This is excellent news. We actually have a Michaels in our small town, and even a limited supply of sewing stuff will be an improvement.

I was hoping that would happen!

Many were hoping someone would pick up their yarn brands for sure. Iwonder if Michaels and JoAnns are owned by the same entities? Both stores seemed to be wearing at the seams over the years. When you go in them they feel/look unkept, uncared for. I don't think Michaels is a first choice for most hobbyists any longer.

As with anything, that depends on where you live I think. I used to think poorly of Hobby Lobby, because where I lived, there were multiple HLs, Michaels and JoAnns, not to mention specialty craft stores. The two HLs were just sad.

Here, we had a teensy JoAnns which went out of business two years ago, and the next closest big box craft store was over 90 miles away. A year ago, HL opened a store within 20 miles and it is glorious! I do miss having a choice, but am just plain grateful we have ANYTHING.

I would not expect Michaels crafts to offer fabrics of more than mediocre quality. Sometimes at JoAnn I would come across good fabric like Kona.

Not so much fabrics for me - I already own enough to last the rest of my life I think.

It's the notions I'm more interested in.

Michaels will never be a real fabric store. There is no fairy godmother with a magic wand to make it so.

The paradigm has shifted.

Lumping fabric and needle arts into the same mess o' stuff as glue and glitter is so sad. That is partly what happened at Joanns. It became a cheap craft store and had little to offer the serious sewist. However, if you wanted to "sew" yet another of those dammed blankets........there you go.

We had One Joannes here in Colorado Springs. It was so busy there was always a line at the cutting table and check out. Young people are into COS playing, they make their own costumes. Older people, quilting and upholstery. I'm glad to hear Michaels is going into the fabric business!

My favorite fabric store in L.A., F&S Fabrics, only half survived the pandemic. It used to be two stores, across Pico Blvd from each other, but the store that sold fashion and clothing fabrics closed during the pandemic, even though the upholstery store across the street stayed open.

I could still go downtown to the Fashion District, where there were several fabric stores, including Mood and Michael Levine, among others. The furniture company I worked for had its own textile department, but it was only high-end upholstery fabrics. However, I did manage to get a lot of fabric at work that I was able to use at a huge discount, plus I could get leftover bolts of fabrics that clients had abandoned, as long as they had been in the warehouse for at least three years.

Fabric stores in Coachella Valley seem to cater to quilters, but they still sell fabrics and notions. I have been buying sewing supplies online since the pandemic. I'm not thrilled about having to get fabrics online, but actually that has worked out okay for me. I've bought quite a bit of linen and terrycloth online, as well as Sunbrella fabrics. The one snafu was when I accidentally bought awning fabric to make pillows, but awning fabric was the only way I could get the bright orange color that I wanted. It was like sewing cardboard, but I got the pillows made anyway, although they are a bit stiff.

I never shopped at Jo-Ann's, but I think there was one at Fox Hills Mall in Culver City. I had lots of fun shopping at F&S, however, since it was on the West Side - I did not like going downtown or to the Fashion District - it was difficult to park, for one thing.

" I am wondering how much of this has to do with private equity? It's well known how so many these legacy companies get bought out by firms that then squeeze hem to literal death "

I thought the company was to be liquidated, with assets being sold to satisfy creditors.

I've been shopping for fabric at Hobby Lobby, a store I don't really like but it's the only choice at this time. The quality is not great, but for what I'm doing it's ok. It's on sale every other week. I'll check out Michaels once they get rolling. I cannot imagine where they would put fabric in my nearest Michaels.

You're a lucky duck, Lars 🙂

I envy those who live where there are fashion/ manufacturing districts and suppliers like that. When I lived in NYC, it was such fun to shop the fabric stores in the garment district. I know many are no longer there now, but there are still some left.

I need a few short zippers for closing up small cloth bags. My two drive to stores are Michael's or a drive to a Walmart that sells some sewing goods 25 mild drive) I guess I could look online. I have not sewn a zipper into fabric for decades. I feel as though I’m living in Outer Mongolia (or has that been shut down too).

I wonder how many who sew are cafting vs making garments? 40 some years ago, prepping for my first job in the public schools I spent my summer sewing a wardrobe. Since then it's been curtains/doll clothes/patching/quilts etc. The 'quality' of fabric needed is vastly different. Here in my small town we have a quilt shop that sells quality cotton goods. WalMart took all their fabric departments out a few years ago--only to return SOME of the goods a few years later. That will be the easiest place to find thread etc. It is my understanding the 'quality' of fabric sold by JoAnn's was in question for some years--on par to what Hobby Lobby sells and now Michaels no doubt. I too asked what will Michaels take out to make room for a fabric area. The response was they will expand. I don't see that happening. As I said earlier all the Michael's I've been in in the last five years (four different States) looked more like it was dying vs a healthy vibrant business.

Michael’s wasn’t found guiltyn of stealing antiquiities; Hobby Lobby was.

HL has also voiced some social prejudices many found greatly offensive. I do not shop there.

I don't like HL at all either, petalique, but Walmart has little fabric, so where else? I guess there are online sources.

I remember when our nice department store had fabric.

Arcy, I was seriously considering sewing my own underpants. Even the sewing blogger I read recently had a tutorial on that.

I’m picky. I didn’t want too high or too low. A waistline that would stay put/up, but nothing snug and not around my waist. The elasticin most procts seems to fail early. Annoying. I have underwear I bought a few decades ago and the elastic in the top is still good. Odd.

I looked online, bought something ?”Cool bamboo” but didn’t think tney would be the right design - too short on the side.

Then one daysI purused on od those Marshalls sorts of stores a dtook a chance. Eureka!

I bought all I could find and they pretty much work. Amzdid not want even the unopened boxes of pants/”panties” back and gave a refund but told me to keep the pants. I will try to find a women’s oriented help place and donate.

In a way, I thought of sewing my own briefs would be like making my own toothpicks. Not something I wanted to spend my time on.

If one doesn’t want to shop at HL, would one buy or accept gifts of crafted products whose materials are from HL? We all have craft fairs and friends who craft, or part of a group planning a crafted gift for the group leader or such. I always wonder how far one’s limits stretch.

^^^ interesting, bpath.

No one will ever accuse me of being a fanatic. If I were to buy something at a craft fair, I would never think to question the source of the materials.

HL strikes me as one of those entities that might feign certain X-ian like values, but whose actions might not match.

Aside — the other day on TV news there was someone on trial or someone convicted of something. Around her neck was a symbol suggesting moral wholesomeness. I see this now and again.

" I see this now and again. "

Oh, you mean hypocrisy? Look a bit closer, you'll see or hear of it daily. ;-)

FWIW, there are any number of people who take second hand clothing and home textiles then repurpose them into new garments, accessories, etc.. One woman I see on my video feeds, makes some really cool items under the name PoppyLu.

You can find 100% cotton, linen, silk and wool garments/blankets, scarves for only a few bucks at thrift stores.

Elmer, it’s a tell.

Did I hear someplace that clothing can no lo ber be thrown into the trash bin? Or is that just ”fashion” clothing?

We have taken our unusable textiles to the compost center’s textile bin for ages. If I would buy it at a rummage sale, I donate it. If not, to the textile bin it goes.

I had some things that were awesome textile but not usable for their intended purposes. I put them on my local group and a textile and multi-media artist was happy to take them!