All I know about in my area (Detroit) is Hancock, JoAnn, and Walmart. I haven't looked in the phone book to see if there are any others but I sure haven't seen any.

Just for the fun of it I googled "fabric shop xxxxx" the x's being my zip code. Several names came up in the Chicago suburbs.

we have joann's ,hancock ,3 walmarts,Eleanor Burns ,Quilt in a day shop.Also have the mad hatter,sowing sisters,sew special,quilters treasure,those are all quilt shops,and oh yes a fat quarters shop and can't forget yardage town.Gosh i didn't realize how many we had til i started writing them down,granted most are quilt shops,but fabric nonetheless.
Kathi

Other then Walmart all the shops in our area have closed, there is a Joann in another area, and a quilt shop that is very expensive. New Orleans, has nothing left. But years ago I started using the internet to shop fabrics, I don't do swatches, but I do know companies I like doing business with, Moda,Hoffman,lots of others, these manufactures have nice fabrics, Cranston, has two or three types, the Walmart type is there economy goods. After buying online for so long now, it is the only way I enjoy shopping for fabric and lots of supplies. Rene

I live in Mobile AL, and we have a couple of fabric shops besides the typical Hancock's, Joann's and Walmart. I especially like Five Gold Monkeys which specializes in upscale upholstery fabric. I've ordered trim online from Trimsplus.com. I've also ordered discontinued designer duvet and sheets from ebay, which I've used as fabrics for some projects. A few days ago, I ordered 42 yards of Surefit slipcover fabric in the discontinued blue microsuede through "Overstoxx.com" (unfortunately we can't mention that particular website here but you've seen their commercials) at less than $3 per yard. Why 42 yards? I'm planning to make slipcovers and Roman shades for my den.

I'm in North Florida. The nice, smaller JoAnn's all closed, and we only have 2 super centers left (both a good distance from home), WallyWorld (WalMart), several quilt shops with a nice selection, but for really good fashion fabric, there's only Paula's Fine Fabrics. I remember back in the day when fashion fabrics weren't hard to find, but people got away from garment sewing. Now the emphasis seems to be on quilting. I personally like Hancock's but the nearest one is about 70-75 miles away, I'm guessing. I'm not crazy about ordering on-line either, like to feel the "hand" of the fabric, whether it wrinkles easily, etc.

Mary

remember Cloth World from days past?

I live in a small town in Southern Oregon. We have Joanns, Walmart, And two quilt shops stuck in the cat age. One of them quite frankly I don't know how she stays in business. She's a gem of a lady but her fabric choices for inventory are quite wretched. Even if you only quilt not sure what you'd buy there.

I but online all the time. BUT it's from manufacturers where I know the quality is good, Alexander Henry, Michael Miller, Moda, Free Spirit, In the Beginning, Robert Kaufman. IMHO Joanns ocassionally has some cute stuff but have to watch quality. Walmart ALWAYS have to watch quality, they have a lot of second run stuff w/ flaws all over the place.

There are a lot of FANTASIC online vendors for fabric. I love fatquartershop dot com. Kim, the lady that owns it is the sweetest in the world and will go out of her way to answer questions. She only carries top quality fabric. I also love fabricdepot dot com. The ladies there get my highest marks for customer service. If you call up and have a print you want and want them to match colors from Kona cotton or other prints for you they will happily pull the bolts and give a very honest opinon (and they all seem to have a pretty good eye.)

I also buy a lot from hancocks paducha dot com. I only wish we had a hancocks here. I have also had very good service from them. I love getting their catalogs so I can see all the new fabric lines. I much prerfer looking at magazine to looking at a computer screen.

A lot of the online fabric shops also have interactive fabric walls so you can post the swatches and mix and match your pieces and at least get some sense of how they will look together.

When you live where I do fabric shopping online is often your ONLY option.

I buy a lot off ebay too, you can get great fabric buys there.

Happy shopping ladies!
Tanya

I have had good luck ordering from fashionfabricsclub.com as well as fabrics.com. The first one has a large selection at all price ranges; the other one only limited selection. We do have a local shop but the fabrics are so expensive there.

I spent a good deal of my childhood in a Clothworld. How big was that chain? Mine was in southern CA.

We have lost several fabric stores from our area. Joann's bought out one competitor that I know of. The big loss is that Joann's used to carry wool, linen and other good materials and now that they are alone, they have dropped those lines. Now you are lucky to get cotton. So I go to ebay for linen and silk. Oregon Silver on ebay is a good source for silk. And I buy some fabrics at Goodwill.

Cloth World was in Miami Florida and Texas. BTW I worked for a short time in JoAnn's and they said they get a lot of seconds there too. You just have to watch what is being cut.
I miss my JoAnn's.

If you live in the Chicagoland area you must go to Fishmans and Vogue on Roosevelt Road by UIC. There is also another Vogue in Evanston, I believe.

