Somehow, and I don’t really know how, until last week I’d never heard of The Eternal Maker; I stumbled across them online by accident as you do, and as soon as I mentioned them on Twitter, all my crafty friends went a bit batty. Then I discovered that were only twenty minutes away in Chichester, so jumping in the car just seemed like the right thing to do – and when we got there I discovered exactly why everyone had been so enthusiastic…..
Firstly, I’ve never seen quite so much fabric in one place in my entire life; cotton fabrics, cord fabrics, linens and jerseys. Fabrics with stripes, fabrics with checks, geometrics, motifs and the most beautifully simple tickings, in every colour and shade you could dream of. The racks just went on, and on, and on.
Oh, and the bindings – I have a special weakness for binding and ribbon. Some people collect stamps, some collect vintage cameras, but I collect binding that I’ll probably never use – I roll it all up and then store it in a jar, and just look at it. Sigh. (Don’t tell me none of you do that!)
Through the archway is a cafe (refreshments AND craft supplies – amazing!) which sells all manner of lovely things, and then round the corner is the yarn section – which I didn’t get to photograph because I spent too long trying to decide between blue florals and yellow florals (in the end I didn’t buy either).
I came away after an hour with some lovely ticking fabric, binding with stars on and this lovely fabric covered in tigers – it really reminded me of the tiger from The Tiger who Came to Tea, which is the kiddos favourite book, so naturally it came home with us!
I just want to say a quick thank you to the lovely ladies who tried to help me find what I was looking for, despite the fact that I’d made it up in my own head and it didn’t actually exist. Oh, and thank you for letting me poke around and take pictures!
What a fab looking place! I'm not much of a maker BUT I love cafes AND I love anything arranged in colour order, so I think I might like it in there 🙂
I'm not into crafting or making things but this places looks AMAZING!
What a great find! I would love that tiger fabric for big floor cushions. x
all of this fabric and colour, i want to go there!
Oh you could definitely get lost in there with all the gorgeous colour and pattern. I'd love to see what you end up making.
Wow it looks AMAZING!! I would love to go back to Chichester, I used to live there! x
That place sounds amazing – I will have to go if we're ever down that way. Have you been to the Merchant & Mills shop in Rye? It doesn't have quite the colourful range but they do an amazing range of blue-ish fabrics and bindings and bits that you could make nice leather fastenings for if you could be bothered (or that look great in glass jars!)
I've not heard of them, but I just had a look online – so good!
That name rings a bell from the days when I was doing more sewing and I followed a lot of crafty people on twitter. Looks great. Must dust off my sewing machine – sigh! x