Following on my guides to Stockholm, Hong Kong and Kowloon, I thought I should do one for Singapore, with a few touristy shots thrown in.
One of the members of Stashbusting Sewalong 2014, Belinda, lives in Singapore and she sent me a couple of pages of very explicit instructions about where to go for fabrics and notions. Belinda had suggested a visit to the People’s Park Complex in Chinatown and I have to say that this was well worth the trip. We walked from our hotel, but Bugis is the nearest MRT.
There are several aisles of shops here, and frankly, I was a tad overwhelmed (and also thinking about the fact that I was stashbusting)
A couple of Belinda’s favourite stores are NicoleXavier, which I have to say is fabulous, with an amazing selection of high quality fabrics. They were also almost the only fabric store with a door…
Belinda’s other favourite here was Seng Heng Textiles which had the most drool worthy shirting. I found this so hard to resist and spent several happy minutes feeling my way through the fabric.
Then it was on to an investigation of the notions stores. Belinda recommended two (and I think they may have been almost the only two in the complex) – Lye Nai Shiong and Brighton Accessories.
I had fun in both stores, but spent money in Brighton Accessories.
They had a good selection of elastic in marvellous colours, and now that I’m home, I wish I had bought more. Truly, I could have gone mad here!
We then headed to People’s Park Centre where there was a knitting and notions store called the Golden Dragon. I found some yarn that I could have adopted, but then found it was from Tasmania, and as I’m heading there in a couple of weeks, I desisted! I didn’t spend enough time here, but I also didn’t spend money. For some reason I didn’t get photos.
Belinda offered to spend an afternoon shopping; I didn’t need to think twice about that generous offer. I know I have shown a similar photo previously, but we look so darned delighted with ourselves in this one that I thought I needed to share.
We met on Arab Street, and this was a revelation. I have been to Singapore more times than I can count and yet had never been here. Again I forgot to take photos but it is another whole street of fabric stores. Unbelievable.
To get there you can take the MRT to Bugis. Walk along Bridge Street, cross Ophir Road and Arab Street is third on the right. According to Belinda, Haji Lane is just before Arab and is full of new designers and their pop up shops. I didn’t visit here, but will next time.
After refreshments we headed to the Textile Centre on Jln Sultan. We had a wonderful time here. I bought some gorgeous elastic for belts, some buttons, zips in a wide array of colours and some other bits and bobs. All in all I had a wonderful afternoon and I was so grateful to Belinda for giving up her time to squire me around.
Something I haven’t explained is the reason for the trip to Singapore. I wanted a new overlocker with the coverstitch function, and was told that I could buy it for a lot less in Singapore. When I rang the shop in Singapore, I discovered that the cost was almost exactly half and the savings funded our holiday. I bought the overlocker at a tiny shop in Clementi 3, and what an amazing shop it was.
The staff were wonderful – friendly and efficient. They were ready for us and ensured that the machine was in perfect working order.
On the way from the MRT I had noticed several small stalls of fabric, much of which seemed to be really cheap. I didn’t indulge though, but it is worth noting that they are there.
One of the things that had worried me was how to get the overlocker home. We hadborrowed son Archie’s snowboarding suitcase because it’s deep and we figured that it would be adequate for the task. The overlocker was packed in foam and two cardboard boxes. We removed the boxes and found that the foam packaging fitted exactly into the case but we couldn’t close the lid. Hmmm. Mark went off and bought a hacksaw blade and took to the packaging.
At the end of this procedure it fitted perfectly. I was able to put a few things around it and the suitcase weighed 19.7 kgs, 300grams under my allowance – phew!
This is turning into a long post, but here are a few photos of some of my favourite sights in Singapore – I love the coloured shutters on some of the old buildings.
the flowers in Chinatown again
This is the new Parkroyal on Pickering. It is a lovely modern building. 
And a few more photos around Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay.
Thank you for reading this post, and if you’ve never been to Singapore I hope you can get there sometime – it is such a wonderful, clean and safe city.
Absolutely agree about Singapore. We had 10 days there and everyone said “what will you do?”. There’s still a list we didn’t get to, and not just sewing related! I did get to Arab Street, amazing, but not to some of the others you found so they go on the list for next time. Gardens by the Bay is wonderful, I could have taken up residence on Cloud Mountain.
We only had 5 days and it wasn’t enough (even though we go often), so we’re going back next year for another “hit”. Cloud Mountain was a bit chilly but very beautiful.
Hey Sue. Thanks for this post. I’ll be heading to a few of these places when we visit Singers later this month.
Ooh, I hope to see lots of photos of you in exotic locales!