French Needle Paris 2016 - Day 1 - Stash

Did you think I was going to leave you hanging? I though about it, but then I figured it would be mean for me not to show you what I bought :P

I will admit that I bought a substantial amount. All this wasn't bought in one shot, but in two acts: before lunch and after lunch. You know lunch, where we all sat down and talked about what we saw and bought, and realized that we missed that one item that we really had to have.

I got this little ivory Eiffel tower charm that I will have to make into a fob. I saw them on some of the scissors and they're adorable. And since I couldn't afford to get that scissor set I really wanted I got the key-chain instead. This should hold me till I get the set ;)

While at lunch I realized that I didn't get anything made of wood. All the furnishing Sajou uses to display their products were made of wood, they even sell their shop furniture on their website. So I really wanted to have something to represent that. I decided on the tape measure.

I also got some needles. They had different covers for the packs, but I love the Nouveau Art movement so that's what I picked.

The pack contains 40 needles: 20 sharp (6 n° 5 long needles, 6 n° 7 long needles, 4 n° 9 long needles, 2 n° 3 darning needles and 2 n° 5 darning needles) and 20 ball point (2 n° 20 needles, 4 n° 22 needles, 4 n° 24 needles, 4 n° 26 needles and 6 n° 28 needles).

I love boxes, so I couldn't help myself :P Enough said!

Frédérique has just published a new book on vintage haberdashery and since she was right there I decided to get it and have it signed. The book is in both English and French. Actually all their products have both languages on the labels since her main collaborator is British and has been involved in the business from the beginning.

I have been eyeing these kits forever. I can't remember where I saw them the first time but I'm so happy to finally have one. This is from their Toile de Jouy line and is a tin box (again, love boxes). It comes with a pattern to stitch for the top and all threads needed. I picked the Marly kit because I loved the colors.

The threads included in the kit are from their Retors du Nord line. It's a 4-stranded embroidery thread and is sold pre-wound in 20m lengths making it easier to store. The thread is VERY soft to the touch. Also when you stitch with it it doesn't lose it's shine as fast as DMC. How do I know? That sucker was opened barely a week after I came back and it's been stitched and mounted (I will share pictures in a later post). Their line of embroidery thread only has 97 colors but I think they are well worth the investment.

I picked a cross stitch pattern. I decided on a monochrome pattern to make it easier to use with different thread than Sajou's (I was thinking some variegated thread) but after using their thread I've changed my mind.

Best for last! I've always loved Toile de Jouy and I couldn't help myself. Also, IT COMES IN A BOX! The kit comes with 44 cards of Retors du Nord (31 colors out of their 97, not bad for a start :P), as well as the fabrics. Plural because we get little pieces of linen to recreate the look of the Toile de Jouy.

The pattern is Massive! I think I will have to photocopy or take pictures and work from my tablet, because there is no way I can work from that. The back of the pattern has explanations of all the different elements of the designs as well as the history of the Oberkampf Manufactury.

In the previous post, I had shown pictures of this pattern and the Sajou pattern stitched, but they also have one commemorating the Bayeux Tapestry.

We were all given a gift from Sajou for visiting their shop. A set of their postcards with old Sajou patterns as well as thread winders.

And I bought all this on our first day of the tour. I promise the rest of the trip wasn't this huge stash acquisition tour. We did do some sight seeing ;)