Fabric Shopping in Japan

I was very lucky to spend a week in Japan earlier this month, and that meant sneaking in a little fabric shopping. Who could possibly resist buying cute Japanese fabrics in Japan itself?

 

First stop was Nippori in Tokyo, otherwise known as Fabric Town. This is a whole strip of fabric shops; not just quilting but clothing and all sorts of other fabric.

 

I

 didn't have a lot of time so I headed for the largest and most well-known: Tomato. This is a series of stores each stocking different fabrics, but the one for quilt fabric is the largest. The top two floors are where its at. The ground floor is great for 100yen fabric but the line goes out the door and I didn't see anything that really caught my eye. I will admit I didn't really find anything much of interest to me in Tomato, I guess because I have my own shop and can access most fabrics anyway. So I walked away with a little Hello Kitty Kokka and that was about it.

 

I also found a great little shop (called Elegance) selling Liberty fabric for approximately 3000yen per metre and grabbed a couple of pieces there, but failed to take a photo of the shop.

 

I hit my fabric jackpot when I arrived in Kyoto. There are two stores a few blocks apart: Nomura Tailor, and Nomura Tailor House (the latter being a bit smaller, but in my mind the better of the two). I went to Nomura Tailor House first.

 

And was thrilled with the selection of fabric available. All the bolts are neatly sorted, and most are available as fat eights at bargain prices, or half metre cuts all pre-packed.

 

I walked out the door with an arm load.

 

 

As a good scientist I also visited Nomura House, but found it wasn't really necessary. Though I did not visit the upper floor. They had most of the same fabrics, but it was difficult to locate them once you'd viewed the samples hung on the wall.

 

 

 

So if you only have time for one and quilting fabric is your thing, go to Nomura Tailor House. You wont be disappointed.