[ Oh I know we'll meet again ] 🌙⭐🌞 “Everybody has a little bit of the sun and moon in them. Everybody has a little bit of man, woman, and animal in them. Darks and lights in them. Everyone is part of a connected cosmic system. Part earth and sea, wind and fire, with some salt and dust swimming in them. We have a universe within ourselves that mimics the universe outside. None of us are just black or white, or never wrong and always right. No one. No one exists without polarities. Everybody has good and bad forces working with them, against them, and within them." -PART SUN AND MOON, Suzy Kassem
the worst part about ocd and ocd-like tendencies is that you think hyper-analyzing your thoughts and constantly psychoanalyzing yourself will fix you but that's actually part of the disorder. it's the disorder. disordering.
I wanted to make a post I could copy and paste and or link when I see folks asking where to buy fabrics when Joann is gone. I sew a lot, generally between 100-200 items a year and I don't do it on a big budget. Stores are not in a particular order.
Notions:
Wawak.com - start here, mostly stay here. Wawak is a supplier for professional sewing businesses and have the prices that show it. I will not pay for gutermann Mara 100 anywhere else. I buy buttons, tools, thread, and most elastic here.
Stitch Love Studio - this is where I buy lingerie supplies https://www.etsy.com/shop/StitchLoveStudio?ref=yr_purchases
Fabric:
Fabric Mart - this is one where you want to sign up for emails and never buy unless its on sale. They run different sales every day and they rotate. Mostly deadstock fabrics but I buy more from here than anywhere else. Fantastic customer service and if you watch you can get things like $6 wool suiting or $4 cotton jersey. https://fabricmartfabrics.com/
Fabrics-Store - again, buy the sales not the full price. Sign up for the emails but redirect them to a folder because it is TOO MANY. They stock linen or good but not amazing quality. https://www.fabrics-store.com/
Purple Seamstress - This is where I buy my solid cotton lycra jersey. They have other things, but the jersey is what I'm here for. Inexpensive and very good quality. If you ask she will mail you a swatch card for the solids. https://purpleseamstressfabric.com/
LA Finch - deadstock fabrics with a fantastic remnant selection https://lafinchfabrics.myshopify.com/
Califabrics - mix of deadstock and big brands, easy to navigate and always seem to have good denim in stock. https://califabrics.com/
Boho Fabrics - good variety, nice bundles. I have also gotten some really great trims from here. https://www.bohofabrics.com/
Firecracker Fabrics - garment and quilting fabrics, really nice selection and great sale section. I've bought $5 yard quilting cottons here several times. https://www.firecrackerfabrics.com/
Hancock's of Paducah - Quilting fabric and some limited garment fabric. AMAZING sale section. Do not sleep on the sale section. This is my first stop when buying quilting fabrics. Usually the last stop too. Not particularly speedy shipping. https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/
Itokri - This is something a little different. Itokri is an Indian business with incredible traditional fabrics. Shipping to the US is expensive, but the fabric is so inexpensive it evens out. I generally end up paying like $30 for shipping. Beautiful ikat and block prints. https://itokri.com/
Miss Matatabi - this is a little treat. This isn't where you go to save money, but there are so many beautiful things in this shop. Ships from Japan incredibly quickly. https://shop.missmatatabi.com/
Lucky Deluxe - Craft thrift store, always has an incredible selection and fantastic customer service. I need to close the tab fast because I never go to this website without finding something I need. https://www.luckydeluxefabrics.com/
Swanson's - the OG of online craft thrift stores, but I find their website harder to navigate. https://www.swansonsfabrics.com
Honorary Mentions: I haven't shopped at these places yet but I have had them recommended and likely will at some point.
A Thrifty Notion - https://athriftynotion.com/
Creative Closeouts - https://creativecloseoutsfabric.com/ being rebranded to sewsnip.com on March 1 - quilting deadstock
Hawthorne Supply Co. - I just got this rec and I think I need to not look too closely or I'm going to slip with my debit card. https://www.hawthornesupplyco.com/
This is not an exhaustive list of everywhere you can buy fabric, or even a full list of where I shop. There are SO many options out there in the world. You also need to think outside the fabric store box. I thrift men's shirt fabrics for quilts and sheets for backing fabric. I don't do a ton of in person thrifting and my local stores don't get a lot of craft materials but every thrift store is its own universe and reflects the community it is in. Go out and find something cool.
