I managed to make two trips there during my month-long stay in Tokyo, which was difficult given that most of the shops in Fabric Town are only open Mon-Sat 10am-6pm and I was working Mon-Sat 9am-9pm. Luckily, I had a week off from work during my stay in Japan, which included two Saturdays! I dragged my poor husband there both times, the second time with the lure of lunch at a noodle shop nearby where they made fresh noodles right in front of you.
The main store for quilt fabric was Tomato, which was 6 stories tall, each story being a different type of fabric. The quilting fabric was on the 6th floor and has an overwhelming selection of fat quarters. Not to mention an incredible amount of notions - purse handles & straps, zippers, templates, etc. Pure heaven. I bought a bunch of zippers and some quilting fabric. Much of the quilting fabric was actually not made in Japan, so I didn't go too crazy here.
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| Tomato. From Left: Solid Knits, Pattern Knit, Fat Quarters, Purse Handles |
One of the other floors had an amazing selection of knits. I've recently become obsessed with making knit sleeves to keep me warm in the office, so I was particularly interested in this floor. I managed to learn the symbols for cotton, polyester, and rayon thanks to google translate on my iPhone. I didn't end up buying any knit, however, because much of the 100% cotton that I was interested in was $35 per yard...a little too rich for simple office sleeves!
After leaving Tomato, I scored a ton of Japanese quilting fabric at the store across the street called Tsukiyasu Honten. The folks working here were SO friendly. On my second trip I was actually able to complete the entire transaction in Japanese after learning a few more fabric related words! Tsukiyasu Honten was definitely my favorite shop that I visited and the main reason that I wanted to make the second trip back to Nippori.
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