A Different Kind of Shopping Experience

If you have known me for very long, you know that I love to sew--and that I love fabric. I believe the term is fabri-holic. I could buy more fabric than I have projects for simply because I love fabric. A recent purchase over here in Oman has been a sewing machine, and I've just been waiting for the opportunity to present itself for some fabric shopping.

Now, if you've shopped for fabric in the states, you know what those kind of stores look like. It's a little different over here. They have many beautiful fabrics, but they are generally just stacked up against the wall and you have to dig through them to find what you want. I learned the hard way earlier this week that you must be very careful about the content of the fabric--but it was a fun mistake, I just have to figure out a different way to use the fabric that turned out not to be 100% cotton!

Wanda, my Oman shopping buddy that you have seen in other posts, went with me. Here are a few pictures that we took last Saturday when we were out shopping.

This is a typical shopping area in Muscat--really all over the area. We were lucky that it wasn't crowded yet and we had plenty of parking options. Stores close from 1 or 2 p.m. until 5 or 6 or 7 p.m., then open again in the evening. It makes it really hard for me to get all my shopping done in a single day!

This is one of the fabric stores where we shopped. They are fairly small
 with usually just one main aisle from the front to the back of
the store lined with bolts of fabric from floor to ceiling.

Wanda is a fellow fabri-holic, too! I took this picture so you could see the locals shopping in the background.

This man is measuring the fabric I am going to purchase. Notice the ribbon spools hanging
from the ceiling. The walls with the built-in bins were stacked with all kinds
of trim. They have a lot, but you just can't see it all as there is no organization by color, etc.
I found it more than a little overwhelming!

He's measuring the fabric and getting ready to make a short cut then
tear it it the rest of the way. This store had some flowers and
appliques in baskets under the glass cabinets. Of course, I
just had to buy some for Julieanne's hair bows!

This isn't a great picture, but you get an idea of the
store from back to front, and can see a male Omani
shopping in the front of the store. 

Wanda and I both decided to buy some tulle for Christmas decorating. You can see the metal rod that the clerk is using to measure out a meter at a time. He also just spread out the fabric along the floor so he could measure it before cutting. I think I can honestly say I have never seen a fabric store clerk spread out material on the floor to measure and cut!

Wanda found this University  of Texas print--she couldn't believe it! Of
course, she had to buy some! (Sorry, Aggie friends--you take what
you can get over here!)

We visited a second textile store--this one had lots of fabric, but the bolts were piled five and six deep, making it hard to view everything. That was no problem, though, as we had lots of clerks to help us reach bolts. They would even ask what colors we wanted and start pulling bolts for us! I found some cute Christmas fabrics in this store, and since I am making a Christmas stocking for when my granddaughter visits in December, I purchased some. Now, they remember me every time I go back in and try to sell me lots of little girl fabrics!

The manager (in the black shirt) was appropriately helpful. When I
thanked him for assisting me with the selection and
cutting of fabric, he told me not to thank him for just doing
his job. What a different attitude as compared to some!

There are no labels on the bolts of fabric with content, width, manufacturer, etc. like you see in the U.S. Sometimes it is printed on the selvage edge, but more commonly it is printed onto the fabric like in this example. This is a gold printed substance that washes off.  One thing that is different that I do like is that I know where all of the fabric was made, and they sort it by country of manufacture in the stores.

Here are some of the bolts from which I purchased fabric. You can see my
cuts sitting on top of the counter. However, there are so many other bags of
fabrics and cut pieces, I don't know how they tell them apart! 

Now that I have all of my fabric, you might be wondering a few things--what am I making and what tools do I have to make it with? I am trying my hand at some strip quilting, and as I mentioned earlier, I am going to make some Christmas decorations and gifts for my granddaughter. I have a sewing machine (below) that I purchased over here recently. It was a brand new machine, but if you get online to look for it, you will find that it is a "retired" model. I always wondered where new but un-purchased appliances went. Now I know: they go to Oman! (and other third-world-type countries!). I was just thankful that it included an instruction booklet in English as well as Arabic. Arabians read right to left--the opposite of us westerners--and appliances usually operate on this basis as well. I still have to stop and think through the threading of the machine because it is done from the opposite direction!

Before starting my project, I realized that it would be so much easier if I had a rotary cutter. Now, that is definitely an advanced tool. In a country where there is not a single hardware store (of the Western kind) and not a fabric store where sewing tools can be purchased alongside the fabric, where I can't even find batting--and got excited when I found 25" wide flannel!--finding a rotary cutter was going to be hard. I had, however, seen one about 2 months ago when I was out shopping. That part should be easy. But rotary cutters require special cutting mats on which to use the cutter. That was going to be much harder.

I visited the store where I had seen the rotary cutter. They still had them! I asked if they carried the cutting mats. I don't know why I asked, because it would make too much sense to carry both products that are required to use either one of them in the same store. The clerk told me where to find the cutting mat, but I wouldn't buy the cutter before I found the mat. (I wasn't sure he understood what I was asking.)

By the time I had done all of this shopping, it was 2 p.m. and the stores were closing. I had to wait until evening to buy the rest of my tools. It was dark by the time I showed up at Al Fikir to look for the mats. Al Fikir is one of the best-supplied office/school supply stores in Muscat. I failed to take into account that it was back-to-school week. The parking lot was packed, the street was packed, and the drivers were very impatient. Sorry these pictures are a little blurry, but I was somewhat in fear for my life as I walked the street four buildings down from Al Fikir. I was also afraid my car would be hit! Omani drivers are not noted for their patience!

 

It was like trying to get out of the parking lot after the Fourth of July fireworks display in Frisco! Note to self: no more shopping at night during the back-to-school rush! The upside: Al Fikir really had the cutting mats. They were small, but I bought two and after fighting my way through the traffic, drove towards the store where I had found the rotary cutter, praying that it was still on the shelf!

It was at this point of my shopping excursion that I took a wrong turn--literally. I know where the shop is, I know how to get there, but the crowds had excited me a little, and it was dark, and I made a wrong turn. One more thing you need to know about Oman--there are few left turns, and some roads have to be driven on for kilometers before you can find a turn-around. Unfortunately, I made a wrong turn onto one of these roads. I didn't realize it until I was past the only turn-around before having to climb a tall, steep mountain and drive for almost 30 kilometers before coming to a round-about to turn around and go back over the mountain again!

Here are some pictures of this mountain during the daytime:

The mountain range which I drove through

Muscat in the distance

Hairpin curve with the road below us.

The grade is very steep going both up and down--you have to shift to a low grade. Here's what it looks like in the dark:

The lights zig-zagging in the distance are lining
the road up the side of the mountain.

This is the same view from the daylight pictures
above--except blurry and at night!

Very blurry, sorry!, but showing the downhill slide back into town!

I called Don as I headed up the mountain to tell him if he never saw me again where I was headed! I shifted into low gear and hoped my little rental car would make it up and down both ways. This was not a detour I had anticipated when starting out on my shopping venture today!

I finally made the 60 kilometer round trip, and still had a few minutes left to make it to the stores before they closed for the night. I raced to the store--this time making ALL the correct turns, drove in front of the landmark Turkish Mosque--

and finally ended up at Hamood Trading to get my rotary cutter!

All's well that ends well! And there will probably not be many more evening shopping trips like that for me--at least for awhile! Anyway, now I have fabric, tools and projects to keep me busy--at home!