The incidental tourists

Hello my sewing comrades! I’m finally home!

To say I love to travel is an understatement. I live to travel. I live to sew.  But, it never occurred to me that I could enjoy being a tourist in my own lil isle when hubby was on leave in June.

Instead of visiting the usual malls or going for a movie, we ended up visiting chinatown and kampong glam, marveling at the sights and enjoying the distinct cultures at these tourist hunts. We took our new camera out and snapped lots of photos. I’m posting more images here so you too get to play virtual tourist in Singapore while I finally got to document my last few days of Made Me June (in August *sign*).  I hope you enjoy what you see and will visit our lil island some day! And for Singaporeans overseas, I hope you have a Happy National Day next Tuesday 🙂

We started one of the days with some traditional food from my maternal granny’s hometown of Hubei, China at the People’s Park Complex hawker centre (Market Street). Dumplings with vinegar/ ginger slices and handmade dumping skin soup with dried shrimps, minced pork and cabbage. Tien Jin is the name of the stall and the only place I know that sells this dumpling skin soup and it’s simply delicious!

Then, upstairs to my fave favourite stall, Thye Guan Textile (02-1006) to check out new stocks. The owner liked my Au Revoir dress which was made with fabric bought from her store 🙂 Lots of knits and wovens to choose from as usual! I am still waiting for her new border print order to arrive.

At Kampong Glam, we visited Haji Lane (small shops selling home decor, second hand jeans, cafes), Arab Street (Fabrics!!!) and Muscat Street (Sultan Mosque, cafes and vintage toy shop/ musuem).

Graffiti wall at Haji Lane

The Sultan Mosque, oldest mosque in Singapore (1854)

Check out the Roti Prata store opposite the road from Sultan Mosque! Here’s the chef at work.

And if you are a fabric fanatic like me, you have got to visit Arab Street. I found this fabulous chiffon border print at S$8 (US$5.60) per metre. Can’t wait to make a simple dress out of it!

As we still had sometime to spare before picking up the kids from school, we took a stroll along Muscat Street and chanced upon a vintage toy museum/ shop and they still have vintage toy robots/ planes/ vehicles for sale in original boxes.  Too cute!

The following day, hubby and I enjoyed a breakfast of barbecue pork rice rolls  at chinatown hawker centre and a traditional cup of tea/ milo from this stall called the 50s where they sold traditional Hainanese coffee, drinks and bread. There was a perpetual queue at the stall while we were there.

After breakfast, we explored the streets of chinatown.

It was a humid and sunny day so my cape tara and red denim ruby shorts were weather perfect for our ‘excursion’.At the end of temple street was the Sri Mariamman Temple, founded in 1827 it is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore and a national monument.

Another landmark in chinatown in the recent years is the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.

While playing tourists, hubby and I also ended up with some goodies from the road side stalls. A Chairman Mao bag for him and two Vietnamese handmade dresses for my daughter (below) which I love. The smocking and embroidery details are simply fabulous and I love how they looked so vintage too!

TGIF and I hope you enjoyed this brief virtual tour of Singapore 🙂

I will be sharing some of my fave shots from the Sydney/ Cairns vacation soon. I didn’t wear made me outfits everyday but a good mix of rtw and self made:) On the sewing front, I’m in the midst of rushing out some vintage nautical outfits for my lil prince and princess and will share shots of them soon too! My first vintage kids patterns, woo hoo!

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