FABRIC SHOPPING IN ARONA, ITALY

I didn't go to Arona to shop for fabric or clothes but who can resist a shop or two especially in Italy. I was there to learn how to build a French couture jacket — properly, by hand with the same teacher I went to Japan with to learn how to make a kimono. It was nice to step away from the sewing machine and stitch by hand. But put me within walking distance of a fabric shop and I'm going in. That was never in doubt.

The shop is Rinaldi Tessuti, and you'd almost walk straight past it. It's tucked down a cobbled alley behind the lake — one of those narrow back streets with a small selection of shops, fashion stores, shoe stores, a little perfumery a couple of cafes all crammed in together. Very Italian, very easy to miss, exactly the sort of place you hope to stumble into. I walked in telling myself I was only looking. 

Over the two trips I made to Arona for classes, I came away with a few pieces of silk from Rinaldi. One is a brown silk covered in tiny polka dots — nothing loud, just quietly lovely. The other is a black silk-and-wool with a row of women in enormous wide-brimmed hats running along it, all old-Italian glamour, the kind of print you buy first and find a use for later. I saw it in the window and loved it.

And then I did the thing every sewist has done at least once: I didn't buy enough. Got it home, laid it out, realised I was short, and felt that very specific sinking feeling. So I went hunting. I eventually tracked it down through an Italian shop on Instagram — Carmen Fochi Tessuti @tessutifochicarmen — and ordered what I needed. I've never actually set foot in her store, but her Instagram is a joy to scroll, and shipping to the US was genuinely easy, which isn't always a given with fabric from abroad. If you're chasing beautiful Italian cloth from this side of the Atlantic, she's well worth a follow.

On my second trip for my smocking embroidery class I picked up another piece too — a textured one scattered with little raised dots — for a dress I'm making for a wedding. But that one's a whole project of its own, so it can have its own post another day.

I was in Arona for Maaike's couture jacket course, but this fabric had nothing to do with that — I just found it and loved it. That's usually how it goes.

If you ever find yourself in Arona with an afternoon to spare and a weakness for good fabric: Rinaldi Tessuti is worth hunting down in that little back alley. Go in person if you can — half the pleasure is touching everything and pretending you have any restraint at all.