I have started shopping on line because of the convenience factor, so if you are looking for fab cottons whether they be quilt, sewing or novelty here are three online I suggest: bearpawfabrics, 5bucksayard and fatquartershops - all end with a dot com. 5 Bucks is running a Super Bowl Promo with free shipping and I am sure the others will be doing something special for us gals on that weekend too.

I stay away from the big boxes for the most part - quality is iffy. Only one I might check every once in a while is Hobby Lobby.

Hope that helps.

Cloth world was in AL too. JoAnn's bought them out about 10 years ago and those stores have since closed. We have Hancock's, Walmart and Hobby Lobby is coming in June. There's still a couple of local stores. One I frequent is Wilson's. I go there for the seconds. They're $1.00 a yd and usually I can cut around the flaws for $1.
Susan

I live in southern Ontario about an hour west of Toronto. We have Fabricland...a smaller version of Joann without the craft section. There is also Bouclair Fabrics which is mostly Home Dec. Fabrics and accessories. Within an hour of me there are numerous quilt shops as well as 4 locations of Lens Mill Store. Len's carries fabric, yarn, clothes, sundries in a factory type setting although lately their stores are looking more dept storish. We also have Walmart but their fabric section is quite small in comparison to the US stores. Luckily Toronto has a garment district so there are numerous stores carrying specialy fabrics along Queen st west and Spadina. My SIL was making skating costumes and got her fabric in a store on Queen street that specialized in costumes only. She lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia at he time so had to have it mailed to her. There is also a section on Ottawa Street in Hamilton that is all fabric stores. Some of them are quite specialized and most are run by europeons so if you are looking for high-end fashion fabric, Ottawa street is the place to go for a great deal. Hamilton is only 30 minutes south of me so I try to get there at least twice a year. Not often in the winter because it is very cold walking up and down the street. The stores are on both sides in a 3 block area.

My friend and I are heading to Niagara Falls, NY to Joann tomorrow. It is only about 1.5 hour away so we have the best of both worlds.

Oh, and I almost forgot, within an hour or so there are a number of mennonite communities and q few fabric stores there as well.

Mary

A great fabric store near Charlotte, NC is Mary-Jo's in Gastonia - just off I-85 - Cox Road. They carry everything, bridal, quilting fabrics, wools, upholstery, patterns and everything that goes with it. It takes a while just to look at everything, before you can start selecting. Nancy

If you are near Chicago, there is a useful list of fabric stores (with descriptions) at the attached URL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sources for Fabric and Craft Supplies in Chicago

Hi, We have loads of fabric here because there's a large garment industry in Los Angeles that creates a huge salvage market. The salvage is in downtown stores, small stores that are off the beaten path, and lots of area swap meets. Most of the fabrics in this type of market are $1 a yard or less. They also have loads of zippers, buttons, trims and other sewing stuff by the ton, all cheap. JoAnn and Hancock have closed some stores in the area and some WMs are getting rid of fabrics. We still have quite a few quilt stores in the area. Even though some places are cutting fabric out, I don't see a shortage in Southern California any time soon. Here are some pics of downtown and one of the swap meets. Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: pics of Los Angeles fabric places

I purchased a few hundred yards of silk in LA in the fabric district for pennies on the dollar. I just love that place!

We have a lovely fabric store here that carries wools and silks, but the selection is limited. Since I crazy quilt, I want a huge selection so that's sometimes challenging. I often take a chance on ebay for antique fabric (you can get some lovely silks for a song) and hope for the best. Otherwise I buy silk everywhere I go :) and just throw it in the pile...or piles :)

My very first after-school job when I was 16 was in a small fabric store in Harvard Square. Now, the Square is homogenized by chains just like everywhere else.

Thank God for the net, because if Wally had their way, we'd
have only their crap to choose from.

I read about a lot of people saying that they buy from online stores and then some saying they only buy after seeing and feeling the fabric. I think there are some excellent online stores out there offering fabrics at great prices & more variety than physical stores.
One such store is http://store.fabrics-textiles.com where there is tonnes of patchwork madras,cotton fabric and organic cottons/bamboo fabric,linen,jute and more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Patchwork Madras Fabric, organic cotton, quilting fabric

We don't even have Wally world choices.....they closed out their fabric department in all of the stores in this area!

I joined up with this forum just to respond to this question. My daughter and I were just discussing this very topic today and feeling very frustrated! I live in the foothills around Los Angeles, and even here, there ARE NO fabric stores. I am old enough to remember when I had my choice of at least 10 stores within easy driving. Now, the only options are, as most of you have cited: Joanns and Walmart....period. I am lucky to live in an area that is famous for its "garment district". It is a half-hour drive down the freeway and lots of walking with 'cash-only' purchasing. BUT, I have tons of choices of excellent quality fabric and trims. You might check out your closest major city and see if you have access to something like that. I only know for sure of New York and L.A., but others may exist, as well. Also, I have family in Utah in Provo and Salt Lake City...LOTS of fabric stores there because the demand is high. It seems the best idea is to give lots of support to any quilt or fabric stores around us if we want them to stay in business!