Oh I just had this conversation with my friends group yesterday. Btw while you can, buy brother machines at the going-out-of-business sale! I just got a serger for $270 which is insane! There's EMBROIDERY MACHINES!!! Anyway, here's some more places--my stash of websites is very orientated toward natural fabrics, and historical ones in particular--I'm a rennie.
https://periodfabric.com - more historical fabrics
https://bigduckcanvas.com - duck and canvas like it says. tent fabric.
https://fabrics-store.com - linen and cotton. They sell kits for kitchen towels too.
https://woolsome.shop - wool
https://www.papercityfabrics.com/ - everything is $4/yd
https://metrotextilesnyc.com - has a lot of quilting fabric
https://fabricdepot.com - general fabric store
https://onlinefabricstore.com - general fabric store
https://burnleyandtrowbridge.com - SYNTHETIC PLASTIC WHALEBONE FROM GERMANY. BEHAVES LIKE WHALEBONE!!! they also carry clothing, fabric etc but the whalebone is the exciting thing bc I do not know many places in the states to get this stuff.
https://farthingalecorsetmakingsupplies.com - Corset supplies, another place to get synthetic whalebone.
https://firemountaingems.com - bead store!
https://beadtin.com - bead store, emphasis on pony beads.
https://jetpens.com - pens, inks, anything you want for calligraphy etc.
https://tiedtohistory.com - goldwork supplies and other notions, patterns, some fabric too. Mostly sparklyshinies. This is my source for actual real genuine Thread-of-Gold and Thread-of-silver!
https://angelusdirect.com - Angelus paint, which is a paint used by cosplayers the world over to paint leather and fabric and shoes. It dries flexible and comes in a zillion colours.
https://shop.smooth-on.com - Silicone and moulding supplies.
https://dickblick.com - ART supplies, but I'm putting this here bc Joann's did sell art supplies.
https://sculpey.com - Sculpey clay, buy it directly from the company.
https://hollanders.com - Bookbinding supplies!
https://leatherhidestore.com - Leather, mostly the sizes for garments or upholstering.
https://tandyleather.com - Another leather crafting store, focus more on crafting. They sell tools and machines as well as leather and notions for leather.
https://patterns.bootstrapfashion.com - DIY dress forms! Plus sizes and men included!
https://herrschners.com - string things! Embroidery, latchook, macrame, etc! I hesitate to say a general craft store, but it does have a LOT of stuff. The prices for their DMC embroidery floss are particularly attractive though.
https://trimsbytheyard.com - TRIMS! They got fringe, they got tassels, they got ruffles and beads you want it they got it!
https://sonomawoolcompany.com - wool but more specifically, wool batting for quilts!
If you have supplies and like them, see if the brand has a website you can buy from direct.
If you need a sewing or serging machine, Bernina is the best, followed by Viking. Brother is best for embroidery machines. Get an older Bernina if you can.
If you live near a fashion city (LA, NYC, Paris, London) then GO TO THE GARMENT DISTRICT. LA has a place you can buy fabric BY THE POUND. It's not got a website it's just a little hole in the wall on like the second floor of a building and a tiny old man is at the counter and has probably been there like a hundred years. NYC has fabric stores that are over a century old. Even my tiny little village has a quilting shop.
Also, join your local historical re-enactors or SCA chapter, that is chock full of crafters looking for new blood. The SCA is a great way to learn crafts you've never heard of, too, like Nalbinding. If you're not careful you'll wake up with an inkle loom and a spindle in your house and like five bags of roving from someone's pet alpaca.
Joann's itself was a corporate takeover of a bunch of smaller local fabric stores, and was sterile and devoid of the REAL kind of community that crafting has. Go look for NON-chain stores, go local! That is where you will find resources--crafters know crafters, because everyone tends to have at least 2+ crafts they do.
RIP Joann's. Now many places in the US no longer have a local fabric store, such as it even was toward the end.
There are some good posts going around about where to shop for fabric and craft supplies online, like this one for example. But if you're a beginner-to-intermediate sewist, and the way you've always shopped for fabric is by going to the store and touching it, it can be a hard, even cruel adjustment to suddenly be looking at a photo online and trying to piece together from the inconsistent descriptions what you're actually looking at.
So I'm going to just try to bang together a little primer on What Things Are Called, and how to educate yourself, so that you don't have to do what I did and just buy a ton of inappropriate stuff you wound up not being able to use for what you'd thought. And I will link to some resources that will help with this. This will be garment-sewing-centric but will, I think, be fairly broadly applicable.
The first thing is to look carefully at your desired project. If it is a commercial pattern, it will usually tell you what kind of fabric you need, but it will describe it in not the same words it's often sold under. If it is NOT a commercial pattern and you're kind of winging it, it's even harder. So here is how to start figuring out what you need.
Number one: Knit or Woven?
Quilting fabric is woven. If you are making a quilt, you want a woven. Most craft projects are made with woven fabric-- tote bags, upholstery, you name it.
Many garments are knits. T-shirts, yoga pants, cardigans. It is easy to know, because knits stretch. They can either stretch both ways (along the length and along the width) or just one way (usually along the width); this is confusingly either called 2-way stretch or 4-way stretch. Yes, stores are inconsistent. Look carefully at the description, and they will usually specify-- "along the grain" or "in all directions". Some garments require stretch only around the body-- maxi skirts, knit dresses etc-- while some absolutely need stretch both ways, like bathing suits.
No, you absolutely cannot clone your favorite knit t-shirt in quilting cotton. It will not fit. Most knit garments have "negative ease", meaning they are smaller than your body and stretch to fit. All woven garments have "positive ease", meaning they are larger than your body, unless very firm shaping undergarments are used.
