It's not REALLY a crime against fabric de-stashing if you do it on vacation, right? My mother-in-law took me to this, her favorite fabric store, yesterday, and I walked in meaning to buy just one thing...
What they have: Amidst the polyester silkies and quilting cottons, there are gems--including fabulous designer fabrics--to be found.
Sew-Fisticated is a good-sized store, neatly organized by fabric type with helpful signs indicating fabric type/price. And unlike the NYC stores I'm used to, the bolts are labeled by fabric content.
Many of the fabrics are polyester--poly silkies, charmeuses, taffetas, organzas, satins, chiffons, laces, and the like, ranging from about $1.99-$5.99 per yard. I was sorely tempted by some of the fabulous patterns on the poly charmeuses, but didn't want to deal with any fabric even more slippery and stubborn than the silk dress I've been wrangling with this week.
In the more-tempting polyester department, they carried some fabulous poly lycra blend knits, for $1.99 or $2.99 per yard--this I could NOT resist. I got 2.5 yards of an amazing soft spiral-pattern knit and 3 yards of an ombre polka dot matte jersey, both black & white.
Even more fabulousness was to be found in the selection of silks and printed apparel cottons. All their silks seemed to be $9.99/yard, and they had smooth satiny printed charmeuses, sheer printed chiffons, and solid nubbly dupionis.
I even spied the same gorgeous Maggy London bold orange floral silk twill that I'm sewing a vintage maternity dress out of (though I got it for just $3.99/yard online at Fabric Mart, $9.99 is still at least 50% off the original retail value). Which confirms that many of these designer fabrics are designer, even if none of them are labeled as such and the salespeople don't know their origins:
Bold prints were also to be had in the cottons. I couldn't resist a soft 100% cotton 60-inch wide purple, black, white and chartreuse floral lawn for $2.99/yard.
Finally, I was drawn to the African cotton wax prints, $1.99/yard. Some were quite stiff but others were soft and drapier, and I bought a simple blue and red fish print for a baby dress and a more large-scale yellow and blue leaf print for a skirt for me.
There were also selections of fake fur, sequined fabrics, fleeces, quilted fabrics, linen fabrics, swimsuit and dancewear fabrics, not to mention an entire wall of printed and solid quilting cottons and a decent-sized section of home dec fabrics. And according to their website they also have woolen suitings and coatings and bridal fabrics, but I wasn't looking for those.
They had a basic notions and trims section--I bought some universal sewing needles and I saw ribbon, elastic, and the like. Not sure about patterns, as I didn't notice, or look for them.
The salespeople were helpful and friendly, though the woman I spoke to didn't know the designer origins of the fabrics--a small quibble.
Overall everything seemed to be of excellent quality, and the prices were great. I highly recommend Sew-Fisticated for hunting for amazing discount fabric finds! read more