October 21, 2012

Sewing supply stores in Amsterdam

In their comments on my previous post, both Adithi's Amma and Veronique asked for more information about where to buy sewing supplies in Amsterdam. I will email both of them to answer specific questions but I thought I might as well dedicate a post to sharing what little information I have on the subject.
(I will include links to the websites of the various stores, unfortunately, those are only in Dutch. Don't worry though, people working at these stores will speak more than enough English to help you)

As I mentioned before, Kantje Boord is an Alladin's cave for the lingerie seamstress. You can order online, but that may be only within the Netherlands. The store adress is:

Burgemeester van Leeuwenlaan 45-47
1064 KK Amsterdam

It's easy to reach by car and you don't have to pay for parking in the area. Travelling there by public transport may be less than simple though.

A. Boeken is a large store selling notions and fabric and pretty much in the city center. It's latest claim to fame is supplying fabric and notions for the Dutch version of "Project Runway". The adress is:

Nieuwe Hoogstraat 31
1011 HD Amsterdam

For general fabric and habedashery shopping in Amsterdam, I wouldn't recommend a single store. I'd recommend an area which houses many: Take the tram to the Albert Cuyp. 
At this location, a general street market including stalls selling fabric is held every day except Sundays and Holidays. More important for us, seamstresses, are the stores lining the street: lots of fabric stores. The best known one is probably Kniphal, it's the largest and I seem to remember it's where Knipmode (a Dutch sewing magazine) gets most of its fabrics. The adress is:

Albert Cuypstraat 162-164
1073 BK Amsterdam

Both A. Boeken and the Albert Cuyp are easy to reach by public transport. I wouldn't recommend taking the car to either destination. It's too busy and parking is expensive.

I hope this is useful to any of you who are going to visit Amsterdam. Since I don't live in that city, I'm pretty sure there are other stores I didn't include. If you have anything to add, please let me know. 


5 comments:

  1. Thank you very much for sharing this information, I will ask my sister to do some shopping for me, shelves in amstelveen. I will be visitng Amsterdam in December during Christmas, soi am not sure how many shops will be open.

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  2. Thank you to share this post.it is a nice post of Sewing supplies .i like it very much.

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  3. Really appreciate the post. Ill be going to netherlands in august 2013. Will definitely go these shops.Thx!

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  4. Your email does not seem to work for me.
    But I have a question for you.
    I came across your email looking for fabric and notion stores in Amsterdam. I'm not sure at this point if you are living in NL? But I admire your style. I live in Zeeland, NL with my husband. Hard to track down a good fabric store here, and one that they speak English. My Dutch is so bad. But maybe in time.
    Ok, I wanted to ask you if you know anything about embroidery sewing machines. If so what is your opinion on them? I still have my old Metal JCPenney machine and my mother Singer featherweight. I thank you for any help you can give me.
    Debbie

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    1. Hi Debbie, how strange that the email isn't working. I'm using the same dress to receive the comments on my blog. Just substitute the CAPS for the appropriate symbols ( @ and . )
      I hope you will read this reply. I am living in the Netherlands, in Den Haag, to be precise. As a result, I do know fabric stores in this town and also in Amsterdam and Rotterdam but I have never spend a lot of time in Zeeland so I don't know any there. However, I do know that this fabric fair does come to Zeeland at least twice a year, just check their agenda for the date: http://www.stoffenspektakel.com
      Visiting that should be worth the effort. Just lots of stalls selling fabric and notions. And not speaking a lot of Dutch should not be a problem, most Dutch people speak at least some English.
      I can't really help you with your last question. I don't have an embroidery sewing machine myself and I have never even used one. I have a modern sewing machine that does one-step buttonholes, fancy stretch stitches and some simple embroidery stitches. I never use the embroidery ones but they tend to come with all higher-end machines nowadays. However, that doesn't make my sewing machine an embroidery sewing machine. Those can be programmed to create fairly large and complex pieces of embroidery. If you would use that, it could be a great piece of equipment, if you wouldn't (like me) it would just be a huge waste of money (because they cost a lot more than normal sewing machines).
      I have been to this store, which is in Zeeland: http://www.abstholen.nl
      I went there to have my knitting machine repaired but the store also sells sewing machines and embroidery machines. They have a lot of machines set up in the store and the owners and staff are very helpful and knowledgable. Unfortunately, their website is only in Dutch.

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