This topic especially appealed to me. As a teenager, I remember "putting fabric on Layaway!" at my local fabric store. The owners finally retired, sold to JoAnns Fabric and after many years, THAT store closed; Hancocks came in rapidly. THEY closed last summer so we're only left with WalMart and a couple of quilting stores.
I will definitely check out online stores.

Is there a pattern here? I think of how women USED to order fabrics and EVERYTHING sight unseen from a catalog. Sears, etc. Are we going full circle? :)

I, too, am frustrated with the lack of fabric stores. There are a number of quilt shops that carry wonderful fabrics for quilters, but I sew apparrel (mostly knits). The nearest JoAnns is a 45 minutes drive and they don't carry much in the way of quality apparrel fabric.

I have recently purchased some fabric on ebay (which I'm happy with). I've also joined a fabric co-op and hope that will work out. It's especially difficult, if not impossible, to find rib knits to match knit fabrics. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the last sewer to sew apparrel?

Grandma, check out your local thrift stores for rib knits. I often see wads of them(various cut pieces) crammed into plastic bags on the shelves next to folded fabrics for just a buck or two.

In our case in Oklahoma, I think Walmart has put them out of business and now Walmart doesn't want to carry fabric and has eliminated it in a lot of stores.

I have been the chairman of a humanitarian sewing project for my Church and have been making tee shirt dresses and tee shirts. It is almost impossible to find knits in my area. I quit counting when I made the 60th dress but have made many more since then. Luckily we had a lady (quilter) that was preparing to move and she donated many pieces of fabric for the skirts. I am going to Dallas in a couple of weeks to hit the fabric outlet shops looking for knit. Wish me luck. It gets harder and harder to find.

Grandma - Hancocks has several colors of ribbing but it took me a long time to find it. It is called Sportsweb knit, and is the kind in a 14 inch tube. Search their website.

noinwi and soonergrandmom
Thank you both for the suggestions. Unfortunately the nearest Hancocks has closed, but I'll check their website.

I do buy clothes from thriftstores to alter for my DGD - hadn't looked for packaging of ribbing, but will do. I've even resorted to buying a ribbbed sweater just to cut it up for ribbing. Of course that only works for the basic colors.

I miss the days of Stretch n Sew where you could purchase knit fabrics and coordinating ribbing...

Grandma,

Try Sew Baby website for ribbing sold by the inch in lots of nice colors.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://sewbaby.com

I live in Alabama, the Southern home of sewing Grandmas, and my sister and I were just discussing this very topic yesterday. :) We have noticed that all of the area fabric stores are closing down here as well. JoAnn, Hancock, etc. are closing their doors all over the area. We checked at Hobby Lobby, but their selection is limited to say the least. We did look in the phone book as well and noticed that the only few remaining fabric shops are for upholstering and quilting. No clothing fabric stores seem to remain at all.

Well shoot....I live in the middle of no where, my closest fabric store of any kind is Walmart which is about a 25 minute drive away. My next choice is Joann's, which is about an hours drive away....needless to say I do a fair amount of shopping on line when I find a good site...any suggestions?

This last week, I've found a couple of resources. I posted a "In Search Of" post on the SewIts forum (a Yahoo forum where people buy and sell sewing items). One lady is sending me a box of assorted ribbing.

Also an online site called "Sewzanne fabrics" - I just received some very good quality interlock in white, lilac and soft pink.

Checking out the sewbaby link - thanks!

I'm in the San Diego area - we have a Joann's here in town who seems to specialize more in crafts and junk than in fabric. WalMart is attempting to close out the fabric department in our town's store, but we're fighting to keep it open. The nearest Yardage Town is about 10 miles from me, and the nearest Hancock's is over 30 miles away. I guess Quilt in a Day is still open, but that's also 20 miles away. We used to have a quilting fabric store in our town, but they closed - couldn't compete with Joann's sales and Wal-Mart.

I remember Cloth World, though they were never here. We had Yardage City here, but they went out of business years ago. I knew ClothWorld from the Phoenix area, when we lived there.

