cebu shopping

cebu city craft guide: familia house

I woke up quite early yesterday. And before my lazy behind could protest, I stepped out of the house to go downtown and replenish my crafting supplies. I did everything without the help of coffee and was back in our house in less than an hour. Sometimes, I surprise myself.

Inspired by this unplanned shopping journey, I thought I’d do several posts on the best places to buy crafting materials here in my city. Hopefully, this will also answer some of the questions I often get about where to buy sewing or crafting supplies in Cebu.

But first, a few photos of downtown Cebu:

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For today’s Cebu City craft guide, we head on over to Familia House. We start here because this is where I bought most of the supplies I needed yesterday.

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a mini story

  • I have a series of crafts that I cannot wait to share with you guys. For one of these projects, I require the use of plastic toy farm animals. I got a set from a local mall and when I opened the packaging at home, I got this tiny surprise.
  • He ran straight to my miniature sewing room. He looks quite at home so I’ll let him stay; I have many other animals to choose from for my project.
  • The boyfriend and I had a discussion this morning about whether this little guy truly is a cat. He looks like a Siamese-tabby mix, doesn’t he? Or a monkey-cat.

  • During the same mall trip, the boyfriend picked up paintbrushes. Stashed in a glass jar near the acrylic paint counters were these miniature measuring tapes.
  • I simply had to buy the teapot one. It was kismet.

  • You know the single great thing about a mall that’s undergoing renovation? They do lots of sales.
  • I got this plain mini Micky Mouse for a little over $2. It’s the kind that you paint or design yourself.

 

Which leads us to the question of the day: Would I ever stop buying things simply because they’re cute? If you answered NO, you’re correct.

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some things burn down

I’ve lived in this city for 13 years. For cheap but beautiful fabrics,  I was a loyal customer of Gaisano South. Today, this is Gaisano South:

The fire happened about half a year ago. I have been by the burnt building a few times after that but it wasn’t until I saw this demolition process that I felt a sense of finality.

My parents were in town when the fire happened. In a strange turn of events, I was also with my parents (they’re back in the city for a summer holiday) when I snapped the photos above. Unlike the changes, huge or otherwise, that constantly happen in a city, being with your parents means being a kid again. This means rolling on their hotel bed without a care in the world or being given cab money even though you’ve been financially self-sufficient since you graduated from college.

Using the cab money that my father gave me the same afternoon I took these photos, I bought pretty fabric. It wasn’t as cheap as Gaisano South would have sold it, though.

This is the fabric:

I call this The Early Dinner Dress. I shall post a tutorial for it next week.

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so i wrote a song

This was the kind of project that gripped your mind and would not let go. This was the kind of project that I knew I just had to do before I find myself looking for fabric stores in the middle of the night. Because before I made this drape cardigan, I often found myself drifting off and sewing it in my head. It didn’t matter what I was doing — eating, working, sleeping; I kept sewing this in my head.

This was THAT kind of project.

And so, against the boyfriend’s wishes (because I’m sick again boo), I went out to buy fabric. I came home with some stretchy rayon type. I came home with this song in my head:

Oh rayon, will you leave me crying.

Oh rayon, you’re the kind of fabric

That could just make me sick.

Oh rayon, will you hate my machine.

And turn me into a killing machine.

Or something like that. Why? Because my no-brand sewing machine doesn’t want to have anything to do with stretchy fabrics. This is why my sewing adventures have been limited, for lack of a better word. But since I was in a “go big or go bust” state of mind, I ended up with this rather pricey fabric.

Thankfully, life often rewards “go big or go bust” efforts.

Not only do I have a drape cardigan that I can wear several ways, I even got extra fabric for a simple halter top.

And yeah, I also realized that my machine has minimal problems with stretchy fabrics as long as they are the thick kind. And I go slowly. Like, frustraaaaaatingly slow.

Anywoodlewho, I’m cooking up a tutorial for this drape cardigan; will publish first week of March.

Moral lesson: ‘GO BIG OR GO BUST MOMENTS SOMETIMES REQUIRE SLOW STEPS.’

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LINKY LOVE: Sew Much Ado

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