Our fabric district in Dallas, Texas, has been almost completely crushed by the pandemic. Nearly every store is out of business now and emptied of inventory--many thousands of square feet of retail all gone. LA is a hotspot for the virus, so I wouldn't want to be there if it were an elective trip. The mere viral load in the air could be a risk to you, not to mention if you came into direct contact with a carrier. My expectation would be that the months of closures have not treated any of the fabric stores well. We are talking about an industry with slim margins that must meet rent in bustling sections of town. If you do go, I am sure we would all be interested to hear how it goes. I'm personally resorting to doing a lot more online fabric shopping than before.

I believe that Mood is open, but you can always call to find out. Michael Levine's is also probably open (and may have bulk fabrics), but I personally do not like that store that much, and I'm not a big fan of Mood either.

None of the fabric stores in the garment district are wholesale - for wholesale designer fabrics, you would need to go to the PDC or other showrooms on Melrose, and they will be selling mostly upholstery fabrics.

My favorite fabric store in Los Angeles is F&S in West L.A., but at present, only the upholstery section is open, and I do not know when the apparel fabric store will be open, but I hope it will be soon. The quality of fabrics at F&S is far superior to what you will find in the garment district, which I find to be a bit shabby.

In this time of virus, I doubt that you will have a shopping experience that is worth the threat, if you have any at all.

I was very disappointed when I visited what was called the fabric district of Philly, It seems that many of the older cities had such an area. It was mostly just upholstery and things that were entirely not relevant to garment sewing. And there were only a couple of them.

Toronto had a nice enough fabric district a few years ago, but, even then the choices of garment fabric were thin. There was any amount you might want of fancy stuff, but not much to sew an everyday garment with.

Things were already bad and this virus has put the nail in the coffins of many a textile vendor. Also, it has almost stopped the supply line from afar where most of these things are made.

Scary and sad times, for sure!!!!!!

I have recently ordered some linen from an online source and this stuff is beautiful! But, of course, you have to love linen to feel that way.

I have decided that, since there is such a scarcity of anything else of any value, that I am going to give linen all of my love.

Personally, that is a trip that I would not even consider at this time. No fabric that you might possibly find is worth any of that. And, it is doubtful that you will find any at all.

I wish it was not so, but it is.

@Lars that's interesting you say that you're not a big fan of Mood. I visited a decade ago to the New York location and shared your sentiment. It seemed to me at the time that a few other stores in the district had more high-end pieces that interested me. Of course, it largely depends upon what type of fabric a shopper might be seeking as to their experiences at once place or another. Mood certainly maintains a robust online offering that would be advantageous to someone unable to access wider fabric offerings in person.

@User Would you mind sharing your linen vendor?

I was loathe to mention the name of the online vendor, but since you have asked, it is Fabricstore.com. They have beautiful linens and a wonderful website with free download patterns and some of the most beautiful colors of linen that I have ever seen. They have a showcase gallery of things that customers have made from their fabrics, articles that relate to history and art involving textiles, and nice free downloadable patterns.

They have come out with bundles, or capsules, of patterns that give you a few basic elements and a world of design hacks that you can use to flesh out these few basic pieces to create multiple styles. Those are patterns that they sell, but they have plenty of nice free ones.

This is beautiful fabric! But, you have to love linen.

They seem to have a wide customer base of people who create historical costume and folks who just appreciate a good basic fabric. Linen feels so good to wear!

@User Thanks so much! With the pandemic-induced demise of my local fabric wholesale district, I've determined to start ordering more fabric online and always appreciate reviews from someone who has done business with a place and been satisfied. . . . Update: the correct web address appears to be https://fabrics-store.com/

Thanks for your candor, folks. I was on a road trip at the time I wrote that, and had visited some beautiful smaller shops along the way. The purpose of our trip was to visit family, but as a secondary thing, visiting local fabric stores (including three other Joann stores) was a lot of fun. It encouraged me to think about LA, but you're right ... probably not a great idea in this time. I hope that the garment district stores are able to survive.

I would hope that would be the case because of something I found while traveling: all three Joanns that I visited (Centennial/Parker CO, Osage Beach MO and Columbia MO) were completely sold out of sewing machines. "My" own Joann's just told me two days ago that they got some in, but are still low. Hobby Lobby, of which I visited two (somewhere in the Parker area of CO and Columbia MO) both were sold out of machines. The clerk in the CO store said that in her 5 years of working for Hobby Lobby, she had only noticed a few machines that sold. But during the Pandemic, they completely sold out. So the hope that this will bring a resurgence in folks using sewing machine, and therefore the greater need for fabric, will bring more stores to stock "real" fabric and not the plethora (walls) of fleece that our store has carried for years.

