A friend here had the bright idea that I should get curtains for our new house stitched in Manila. A brilliant thought, considering I can pay a seamstress PHP 800/day plus lunch - and I was pretty sure material would be less than the $20-30/yard, on average, at G Street Fabrics in Seven Corners.
This necessitated a trip to Divisoria (wholesale and retail anything you want -- just watch your bag closely!), and today was pretty much the only Saturday I had free to do it. Two friends were interested in going (one for the experience, the other to find party favors for her daughter's upcoming first birthday), so off we trekked.
I had been once before, searching for barongs for the boys for Beth's wedding. On that trip, after over four hours of hunting, I finally found what I wanted. I was prepared for an adventure, but also had to take baby, so didn't quite have time. Amazingly, I navigated the twisty streets and alleys and found the wholesale cloth section our nanny had shown me last June.
Unfortunately, all the fabric was either too heavy, too grandma-like, too shiny, or too colorful for an American palette. Not to mention baby (and three adult women!) was getting hot - and our feet and legs a bit muddy from tramping around on dirty streets. Just when I was about to give up hope, I spotted a store where the bolts of cloth were standing in neat rows on steps, allowing easy perusal. (The rest of the stalls just had things pilled or stacked, difficult to see patterns without putting effort to lift and haul the bolts around.)
We walked through the U-shaped store, not really seeing anything that piqued my interest. But at the end, when we came out again to the alley, I noticed a brown and pink silk fabric that would not have looked out of place in a Calico Corners store. Intrigued, I lifted up that bolt and -- bingo! -- neutral colors in curtain-weight fabric.
Baby had just woken up, so my friends offered to hold him in the shade while I dug in. The three Filipino shopkeepers seemed to get a kick out of three white women standing in front of their stall, so they started helping me pull things out. One guy said in broken English: "These not pretty colors. Why you like?" I decided it was not the time to get into American interior design.
It turned out this stack of muted colored fabric was comprised of remnants, and one had to purchase the entire bolt. I selected the following 22 yards from four bolts for 830 pesos ($20):
The price was so inexpensive compared to the U.S., I honestly couldn't bring myself to bother bargaining. Now the trick is to figure out how I want them stitched for which windows. Tricky, since I haven't seen the house - only pictures and detailed window measurements.
After all that tramping around, we were relieved to find a Starbucks in a new air conditioned mall built just at the edge of the jumble. Perfect way to cool off and rehydrate.
When I returned home, our nanny whisked Ian out of my arms and into a bath before I could blink an eye. I think she was kind of ticked off at me for taking him somewhere so dirty.
This necessitated a trip to Divisoria (wholesale and retail anything you want -- just watch your bag closely!), and today was pretty much the only Saturday I had free to do it. Two friends were interested in going (one for the experience, the other to find party favors for her daughter's upcoming first birthday), so off we trekked.
I had been once before, searching for barongs for the boys for Beth's wedding. On that trip, after over four hours of hunting, I finally found what I wanted. I was prepared for an adventure, but also had to take baby, so didn't quite have time. Amazingly, I navigated the twisty streets and alleys and found the wholesale cloth section our nanny had shown me last June.
Unfortunately, all the fabric was either too heavy, too grandma-like, too shiny, or too colorful for an American palette. Not to mention baby (and three adult women!) was getting hot - and our feet and legs a bit muddy from tramping around on dirty streets. Just when I was about to give up hope, I spotted a store where the bolts of cloth were standing in neat rows on steps, allowing easy perusal. (The rest of the stalls just had things pilled or stacked, difficult to see patterns without putting effort to lift and haul the bolts around.)
We walked through the U-shaped store, not really seeing anything that piqued my interest. But at the end, when we came out again to the alley, I noticed a brown and pink silk fabric that would not have looked out of place in a Calico Corners store. Intrigued, I lifted up that bolt and -- bingo! -- neutral colors in curtain-weight fabric.
Baby had just woken up, so my friends offered to hold him in the shade while I dug in. The three Filipino shopkeepers seemed to get a kick out of three white women standing in front of their stall, so they started helping me pull things out. One guy said in broken English: "These not pretty colors. Why you like?" I decided it was not the time to get into American interior design.
It turned out this stack of muted colored fabric was comprised of remnants, and one had to purchase the entire bolt. I selected the following 22 yards from four bolts for 830 pesos ($20):
After all that tramping around, we were relieved to find a Starbucks in a new air conditioned mall built just at the edge of the jumble. Perfect way to cool off and rehydrate.
When I returned home, our nanny whisked Ian out of my arms and into a bath before I could blink an eye. I think she was kind of ticked off at me for taking him somewhere so dirty.
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