The Fabric Guild

Annette is full of craft ideas. At present she is working on embroidered pictures. These are designed on computer, fed to a sewing machine embroidery unit and the picture sewn according to the design. That’s the general idea and it is also about as much as I know. I do know that getting everything up and running has taken a lot of time and effort ; effort which isn’t finished yet. Even so I’m supportive and the final results are excellent: I’m really quite proud.

This requires materials for substrates and thread for sewing. Buying thread is not easy. Specific colours are needed. As far as we can tell our nearest town has no outlets selling thread. Hobbycraft, a national chain with a store nearby, sells thread but a fairly restricted range. We did walk around Lichfield and found an old fashioned craft shop which was selling off thread. We also couldn’t help noticing how many shops had closed including a first choice for sewing essentials. If shops are closing in affluent Lichfield then retail is truly being squeezed.

Other sewing essentials and fabrics mean travelling further afield. A long time favourite is the Fabric Guild which has relocated to Oadby near Leicester. The Fabric Guild appears to have been set up as a club but it now functions as a sort of shop. It is totally unlike any other shop I have seen. On an industrial estate, it is series of interconnected rooms, both large and small and on two levels containing all kinds of fabrics and craft accessories. All the goods are labelled by home produced labels and displayed on very utilitarian racks.

These is no posh IT with bar codes and the like. Goods are reckoned up by a bloke using no more than a pocket calculator. His receipts are a hand written list of purchase prices. I have to say the speed and precision is impressive for so much manual effort.

A feature is a drinks corner with free biscuits. For some bizarre reason the magazines lying around were either of embroidery which seems appropriate or heritage railways which is puzzling. The drinks used to be free also but are now 20p although slightly dodgy in quality. Buyers appear to come from all over the East Midlands; I spoke to a lady from Nottingham who appeared to be have organised a car load of others to what is clearly a “destination” shop. The main problem for us is that since the move from central Leicester they are moderately difficult to find in a maze of streets off the main A6.

Once upon a time when I lived in Leicester I knew the A6 going south very well. But that was over 50 years ago and it was difficult to recognise anything. Anyway I rarely travelled as far south of the city. My flat was about a mile from the city centre. I lived in Leicester during my industrial year at Bostik and carried on for my final degree year, travelling to Loughborough every day..

We had a reasonably successful visit. The clientele is almost entirely middle aged or elderly ladies. I stood around trying not to stick out but that was unavoidable. I’m not sure whether the manager/cashier recognised me or whether he greeted me on principle. It made me feel a bit less of a fish out of water for which I was grateful. As far as we can tell the whole thing is run by one family with one or two others who don’t seem to fit into the family. I have amused myself trying to work out relationships in the family.

We still use a cross country route that I first used so many years ago. Unfortunately on a misty day it wasn’t quite as picturesque as I had hoped. The slog around south Leicester was just a series of roundabouts and traffic lights. We tried a different route around Leicester on our return but it was no better