Frankly, I don't go shopping ANYWHERE without a mask - even if it's "optional".

Donna

Donna, I wish that I could put some faith in your idea that a surge in sewing machine sales might spur the return of fabrics and outlets. But, I don't. The horse has left the barn, for good.

I highly suspect that most of them will be used for mask making and that's all.

Most people in the US did not have reasonable access to any venue to buy sewing supplies before the virus. Now, there are even fewer.

However, I do see a real lack of clothing options coming our way with the supply chains being broken and with China and the US rattling swords.

I predict that the second hand clothing market is going to explode.

@User, I was chatting with the clerk at one of our (3) local Hobby Lobby stores today. She was saying that they have sold out of machines. Lately, she has waited on a number of customers who have made the following comments:

"I'd forgotten how much I loved to sew. Time to get back to it!"

"Do you have classes in how to make clothes?"

and a few other similar ones.

She has sold a lot more fabric recently for clothing - she said the two bolts of white eyelet fabric went like hot cakes - I took the last 2 yards. She has also sold more of other garment-making fabrics like gingham and seersucker (which I Love and am glad they carry, as our Joann's and Walmart never have!).

This was just one Hobby Lobby, located in the heart of Mira Mesa, San Diego County. I cross my fingers that other fabric stores have this type of surgence and take note of it!

Donna

I think that as people are spending more time at home, they are finding that sewing is a good way to spend some of that time - I know I have. I really do enjoy sewing, and I enjoy it even more when I am not thinking that I could be doing something else instead.

I am fortunate to have a large inventory of fabric, but I always do want more, or else I would have used more of the fabric that I already have on hand. Right now I am prioritizing my projects, and I have put bedspreads on the back burner, although they are quick and easy to make. When I do make them, they will use up a lot of the fabric that I have, but it does need to be used anyway. I line my bedspreads, and so coordinating the fabrics for these has been my sticking point, especially since I do not want to buy fabric for this. Also, I do not want to spend money on this and am trying to make the most of what I already have.

I have given lessons to people in how to make clothes, but I am not a good teacher, as I do not have patience with people who are slow learners. I have enormous patience when I am sewing myself, however.

donna, I wish that I could share your optimism, but I don't see that happening. We have strayed too far off course and burned too many bridges behind us as we left garment sewing behind.

One thing, though, that may have some impact is the fact that the cheap clothing from third world nations has dwindled and that may lead to some renewed interest.

I went to Joanns the other day, the first since the lockdown began so long ago, just to pick up a few supplies.

What I found was a store that was badly kept and looked like some third world bazaar, but much less interesting. Cottons were definitely in short supply and so was thread.

This store was an awful place to begin with but it is even worse now. One would have thought that the corporation would have sent some employees into the store during the closed down time to straighten it up, clean it up, and tried to restock some things. But, no. It is disgraceful and nasty. And, it is the ONLY fabric store around for at least 30 miles. After that 30miles, it is that many or more to any other place, which would be only another Joanns.

Since I was there, I took a quick look at the Simplicity catalog. It looks to me that they are trying to get up to par with some of the independent pattern companies that are offering newer and more streamlined styles that require fewer buttons and zippers and such. They were still offering those old fashioned garments that they have been hawking for so long. But, the biggest problem with those old patterns is that there is absolutely nothing in that store to buy to sew most of those garments with. Whereas the independent companies are offering more relaxed styles with less construction. I will bet that there are many fewer people who even know the skills needed to sew many of those older style garments.

I see these people who say, "Oh, I just taught myself to sew last week". And, I think ,"No, you just think you did.". It is a start but I doubt that many will go on and learn real sewing techniques or go much further than pjs or table runners or pillows. The fleece buying season will begin soon as people think towards the holidays.

Maybe the increase in sales at that store that you mentioned has to do with the supply lines being choked off. Maybe it is not so much of an increase in demand as it is a decrease in supply.

You don't even see nice fabric in ready to wear anymore. Alas! I fear that those good fabrics are gone forever.

Now, so many fabrics are little more than landfill that will not even decompose on this earth.

I was shocked to see Chicos clothing offerings this past year to be no more than stiff and heavy plastic. Ugh!!! Those fabrics and the clothes that have been made from them are now presenting an environmental hazard and piling up in landfill for the foreseeable eternity.

Sewing might still be done on some scale, but garment sewing is probably not what most are doing.

I am now in love with linen. I can leave all else behind me and make peace with a few simple garments.

My family lines do run through Dallas and I have lived in Dallas and near Dallas at times in my life. But not in a very long time.

As I said to Donna, I don't share your optimism.