SMALL EXCEPTION: There exist "stretch wovens", which are woven fabrics made with elastic fibers. These will be labeled as such. They are actually harder to sew with than regular wovens because they almost never have their stretch percentage labeled; they are NOT suitable for knit patterns. Avoid them, until you are more advanced and know how to accomodate them, is my advice!
Number two: WEIGHT.
How heavy is the fabric? How thick? How thin? This is measured in two main ways-- ounces per yard (denim is often 8oz, 10 oz, 12 oz) or grams per square meter. But many fabric retailers do not tell you a weight, they use words like "bottomweight" or "dress-weight", and you have to learn to figure out what they mean by that.
My lifehack for learning these has been go to go to ready-to-wear clothing retailers and see if they give the weights of the fabric their garments are made from. (Yes, I learned how to shop for clothes online instead of in-store years ago, because I am fat; some of us have had to do this a long time.)
If you are making a pair of trousers, you need heavier fabric than if you are making a blouse. Do not buy a floaty translucent chiffon to make your work trousers, it will not work no matter how cute the color is. Learn how the different weights of fabric are described, and you will improve your odds of finding what you need.
Number three: DRAPE.
Is it stiff? Is it fluid? Is it soft? is it firm? There are a lot of very artsy words used for this, and you may find yourself puzzling over things with a fluid hand, or a dry, crisp hand, or "a lot of drape", or maybe the listing doesn't describe it at all. This segues neatly into another technical thing, which is the WEAVE of the fabric. There is a dizzying array of words that tell you what kind of fabric it is-- twill, tabby, challis, chiffon, crepe, organza, georgette. And these will give you insight into the drape, and thus into the texture/usability of this fabric, and how suitable it may or may not be for your project.
I know it's a lot to think about but I am now going to give you resources for where to see all this stuff.
Number one is Mood Fabrics, which I can't believe hasn't been in any of the posts I've seen so far. They are a huge store in NYC's Fashion District and yes you can go there, but when I went there it overwhelmed me so much I left empty-handed. But what they have is AN INCREDIBLE WEBSITE. They have everything on there, and what's most important for you, their listings are INCREDIBLY consistent. They have VIDEOS of many of the fabrics, where a sales associate will hold it, wave it, stretch it, and tell you verbally what it is and what it's for, in about thirty seconds. HUNDREDS of these videos.
Whether you want to buy from them or not, go to Mood Fabrics, click around, find their listings, and read them. They will tell you fabric content, weight (usually gsm), often weave, they have little graphics that show you if it's for pants, dresses, shirts. And they have those videos. Look at the listings, watch the videos, and you will leave knowing a lot more about how to look at an online listing of fabric and know what you're getting.
Another really excellent website for this is Stonemountain & Daughter. I've actually not bought anything from them yet (they came highly recommended, but they're not cheap), but their online listings are, again, very thorough and very detailed. They always have a picture of the fabric with a fold in it held in place by a pin, which does more to help you understand the weight and drape of a fabric than any other static image ever could-- that visual, combined with how informative the listings are, has helped me learn to estimate fabric weights on other sites very effectively.
And here is a page that's ostensibly about how to wash silk, but I found it so useful because it gives such a clear image of what each weave/type of silk fabric looks and drapes like. I've never bought anything from these guys either, but this is a good resource.
Learn a little bit about fabric so you know what you're looking for, and you can begin to replace some of that "i just have to go and feel it in person" problem. There will still be trial and error, but you'll have a better starting place at least.
Oh we have Costco to. But Bulk Barn is where you got and there are bins of stuff you can scoop up and put into bags/jars.
As it’s Sunday I also got 15% off for bringing jars.
I love Costco but my new kitchen isn’t that big, and I don’t have a pantry since they turned it into a laundry (which I’m actually happy about cause no coins or sharing!) so I can’t buy a lot in bulk yet. I got lucky my fridge is one where it’s freezer/fridge is split down the middle
I wake up, my debt is all paid off, my bank account is full, my relationships with my family are healthy, and I’m able to travel anywhere in the world.
Good news! Elementary schoolers of the modern day still believe this is part of vanilla minecraft. I have borne firsthand witness to these discussions.
It is SO refreshing to see a magical girl series that subverts the genre while treating it with respect!!!
I’m so glad that came across!!
Last thing I wanted was for it to seem like I didn’t like the genre. It’s wonderful and empowering and has such a great history. I want idwtbamg to feel the same! I feel like it’s not too different from other magical girl concepts in that the characters usually struggle to balance their magical life with their personal life. Aika just happens to be a bit more cynical about it at this current point in time and really expresses her disdain haha
I definitely poke at tropes but I hope it comes across in a way that makes it seem like it’s out of love~
I reject all incarnations of the addams family written like spooky goths who hate normies. The joke is that they're warm and welcoming and they don't even know that they're weird. Still might maim you though because they also think everyone else is into hardcore sadomasochism.
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