don’t know if I can use. I’ve been giving this shop a lot of business but I don’t think I will want to go again.
Another shop has their lace thrown in one shelf and they throw all purchases in newspaper. The last one didn’t have any lace that I could use, seemed to belong to another era (1930s Shanghai?).
Found another two shops selling lace and one of them had a really good variety of buttons in a myriad of forms and colors. Except most of the items in her shop seemed pretty expensive and I only got the above three cos they really attracted my attention and I hadn’t seen them anywhere else. She had Hello Kitty buttons selling for $12 each. For that price I really don’t know how one could do a complete outfit with them. I don’t think I would purchase more buttons or lace from her unless she has something really special.
The last one was also quite a “gem”. The store owner complained that I should have browsed her folders properly or I would ruin them. Well, if you had seen the state they were in I doubt I could have made them any worse for wear!! Oh, the irony!
Small shop atop Tekka Market (Little India MRT): This shop above the market is pretty small but quite chock full of cheap (rough) yarn and buttons, albeit none of them really my style. The lace are in messy heaps in front. The pricing seems very reasonable here, but do be careful. After coming back with a small haul I realised that one of them had fallen apart and I don’t know if I’ll be able to use it. Actually stared at it for a while wondering if it was the same one I had pointed to.
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