Since you have the word "silver" in. your name, I am going to think that perhaps we are in the same silver generation?

The fabrics that we used to see in the last half of the century have almost all disappeared, even from the ready to wear. This is really evident if you take a shopping trip to one of the resell venues like Goodwill, for instance. While you are not as likely to see as many garments from the 80s, you will see a good number of them from the 90s and even the first decade of this century. You see how things were made and what they are made of. It was quite different. You don't see the same fabrics or fibers anymore.

It has become next to impossible to find a woman's ready to wear woven shirt anymore. And, it is difficult to find a piece of nice woven fabric to sew one with that is not a slinky synthetic.

Many of us older folks have things in our stash that you know you would never find again---not even online. It is just not made anymore. Synthetics, and knits in particular, have taken over everything, and they do not behave like the fabrics that used to be. Once the tide has turned on a consumer good such as fabric and the uses get tailored to suit that change, it is very unlikely to return to being made. Once a manufacturing line has changed over, it is way too expensive to retool and re market.

I have found that there are some Australian pattern companies making some nice patterns. The usual suspects here in our country are pretty uninteresting.

I enjoy the online community of people who sew and follow a couple of blogs for some years now.

So, I fall in love with the honesty and natural goodness of linen from an online source. Keeping it simple and honest.

By the way, our local Joanns is as bad as I reported it to be. I don't understand why . It is the only outlet for many many miles in a large and sophisticated metro area other than a small shop that sells piecing cottons.

My sister tells me that a new Joanns opened in New Orleans.

You mentioned patterns....

I think there are some really nice things coming from some of the independent pattern designers. It seems that there are a number of them coming from Australia.

I also see a lot of very pretty things that are made by using a really simple pattern and using pattern hacks to make that into several other things. Even Simplicity had some like that.

I like that. It is clean in design, honest in what it is, , and simple in construction, and I see such variety created with one simple shape. Vary the fabric, vary the design. If you use a nice fabric, even the most simple of patterns looks good.

I am not into tackling old fashioned interfacings, buttonholes, side zippers and all that. Not anymore. I see a lot of pretty and simple shapes that don't need those things. I don't want to mess with having to go out and buy all that little stuff to sew with. Not with things as they are. I like that, too.

I find that many of the simple shapes such as a basic box top can benefit by a bust dart. Not hard to do.

There are also some nice fabric vendors who provide free downloadable patterns and some of them are quite nice.

Internet access gives us so much more than those pattern catalog counters where we used to sit and thumb through the pages. I still have a couple of old pattern catalogs from the late 70s. They are fun to browse through. I remember those times.

Internet gives a lot of individuals a chance to share and to market their own product without having to have some large business behind it. I like the independent designers.

And, some people make the best blogs!

Some are so prolific that you wonder where in the world do they go to wear all of those clothes and how do they find time to go out and wear them when they spend so much time sewing?

I agree that there is some serious sewing going on out there.

But it is all so different.

One aspect that it lacks now is the thrill of thinking of what gem of a length of fabric you might find during your dance through an old fashioned fabric store. There used to be so many different things, and there were strange treasures to be found on tables and ends of bolts that you never knew you wanted until you found it on sale for a pittance. That lead to having a lot of freedom to try a lot of different things, when you could get such random great stuff. It is quite different from ordering and choosing from a swatch, having a plan and all of that.That might be fine for a special thing. But it not good for spontaneous inspiration. There were all manner of tables of assorted stuff as well as very neatly tucked bolts of nice fabrics.

Now I feel as if I am wading through a cheap trinket store when I go to Joanns amidst a forest of fleece. Online leaves me trying to get the enlarge image thing to happen so that maybe I can see the weave of the fabric. Sometimes there is a penny in the picture to help with scale. Thats not helpful, either.

So, I seek simplicity.

dallasannie, if you do not like clothing patterns that you find, why don't you make your own patterns? I use drafting tracing paper (on a 36" roll) for drafting patterns, and I always write down the instructions for construction, so that I will assemble the garment in the correct order. I know I shouldn't have to do this, but it makes it easier for me, and then I don't have to think once I start sewing. I did the same thing when I was making furniture models.

Yesterday I received my order for 6 yards of linen from fabrics-store.com, and I am very happy with it. The linen is very soft, and I think the shirts I will make from it will not require ironing. I've already put the fabric through the washer and dryer to shrink it, but once the shirts are made, I will not put them in the dryer, as they dry very quickly on hangers.

