A visit to Britex, San Fran

Don’t dare think a trip to Northern California wouldn’t include a visit to Britex in San Francisco.

On Thursday we travelled down the 101 over the Golden Gate Bridge and into the heart of San Francisco.

I don’t know what it is about this town but I tend to get a little tense while driving here.  I think it’s because number one I’m not familiar with the area still and two you have to know which way the street goes because every other one…and sometimes not…the street traffic is going in the wrong direction.  Then forget about trying to figure out how to get back on a freeway.  Thank God for Jim’s Blackberry.

We made a few wrong turns and it only took us about half an hour to find a parking garage and then a short walk down Geary St. to Britex.

I wanted to visit Britex on our trip last summer but did not get the chance to do so.  This time I made a point to add it to our schedule.  I could have spent all day there working on fabric selections but time was ticking.  I wanted to get in there and check their knit section so off I went.

I briefly touched the first floor.  Looks like silks and woolens.  Looking for knits.

Up to floor two.  Looks Home Decky, then a table of stretchy stuff.  I pause for a moment.  Jim asks if I’m going to be here awhile.  Why do men ask these questions?  I ask him to meet me out front in half an hour.  I find when I’m pressed for time I’ll make decisions faster.  I’ll get to business.  It’s on par with the SORT from THROW YOUR CRAP OUT err I mean CLEAN SWEEP.

I find what I’m looking for along the back wall.  Solid knits in every color imaginable.  Here it is and … hey…what’s that?

I look on top of the counter and those fabrics look like Bari’s.  They are!  OMG.  She will be very excited when I tell her I saw her fabrics at Britex.  Maybe she already knows though, I thought, after all she has been promoting her fabrics for some time now.

I asked if I could take a picture and that is when I met Melody.

Melody was so nice.  She helped me work up a collection of fabrics that all worked together and I asked her to coordinate some of them with Bari’s fabrics.  Bari gave me a stack of fat quarters a few days back at the family reunion with explicit instructions to ‘do something with these’.  Melody laughed.

My favorite of the collection is the Cream Graphic Roses.

I’m thinking this would make a cute a-line skirt and decided to coordinate a few knit pieces for the tops.  I suppose if you live in California year round you can pull off wearing it into the wee Fall months but for me I’m going to plan for Spring ’10.  It is just too pretty not to be made into something with a spring time feel.

Mom was delighted to see my choices and was very jealous not to have had the chance to come with me to Britex.  I know she would have loved it.  Hopefully we’ll be able to do it together sometime.  No spouses.  Just us.

All in all I think if you ever get the chance to drop in on Britex, San Francisco you won’t be disappointed.  The staff is incredibly helpful, the floor is carpeted (yes…real carpet), and the selection is terrific.  The price might be a little high then what you are used to but that is to be expected as they only supply high quality fabrics and their overhead (being smack dab in the middle of San Francisco) is no doubt fairly outrageous.

I can’t wait for another visit!