Fabric shop review

After a message was posted at alt.sewing, concerning the diminish in fabric stores, I thought I would do a review of the stores in my part of the world. I live in Ipswich, Australia and the choice of fabrics is fairly limited. There are a few fabric stores around, though not any that stock really quality fabrics, like silk or even wool. There are a couple of quilting and sewing machine stores but, as I have never visited them, I will not review them.

Paddy's fabric (West Ipswich). Not really any good quality fabrics here, though when I first visited I was suprised by how much there is. A lot of it is upholstery fabric. There is a lot of 'mystery' fabrics...most fabric is not marked other than it's price. This is just not helpful at all, especially for beginner sewers. I took my friend there to teach her about the different fabrics and their uses (our first sewing lesson). I had to guess what the fabrics were by their touch, but the only way to definitely know is to conduct a burn test.

I bought a piece of grey fabric, which I thought was a wool blend and the sales lady said I would have to prewash it because it might contain some wool. Hmmph...treat me like I don't know what I am doing. I don't like this particular treatment. El cheapo fabric and the quality in general is low.

Pluses Fabric is relatively inexpensive.

Minuses Fabric is generally not the greatest, hot in store.

Fabrics Galore (Brisbane St, Ipswich). There is a lot of fabric in here for a shop the size of a shoe box. Again, most of the fabric does not have labels, even for the price. Feeling the fabric is the only way to dig out some linen or whatever, but there is only one way to be certain (burn it baby!). There are a few nice things in here, though nothing to write home about. A lot of polyester, a lot of hideous stuff but I have bought stuff here. I will definetly buy from here again. I like the linen that I bought and they had it in many colours and also I like the feeling of hunting down a good piece.

Pluses You can "hunt" through the fabrics, variety of different fabrics, the staff are helpful and interested in what you are making, I have never been treated like an idiot there.

Minuses You cannot always tell what you are buying, not much room.

Bargain Box (Darling St, Ipswich). This has graduated to the best store in Ipswich after the best closed down last year. It has a fair amount of quilting fabrics and I haven't seen any wool or silk there, but there is a lot of cotton/ lycra and polyester knits and some sweater knits.

Pluses A fair selection of knits, air-conditioned, good parking behind store, seasonal fabrics are avaliable all through the year.

Minuses Even though their cotton/Lycra is soft soft, THE DYE RUNS (so beware).

Butterfly Fabric (Off Brisbane St, Ipswich...in old flour mill). Wedding and formalwear fabric, nice quality but I haven't found anything there yet that I would make into everyday wear.

Pluses Great if one is involved in a wedding or other formal event.

Minuses Pricey.

Patched Together (Redbank Plaza). Small quilting shop with a small selection of dress materials. They had some patterns marked down to $3.

Pluses Convienient place to buy thread.

Minuses Mostly for quilters.

There are a few fabric stores in Brisbane, which is the capital city of Queensland and is next to Ipswich. There are obviously more stores here because it is much bigger, but I haven't visited them all.

Lincraft (Garden City + Carindale): These are the ones I visit most frequently, since are close to my uni! I have found some great bargains here. Lincraft is a national chain store that also has uphostery, craft and homeware things. Being a big store there is quite a selection, with wool and wool/blend suitings in netural colours in Winter and linens, rayons and cottons in the summer. The prices are not expensive and there is often an out-of-season bargain to be found, which I love. Occasionally they get some "designer" castoffs at excellent prices. I wrote a letter of complaint after a very disappinting visit, and the next season they seemed to acquire some very nice cottons and rayons, though no more cotton/lycra than usual. More sweater knits and I am yours Lincraft.

Pluses Prices are afforable, good selection of seasonal fabrics, great sales, occasionally have an interesting shipment of "designer" fabrics, often have racks of discounted fabrics

Minuses They have quite far away from me, and situated in busy shopping centres

Lincraft (City): This Lincraft is different to the other two mentioned. At this location there is also wedding and formalwear fabrics and they also tend to have some different fabrics. Last time I went in there, they had some lovely wool coating for a very reasonable price. If only they had it in a nice candy pink and I would have bought some and made a coat.

Pluses As above plus have (though out of my budget) extra fabrics like wool coating.

