Shoutout to the fabric store in Portland that saved my project

I was about to scrap a whole dress design because the silk I ordered online was way too stiff, but this local shop had the perfect lightweight dupioni. Has anyone else found a great small supplier for tricky materials?

4 comments

4 Comments

morgan3261mo ago

Local shops are the best for that, they always seem to have the one weird thing you need. My go-to place has a whole wall of just obscure interfacings.

kelly_patel1mo ago

My friend was trying to find this specific, super stiff canvas for a costume project and drove to three big chain stores. They had NOTHING. She finally went to this tiny place downtown, and the owner knew exactly what she meant, pulled it from a back room, and even gave her tips on how to sew it. That kind of help is just priceless. Those little shops are absolute treasures.

shane_bell1mo agoMost Upvoted

Have you ever thought about how these shops become knowledge banks? The owner at my spot remembers what projects regulars bought for years back, so she can guess what you might need next. That kind of memory is their real inventory.

quinncoleman2d ago

My local shop owner has never remembered me once in five years of going there. I think the whole "the owner remembers everything" thing is kinda romanticized. It's a nice story but most of those shops are just cluttered and dusty, not magical memory banks.