Fabrics Direct

Newmarket is home to a surprising number of fabric stores, so it’s a good suburb to head to if you’re either looking for fabric for clothing or for interior design. Fabrics Direct is worth a look as it has some fabrics not found in the other outlets, but unless you’re doing a massive job and want to spend a significant amount of coin, I wouldn’t put it at the top of your list.
I went looking for fabric for curtains for one room, and this is what happened:
Me: «Hello, I’m looking for curtain fabric» (I then describe colours etc. I’m after)
Shopkeeper 1: «How much do you need?»
Me: «Well, one window is only about a metre wide.»
Shopkeeper 1: «Well, that’s alright. You’ll need quite a lot so it can go to the floor and sit on the wall.»
Me «I don’t want it to go to the floor or be bunched on the wall though.»
Shopkeeper 1: «Oh. You want caravan curtains then.»
Me: (confused, pretty sure I want curtains for a window in my house)“Oh.“
Shopkeeper 2: (calling out from behind a stack of fabric; hidden from view): «What is she after?»
Shopkeeper 1: «Some small curtains»
Shopkeeper 2: «Oh, tell her to get some caravan curtains»
It went on like this for a while longer, the two woman discussing my needs without any reference to me. I definitely got the vibe that they were only really interested in helping people who lived in Remuera and had hundreds of windows that needed hundreds of metres of heavy brocade curtaining. Suffice to say, I left empty handed.