Friday 30 July 2010

...Setting up shop..




Positive reactions from the notebooks made me want to create more.
I was on a mission to track down beautiful, rare and vintage fabrics and spent my days trawling through local brocantes, weekend Provencale markets and overpriced vintage boutiques.

I found a great shop in my local village of Cogolin called 'Maison de Julia'. One half is full of antique furniture and the other, much to my delight, full of antique fabrics. Julia has spent most of her life collecting a treasure trove of antique visions; exquisite slips of lace, 100 year old striped linen napkins, grainsacks in immaculate condition, embroidered lace collars and faded floral numbers alongside the occasional bit of Edwardian underwear - of which I admit I have a slight addiction to...
She would let me sit on her floor for hours, rifling through the cupboards, pulling out pieces that made my head spin with excitement, in return for tidying her shop. More often than not she couldn't bare to part with something I'd found and would prise it out of my hands and keep it until one day she felt ready, and then of course, she promised, I would be the first person she'd let have it.


Birds of Paradise fabric, found on my first trip to Maison de Julia

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