Making Monday – Flo-Jo Boutique

Doug, my other half, lives in Bristol so I visit the city quite a lot. There are tonnes of vintage style shops selling second hand clothes and crockery etc. or vintage influenced stuff  but one new store is very, very unique.  In fact I’d been waiting excitedly for weeks for it to open every since Doug had noticed a coming soon poster on the window. It’s the Flo-Jo Boutique and Haberdashery,  it opened on Friday, and I was able to pop in on Saturday.

Window display featuring a fab fifties ensemble

It was raining so I was only able to snatch this quick shot  of the window display on my camera phone.

Some of the bolts of fabric

From the left are several bolts of oil cloth featuring some very cool designs including my fave – cherries.

Bicycle bags made from the oil cloth are just above the bolts

You can also see some of the Michael Miller and other designer fabrics on the far right. They also have fat quarter packs.

Knitting kits and some machine knitted bags next to some cute little cases

Some of the ready made clothes plus various notions on the shelves

That little dresser/shelving unit contains all sorts of fabulous things including packs of lingerie elastic dyed by the Flo-Jos themselves – I’d looked in several places for cute elastic for making petticoats and had come up blank so it was great to find these. There are also all sorts of needle sets including some well designed “pebble” sewing needle sets. Behind the little girl, on the back set of shelves, are pick and mix buttons plus various ribbons and ready made cushions.

More ready to wear items including knickers! plus vintage notions

On that rack on the left were aprons and I think some tops. The suit case is full of vintage style knickers and you can also buy kits to make them. The table had all sorts of lovely old gloves and things draped around it as part of the display but in the dishes are vintage notions including lace which are for sale.

The other room contains the tables for their workshops plus some gorgeous tea dresses for sale as well as some more bolts of cloth.

Workshop area with a tea dress in the background

Now of course, I could not leave there empty handed. As if!

Cherries and polka dots!

I love both cherry print and polka dots so there was no way that I could resist a fabric that featured the two! It’s 100% cotton, £6 a metre and and I bought three metres. I also got a pack of the aforementioned lingerie elastic – the black hasn’t shown up very well but it’s lace like the white one above. I also picked up a spare machine bobbin and a pair of metallic green little scissors. You always need more than one pair of scissors and they were only £4.50.

Will I be going back? Most definitely! While the stock may not be on the scale of Fabricland, what Flo-Jo does have is very well chosen. I’d not seen any of those fabrics, even the cheaper cottons, in Fabricland and I love all the ribbons and notions. I really want to buy one of the needle pebbles despite not actually needing one, and I want to get some of the oil cloth. What for I’m not exactly sure, I could make another shopping bag or use it to cover my dining table. The cherry print I purchased has halterneck dress written all over it which means I will have to sharpen up my bodice fitting skills. 🙂

Oh, and I’m not really sure if buying something counts as a making Monday but there’s not been much making here in the last week, just more ripping out of the colourwork section of She’s Electric. If at third you don’t succeed…