On the Road Again with ASG in Hong Kong

August 19th, 2008 in sewing, other crafts, fashion, quilting

linda griepentrog, contributor

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The 2008 ASG tour group in front of the Jumbo restaurant, happy and hungry after a day of Hong Kong sewing discovery. The next ASG expedition is in February 2009. Why don't you join us?

Photo: Linda Griepentrog

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I LOVE to travel, and whenever I go anywhere in the world, I always visit two types of stores: supermarkets and fabric stores. Walking through grocery stores in foreign lands is great fun—to see the variety of foods and differences in packaging from what's in my hometown and also how the prices compare. I also like to learn about new fruits and vegetables in street markets, and vendors often will offer tastes of new things.

Of course, my first love is to visit fabric stores everywhere I go. For the last 15 years, I've been taking groups to Hong Kong for fabric shopping, and now I'm working with the American Sewing Guild for this annual pilgrimage. Our next tour is February 10–18, 2009, and there is still time to sign up.

Hong Kong is my favorite city in the world, and I always look forward to going, as there are new things to see. Because of nearby manufacturing, many designer fabrics (complete with tags identifying the famous name) can be found in the shops at very inexpensive prices. Hong Kong has a huge garment district with block after block of fabric stores, trim shops, and specialty vendors. Most will sell to individual sewers, although a few only sell wholesale. On the last trip, we unearthed a store that sells only novelty threads, including those with names you'd recognize, where a huge cone can be had for less than the cost of a regular small spool purchased domestically.

Another favorite part of Hong Kong for me is the visit to a costume shop that makes things for Disney, the Chinese Opera, and several amusement parks around the area. Seeing the inner workings of how things are done is great fun!

I love clever closures, and the Jade Market always has fun trinkets, beads, and findings that can be used for embellishments. The prices are ridiculously low. No one cares that it's not real jade—the items are just fun to incorporate into your sewing projects.

So, I hope you'll think about joining me and ASG on this seven-day adventure to my favorite city and falling in love with it yourself.