Ace Drapers

In my previous post I mentioned the shop "Ace Drapers" and promised to devote an entire blog entry to this remarkable establishment. I have not yet found a way to sneakily take photos, so I will add them later.

Let me start by saying that one should never go into Aces without first notifying a loved one and charging your mobile phone as getting lost amoungst the stock is a real possibility. Aces is run by Alan. I am relatively new to Roma so I don't know his last name. I do know that he and his brother also own a furniture shop, Ace drapers no. 2 and probably half of the town. To say that they are hoarders would be a giant understatement.

I'm getting ahead of myself here, essentially Ace Drapers is a drapery, a material shop. However if you are looking for anything along the craft line, it is worth dropping in and having a look around. They stock material, patterns, beads (glass, plastic and chrystal), scrapbooking supplies and tools, patchworking tools, sewing machine accessories, the usual material shop odds and ends such as ribbons, lace, elastic, cotton, embroidery threads, needles etc. They also stock a huge range of craft wood projects by Kaiser, craft wood letters, fake flowers, buttons galore, window blinds, and a whole isle of kitchen related stock. The kitchen isle is so full it is inaccessible....literally. The boxes and piles of stuff are stacked the length of the isle as high as my head. If you want something kitcheny, either go somewhere else or ask Alan - don't bother trying to find it.

Every isle is crammed full of stock and boxes line the floor - also full of stock. You really have to watch where you are walking as you are likely to trip over a stack of stock. Each morning before opening, Alan wheels piles of boxes out of the material isles and these are stacked outside the shop on the footpath. Next to the shop he has a shipping container, also full of stock. Upstairs above the shop is full of stock, the car is full of stock - so full I don't know how he drives it.

Going into this shop is sometimes a leap of faith, but it is always an adventure.

Now, I can hear you thinking surely she is exaggerating. I'M NOT!! The family owns a pub, it's windows are all boarded up, and I'm sure it is full of stock too. Who knows. What I do know is that bus loads of women come to Roma as a part of special craft/patchworking tours specially to go to this shop. You can spend hours going through boxes and not find what you are looking for. Once I went in looking for hot pink piping for a dress I'm still halfway through sewing, and I couldn't find the right pink. I asked Alan and he said that he didn't have any at the shop but he knew where he did have some and if I came back at 2 he'd have it for me. And he did. The shop might be messy and full beyond belief, but he knows exactly where everything is.

I will get photographic proof asap of our local treasure!

Emily xoxo