I do look forward to the time when I will be able to go back to F&S Fabrics in West L.A., as that is my favorite place, although I've not been in a while. I met Charlotte Rae and Mindy Cohn there about 25 years ago, and they were fun to talk with. Charlotte Rae was buying feather boas, and Mindy was buying some sparkly fabric for friends of hers in Las Vegas, but Mindy said that she does not sew herself.

Lars, being the cheap do it yourself gal that I have always been, I have created some of my own patterns, based on what I see, especially Tessuti and Style Arc. I like those two companies. That is part of the joy I am finding in simple construction. It is more easily altered, copied, and varied.

Sometimes I can watch a blog of someone who is sewing the pattern for some reference. Although I have been sewing for over 60 years, I was never good at pattern drafting. So, I start with a drafted pattern and alter it into what I want.

I have perfeced a dress that I like a lot and two patterns for pants that I like. I don't care if every pair of pants that I wear for the rest of my life is made from the same pattern. I love it. I know it. It is my tried and true pattern, my "go to" pattern.

I am still hugging and loving and petting my linen yardage. Have not cut the last couple of pieces yet. They sit folded on a vantage point in my sewing room and I stroke them as I pass by and murmur to then what they might become.

Publishing a pattern that has various versions in one pattern is not anything new, but I am seeing quite a bit of it now. I think that the more simple the construction of the garment, the easier it is to alter it.

One thing I like about the patterns and styles that depend less on buttons, zips, and convoluted turnings, such as collars, is that the patterns often have more styling gone in to the drafting of the pattern. That seam line that may appear to be a straight seam when you look at the garment may actually be cleverly drafted to achieve some effect and may curve or flare. Sure you know that.

Anyway, glad you like your linen. I will bet that they are doing a great business right now. I wish that they offered the option of buying some thread when you buy the linen. Getting out to a venue to buy special colors of thread is problematic. Sure, you can sew with neutrals, but sometimes you want something close to the color.

Where do you go to buy from the whole selection of sewing thread if you don't have a fabric store? The only other place that I can think of anywhere near me is WM. And that is limited, in the very best of times. And, we are painfully aware that this is not normal times we are in.

I do "hear you" about the big 4 pattern companies and their offerings lately. Simplicity appears to be offering "vintage", reprinting and trying to sell their old patterns from the 40s, 50s, etc. (I have to laugh. I rarely throw out a pattern, and have a lot of my old 70s and 80s patterns to this day, when they were still $1 or less.)

I've found there are some great patterns online, too, or just general instructions if you are making something that doesn't really require a pattern. This also avoids my pet peeve about the Big 4 patterns: the pieces you want for the view you want to make, are inevitably right in the center of a 4' x 3' piece of tissue paper that you just unfolded. (That just happened to me with a doll dress pattern I chose. Everything for View B was right smack dab in the middle!) The patterns I find online are often easier to put together, following a more reasonable sequence. (Nancy Zieman used to give hints about putting Big 4 patterns together, and how to get a more professional look by NOT following the instructions completely.)

Donna

I used to get thread from the upholstery department at the furniture company where I used to work, but I am retired now and no longer have that option.

Most of the thread I have I bought at F&S Fabrics in West L.A., and they have a fantastic selection, although they are temporarily closed. Still, I have a huge collection of thread, some of it going way back to the times when thread came on wooden spools!

My next project will be making outdoor pillows/cushions with Sunbrella fabric that I ordered on line and received a couple of weeks ago. My sewing machines are in Cathedral City, and so I will not be able to start on this until I go back there. I was planning to go back tomorrow, but I decided to postpone that trip, due to the Apple Fire in Riverside County that is causing severely bad air quality.

lars, most people don't have an outlet for sewing thread. I was in WM yesterday for the first time since way back when and the small sewing dept was almost devoid of any fabric, except for fleece and there were only a handful of thread spools. Joanns, was only marginally better, marginally, at best.

At both venues, both the cotton fabric and thread were in seriously short supply.

We are going to see even more tightening of the market for sewing supplies, among many other things.

I have sewn sunbrella fabric into outdoor pillows and it does last a long time. Mine are not filled with drain dry stuffing so I don't leave them in the rain. I also have some reusable grocery bags made of sunbrella and I have been using them for almost two decades now and I see no reason that they would not last another generation. I don't recall using any special thread to sew them. But they are not exposed to the elements and that is the factor that makes the most difference with outdoor things as to which thread to use.

Donna, yes the pattern companies are repackaging the old stuff, but without the fabrics available to sew them up with.

I had a whole big bunch of vintage patterns from the 20s up to my own that probably look a lot like yours. I had to get rid of them and had a hard time finding anyone interested in them. I ended up sending some to my sister who passed them on to some other venue, and still have a few. I went through the remaining ones recently and relegated some to the compost heap. I am never going to use them.

