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. 

Just saying hi

It has been a bit of an odd week. I thought I would have lots of time for sewing last weekend, because we had Monday off. However, I got ill on Saturday evening and spent all of Sunday in bed. By Monday I was sort of back on my feet, so I could at least visit my mother in hospital (she had the first of the new hip replacement operations the Friday before. All went well an she is now in a care home, until the new joint is settled in place well enough that she can get up and down a flight of stairs without risk).

So, no sewing time left. On Tuesday, I finished a jersey dress which should have been quick and fun and which hasn't been photographed yet.

Yesterday, I had the afternoon off but instead of sewing, I went to Amsterdam. I went to pick up some vintage fashion magazines which I had bought on a local auction site. The seller said she'd had bad experience with the postal service, so she didn't want to send them over. (They're Elle collection specials, 5 magazines from the 1950's, 60's and 70's. They're French and fabulous, I'll show them later)

Rather than passing up the purchase for this inconvenience, I decided to go and make a day of it.

First, I picked up the magazines from a very nice, no-nonsense kind of lady who had bought most of these herself, back in the day (she said there were no Dutch glossy fashion magazines back then, so if you wanted anything other than the general interest stuff for housewives, you had to buy French... very interesting) at the edge of the canal area in Amsterdam's city center.

Then, I walked to the handbag museum and spent a while there. The museum of Bags and Purses is located in a splendid building along one of the main canals and houses a dizzying aray of bags from the 16th century till today. It started out as a private collection but is now a serious museum, open to the public every day and with both its permanent and changing exhibits well displayed and explained (also in English). A lot of museums might be quiet on an ordinary Thursday afternoon, but this one wasn't. If a museum dedicated to bags sounds like a girly dream come true, certainly a lot of people thought so. And I don't think they were disappointed. I know I wasn't. In fact, if you are visiting Amsterdam and are into that sort of thing, I heartily recommend it.

After that, I took a little detour on my way back to the train station to stroll along the 'nine streets'. This is a nice little shopping district, tucked away from the big chain stores in nine narrow streets between the canals. It houses a nice mixture of stores: vintage clothes, vintage interior stuff, independant designers, artisan soap makers and bakers, novelty shops and some small outlets of bigger chains. One of Amsterdam's worst kept secrets, but still nice.

I was sort of good and only bought a hat at one of the vintage shops.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of that new dress, and I will try and catch up with showing you some of my new-to-me vintage magazines over the coming weeks.