Minuses Again, quite a journey to get into the city but can be worth it when a bargain is found (like the goreous wool/Lycra I bought there a couple of years ago).

Gardams (City and Carindale): I went in here just to scope out the prices. There used to be a Gardams in Ipswich which had lovely fabric. Anyway, they claim to have the best fabrics in Brisbane. I could have bought some lovely stuff, wools and the like, if I had a higher income. The quality was good though.

Pluses Divine fabrics, lots of lovely wools.

Minuses Expensive, way out of my price range at the moment.

Melissa's Fabric: I visited this store on the way home to see what kind of stock they offered. I was not impressed. They probably have the same source as Fabric Galore yet only 1/4 (if that) of the inventory. I nearly bought some faded denim coloured knit that was on special, but then I reconsidered. Why waste my money on some fabric that I don't love and I will probably never use. I love being able to restrain myself. Probably wouldn't shop here again, except maybe to purchase that stretch denium that was on sale for $AU10. Hmm, maybe I should have bought that but I could remember how much I needed for my jacket and I didn't want to waste my money buying too little.

Pluses

Minuses Fabric quality is questionable, located at a shopping centre I never visit.

Fabric Barn: This place has good quality fabrics, with lots and lots of material for formalwear. However, it is way out of my price range for now. They actually had some boucles and sweater knits, though no pink to be seen. However, I can get a better deal from on online Australia company.

Pluses Lovely fabrics, not the usual run of mill stuff.

Minuses Pricey, also a bit out of my way.

Make It Fabrics (Shop 17, Elizabeth St Shopping Centre, Acacia Ridge): I found this store in a factory outlet store book. I went there to investigate the quality of their wholesale price fabrics and ended up buying two OOP kwik sew patterns for roughly half price (one of which has really god reviews on Pattern Review).

Pluses A source for lingerie elastic and stretch laces.

Minuses This is pretty much a hit and miss store.

Spotlight (Indooroopilly and Mt Gravett): I used to go here all the time when I was in high school, until I discovered Lincraft. I occasionally go in to look at patterns and have a browse around at the fabrics, not buying anything. In my opinion there is a lot of fabric that I would not but anymore because I know I can get better quality for the same price elsewhere. However, on this occasion, I thought that they had some very nice cotton/Lycra. I thought about buying some but did not feel like blowing my budget (I had already bought some elastic and a button cutter) but they did not have the desired white.

Pluses Always have sales (watch out for those Kwik Sew patterns and the notions).

Minuses Dodge the junk a lot of the time, some signs are incorrect and not worth the money in some cases.

Forever Fabrics Clearance (447 Stafford Rd, Stafford): It took forever to find this store (hence its name???) as it was actually a shed behind a house, with no shop name. This store is another shops selling at "wholesale prices" and again it was packed with fabric. I did spend some time looking and feeling the fabrics, and I ended up buying some red wool knit for KS2856 and some hot pink mystery knit (probably a cotton blend) for a tee

Pluses Lots of choice, some cheap fabric

Minuses Very hard to find ( I must have drove past it three times or more). Needs a sign.

Terry Textile (Unit 4/24 Brereton St, South Brisbane): This is a great place. I saw a huge range of different knits, including a rainbow of cotton/lycra or viscose/lycra colours (yellow, purple, mauve, hot pink, fuchsia, black, green etc). Prices are on par with chain stores, and though I did not enter it, there is a special section of designer fabric.

Pluses Cotton lycra colours not avaliable is other stores (that I have seen); off street parking; walk from train station

Minuses Can't think of any

2002: I have this whole list of things that I wish to purchase, but I never see it anywhere, except occasionally on the internet from American sites. I want: a medium pink (what I call candy) wool or wool blend coating material; sweater knits (wool, acrylic or even possibly poly) in black, candy pink, white, lemon yellow, charcoal, purple...all my favourite colours, rayon (and blends) knits; rayon solid wovens; more exotic blends in linen, rayon etc in my favourite colours.

November 2002: I am planning a trip (by planning I am thinking in my head and not making any real plans yet) to Melbourne and perhpas Sydney in twelve months, to visit all the fabric stores. I learnt of a fabric crawl that takes place in Melbourne by a dressmaking school and they provided a good description and the location of many stores there.