I did use some of those from the 40s when I was a young woman. There are cuts and construction in some of those old patterns that you just don't see anymore.

I think that I have all the patterns that I am ever going to use in my small stash. I got rid of a lot of things that were really mundane and quite unremarkable.

My house in Cathedral City only gets about 6" of rain a year, and so that is not much of an issue for leaving pillows out, but I do bring them inside so that they do not get dusty! I leave them out while I am there but take them inside before I leave. I had not thought of making grocery bags with Sunbrella fabric - it seems a bit expensive for that, and I would probably use duck instead.

If you still have excess vintage patterns, you might be able to sell them on eBay or Etsy. I've never done that, but I used to sell DVDs on Amazon, to get rid of excess ones. I could get a better price there than I could at the video stores in Hollywood, like Amoeba.

I used to order sewing supplies from Wawak, but their web site has not been working for me lately. I ordered a bunch of zippers from Amazon that I received last week, and I used to get them from Wawak, along with the pillow forms.

I checked the Wawak site, and it seems to be working again now, but it doesn't seem to cheap anymore😞. Fortunately I have a good supply of thread for now and can probably wait for F&S to re-open before I need to buy more. I guess I should go back to buying Coats & Clark Thread. Typically, I just buy the color I need at F&S, and I've always been able to get a good match there.

Maybe this should be its own thread (no pun intended), but what's the difference between Coats & Clark Dual Duty thread, and Gutermann (besides price)? Most of my stash of thread, which is huge since I inherited my aunt's supply, is Coats & Clark. I haven't had to buy thread in a long time, but I can see that my supply of white and black are both dwindling.

@User, I know what you mean about the thread section at Walmart. That is a store that, until two days ago, I had not stepped foot into for 6 weeks. There's very little I "need" there that I cannot buy anywhere else. But that fabric department was pretty void of cottons and thread. I did manage to snare some ribbon for a couple of doll dresses, but that was about it.

Donna

I definitely do not want weak thread, and so I will wait and buy Gütermann thread when F&S reopens. That's the brand of thread our upholstery department used.

All of my C&C thread is old. It's not worth it to use cheap thread, if it is prone to breaking.

I always wax my thread before hand sewing, and often I wax the end of the machine thread to make it easier to thread the sewing machine needle.

At the point, I plan to go back to Cathedral City on Thursday (tomorrow), as I think the air quality will have improved by them. Most of the smoke from the fires seems to be blowing toward Phoenix and Las Vegas anyway.

One good thing about Los Angeles is that a lot of costumes are made here, and so it is easy to find a wide range and variety of fabrics. Only NYC has a better selection, I think, but I have not shopped there in a long time.

Lars, you are right sunbrella would be expensive to buy for grocery bags. I had come across a great deal at a yard sale. It happened to cost me pennies. Otherwise , no, I wouldn't buy it for that and I did not have another use for it. So, that is what it became..

New Orleans used to have some great little funky places to buy costuming fabrics. They do.a lot of fancy dressing up down there at Mardi Gras. Most of the places that were fun to visit closed up long ago. You never knew what funky stuff you would find in there! I don't know what folks did after those closed up in New Orleans. I haven't seen such stuff since then! Not that I want stuff like that anymore, but it was fun at the time.

Thread, yes Gutermans is the better quality, but I haven't had any problems with CC all purpose threads. Right now I have problems with all thread because you just can't find it. You might be surprised when your favorite store opens up.

beesnees, I understand that Gutermans is a better qualtiy, but I have things that have been sewn with CC years ago and they are perfectly fine. I did notice some change in it over these past few years and had a few thread problems that I did end up blaming the CC thread for.

I have use some Gutermans and do find it smoother. I don't disagree that it is a better quality.

It might make a difference to some applications.

I will buy either CC or Gutermans right now.

Thanks for the comments on the thread. I have yet to have problems with C&C or even the cheap "discount" thread that happened to be in my stash. Knock on wood, though, because some of the stash thread is probably old. (How old? Well, I just emptied two or three that were on WOODEN spools, and there are 2 or 3 more like that. When did they stop putting thread on wooden spools?!)

I also happened upon another brand, can't remember its name. When I dropped off my non-working Viking, back in January, it had a spool of white C&C on it, which the drop off tag noted. When I got the still-not-working machine back, it had the white bobbin, but no thread. They couldn't locate my spool, so they handed me this other skinny spool thread. I'm using it now, and no problems once I changed the bobbin to match it.

Edit: That last brand was Mettler. I used it all on a series of 4 three-tiered skirts for my granddaughters. Evidently there wasn't a lot of thread on that tiny skinny spool!

Donna