Swedish Fabric Shopping

A few weeks ago, my husband Eddie and I went to Gothenburg Sweden. Now, this trip wasn’t specifically for fabric shopping… but leave me to my own devices in a new city and fabric shopping is ultimately what you’re going to get. 

​So, in case you happen to find yourself in a similar situation (ie your spouse has a work conference in Gothenburg and you have several hours or days to fabric shop unhindered by someone else’s boredom in said shops…) then here are a few places that I recommend visiting.

A few notes before we get started:

1. All the shops I visited were within walking distance of our hotel, the Scandic Opalen. I'm sure there were even more that you could drive or take public transit to get to, but I had plenty to visit on foot.

2. Everyone speaks English. Seriously. I thought that maybe everyone "spoke english" the way that I "speak swedish" after studying it on duolingo for the better part of a year. But no. The younger the person was, the more fluent they were, and I swear some of the waiters and waitresses didn't even have an accent. The one single person we ran into who told us he couldn't speak English (he was about 70 years old I'd guess)​ still spoke more of it than I could of Swedish. There's also a surprisingly large amount of English in the store names and product packaging and menus, etc. Not that google translate didn't come in handy, because it definitely did. But I'm just saying: don't be afraid to go out and explore, even if you haven't mastered the language.

A little bonus photo of my handy hacked Huxley Bag, which was the perfect weatherproof bag for all my drizzly sightseeing! As the Swedish say: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing."

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Selfmade

https://www.selfmade.com/en-gb

I stumbled upon this store while exploring with Eddie, and ended up going back for a second round without him so that I could take as long as I wanted, because it was awesome!! 

Selfmade is a sewing dominant craft store! It has a small yarn section, but the majority of it is fabric, patterns, and notions. 

Here are a few of my favorite things about Selfmade:
- A nifty section with a variety of colored ribbing for sweatshirt sleeves and hems
- A huge selection of fun garment labels for your creations
- Lots of project inspiration around the store, often with displays including all of the exact products you would need to replicate the sample project on display
​- A rack of premade patterns that you can inspect and even try on
- A zero waste section, full of remnants at a discounted price
- A sewing studio for classes, where I believe that you can also rent time on one of the machines
- A whole wall of in-house patterns
- And most intriguing to me, a line of patterns that come printed on a very lightweight fabric that you can sew together as a fitting muslin (you can see one sewn together in the photo below)

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Knapp-Carlsson

http://www.knapp-carlsson.se/

Do you need buttons? Trim? Elastic? Thread? Anything but the actual fabric?This is the store you need. I was kicking myself for not having a WIP that needed buttons, because this would have been the most perfect store to find that perfect set of buttons that you would never find anywhere else. I could have looked through these button cards all day. But honestly, this place was hopping, and also very small, and I didn't want to get in the way of actual paying customers.​

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Tyger

I tried to stop by this little shop, but I apparently didn’t pay close enough attention to the hours. But I did (creepily) take a few photos through the window, so I thought I’d include it in the roundup!

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Gårda Textil

https://gardatextil.se/

I absolutely loved this store. From the outside, it looks like an old sprawling yellow house that may have been converted into shops on the base level. Once I got inside, I was delighted to discover that the entire thing, on ground and upper level, is the fabric shop. Room upon room upon room full of a huge assortment of fabrics. I felt like I was going to get lost in here, with multiple staircases, and back rooms, and little nooks here and there. If you've ever been to Textile Discount Outlet in Chicago, this has a similar feel. Gårda Textil is smaller, and tidier, but it gives you the same sense of discovery. Like you don't know what is going to be around the next corner. Ornate fireplaces, chandeliers, stained glass windows and gold framed mirrors are surrounded by floor to ceiling fabric displays, and there's even a huge antique scale in one room, and a large elephant statue in another. The store also holds a selection of thread, buttons, and a few notions, but that selection is vastly overshadowed by the fabrics. Special occasion fabrics, suitings, outdoor fabrics, to name a few. And a rather large selection of vintage and deadstock fabrics too. All in all, Gårda Textil was super fun to explore, a little overwhelming, and a great place to search for your next fabric treasure.

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Quiltstudion

​https://www.quiltstudion.se/sv/

Quiltstudion was a cute little shop full of (you guessed it) quilting cotton! I'm not much of a quilter, but even I can appreciate some beautiful cotton prints. The store also contained a few garment patterns and some quilting accessories, as well as some fun Sallie Tomato bag notions.

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Tygaffären

https://www.facebook.com/tygaffarenigoteborg/

Tygaffären was a little shop with a big wall of buttons, a good selection of sewing patterns, and a beautifully curated selection of garment fabrics. Unlike some of the other stores, there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of fabric. But I found so many gems. The colors, fibers, textures and weaves of the fabrics were just spot on, so that I was tempted to buy just about everything I came across because it was so beautiful.

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Panduro Hobby

https://panduro.com/sv-se

This was a fun store that I’d say is closer to a Hobby Lobby. The fabric section was actually pretty small, and only had precut pieces. But seeing all the other crafting supplies was really the best part here. Take a look below at some of the fun stuff I found.

Like an entire section dedicated to Hobby Horses on sticks. I didn’t realize that these were still around, let alone popular enough to have a whole section. Looks like you get to pick out the eye color, and the gear and the "stall". I especially got a kick out of the horse "wooden obstacles" which just mean that the kid has jump over hurdles.​

And also a section of miniatures. Tiny green houses and campers and coffee shops. And a whole selection of mini doors, front porches, and balconies to add to blank walls. I don't know why I find them so adorable, but I do! I think I need to add a tiny door to my house somewhere.
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Ponduro had a back room for crafting too. It looked like they had a few crafts for kids set out, and also offered some classes that you could sign up for.