Silk Brocade

Tracy and I ventured to Toronto this week to try and find Chinese Silk for a cheongsam for my wedding. While in Toronto, I was able to have dinner with Courtney and Jen who I haven't seen in ages, so that was great. It was awesome to be able to catch up, and as Courtney was saying, although we haven't seen each other in a while, it just seems like yesterday the last time we hung out. I also got to spend some time with Cindy as we crashed at her place for the night.

After speaking to some of my aunts, we were given directions to go to Chinatown - near Spadina and Dundas St. W. My Aunt Anita also told us that she got the material for her dress on Queen St W, near Spadina. My Aunt Margaret directed us to a place on Queen St W as well (unfortunately I didn't get a chance to read this email until after our shopping expedition).

At first we went the wrong direction down Queen St W (east of Spadina), which was just retail stores. At this point, I was getting a little discouraged because we had been walking around and have only seen ready-made dresses, and no fabric stores. As we were crossing the street, we were given a flyer to go to a textiles shop on Richmond St. This store was a promising, but it only had a small selection of chinese silk. I was ready to settle on a red fabric, but Tracy urged me to check out some other stores, since we didn't come all the way to Toronto to settle.

Well, we went back to Queen St W, and found the places that we were looking for. We started on the south side of the street, and practically every textile store that we entered had chinese silk (which is called silk brocade...something that I learned). I couldn't believe the amount of selection available. Finally, we went into Chu Shing Textiles (440 Queen Street West), and found that the silk brocade was on sale for $12/yard, which was about $6 cheaper than anywhere else that we had looked. It had all of the silk that I wanted to buy (I would provide more description, but Geofford is very traditional, and wants to know nothing about my wedding apparel). I was very happy about my purchases, and Ronald, the owner, was very helpful and knowledgable - who knew that you had to put lining in a dress? We were also able to find the chinese frogs (fancy buttons) and a tiara at Sussman's Bridal Supplies (420 Queen Street West). Overall, it was a very good shopping trip.

I can't believe that is exactly six months until my wedding date...I can't wait!