DonnaR/CA

Hi USA Quilting ladies,
I live in the UK!! Although we have Quilting Fabric shops here they are few and far between, the best Fabrics I have found are in the USA. I can reccommend Fabricshack, Overtherainbow and Up and Away Quilts. They have beautiful fabrics are very quick with their deliveries and good prices, half the price that they are over here (including paying postage)

Hi, Any chance of a fabric/sewing stuff exchange on this forum, like they do on the plant forums? If there isn't one, maybe if several of us contacted the moderator, they might create one for us.
I seem to remember that Cloth World and House of Fabrics merged at some point and ultimately became JoAnn's. Don't know who bought who or when. We used to have Fabric Warehouse, Cheep (as in baby chick) Lace, and the $2 Fabric stores. I think they're all gone. The only reason that any store carries fabric is to make a profit from it. If people don't buy enough, if it's too labor intensive to sell it, or if they can't get the right suppliers, they won't carry it. Emails, phone calls and letters most likely make no difference. No company is large enough to keep a money losing dept. in operation for long. We're lucky to have loads of fabric outlets in the LA area. These pics were also on my earlier post. Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Great fabric shopping around here

Do you think an obvious reason for the closings would be a small demand for them? Or the prices of patterns!

Like one of the other posts stated going full circle like our Moms and Grandmas shopping through catalogs such as, "Montgomery Wards and Sears." Just another bad sign of this economy, scary.

Not to be depressing, but I was sitting at my machine the other day mending my jeans and hubby's flannel shirts, I have to say it felt like what it might have been like during the "depression." Well sorry for going on like this.

luvmypets vent all ya want *smiles to ya* seems like the cost of living keepd goin up n out paychecks stay the same, very frustratin!
i only have two stores wall mart n jo anns, lucky for me im a scrappy quilter so the thrift shops when they have their sales are were i mainly go, lol n i make my own patterns, i can usaly just look at a pitchure n draw my own out, i dont go by other directions, just do my own thing with what i got.

Thank you.
Yes I have been doing things w/o patterns as well, and I must say "not bad". lol

Since my previous post almost 2 months ago, I have found out:

Yardage Town in San Diego County is having financial difficulties. Someone told me that YT in Mira Mesa is closing down, but I haven't been able to verify that yet.

Wal-Mart is hanging onto a small fabric department. I try to shop there when I can.

Joann's - yes, Cloth World and House of Fabrics combined to create Joann's - is hanging in there.

Hancock's in Oceanside has closed down. Now my nearest Hancock's is up in Redlands....2 hours. If I'm going that far, I may as well hit the LA Garment District!

DonnaR/CA

Count me in as another sewer that can't find fabric. I am in Southern Oregon, and when I moved here 15 years ago we had 3 fabric stores, plus fabric was sold at Payless Drug stores. Now we just have Joanne's, Walmart and a couple of very small fabric stores. My biggest complaint is that most of the fabric sold at these stores is for crafting and quilting, and not apparel. So often when I shop for clothing I find things that I feel I could easily sew, but cannot find appropriate fabric. When I was growing up fabric was sold in department stores. I spent many hours poring over pattern books and picking out fabric. I recently suggested to my daughter that we could easily make a copy of a dress that she saw at Macy's for over $50 - It would take about a yard and a half of fabric, but of course we couldn't find anything suitable. And we were just looking for a simple black rayon jersey! We did have our choice of dozens of fleece prints or cotton calico fabrics. My daughter was also horrified by the sizing of the patterns. She is a petite size 2 - 4 in ready made clothing, but her pattern size is a 12! I think that the pattern companies are missing the boat by not changing their sizing to correspond to the ready made sizing.

Interiors at the Livery Stable at 29 S. Grape St. in Medford, OR has the largest selection of quality fabrics and trim in the valley. They also have excellent service and fabricators for window treatments and upholstery. They are only open M-F 10-5, but are a great local resource. I agree, fabrics have to be felt and you need to know the durability rating to determine how they can be used.

I'm a senior. When I was young a lot of people sewed. Mainly because it was cheaper to sew than buy retail. Most women were stay at home moms and had time to sew. There were no big box stores or outlets who offered cheaper clothes. Because there was a demand for them fabric shops existed everywhere. I sewed all my own clothes and clothes for my son and niece. Even some for my husband.

Fast forward to today. You can buy name brand clothes at some stores cheaper than you can sew them. The price of fabric has increased to where it is not economical to sew. Most women have jobs and unless you have the inclination to sew you don't have to. I don't sew as much any more and i'm sure there are others like me. The reason you don't see small fabric stores any more is the demand for fabric stores has dropped. Only the big chain stores can make a living selling fabric.

For the most part, I can't sew something for less than I could buy it. The fabric available at Joann's is suitable for Disney princess costumes and not much else. I go in from time to time, and just don't see anything attractive. It's a circular problem, though. Few people sew garments any more, so stocking really nice fabric is a risk.

I worked for Joann's competition back in the 80s. So Fro was still selling garment quality fabric, and Joann's and Hancock's had started moving towards craft fabric and home dec. So Fro has gone the way of the dodo bird. Serious quilters won't buy Joann's fabric, either, but I guess enough crafters and hobbyists shop there to keep them going.

I can put in a plug for Cloth Barn in Goldsboro, NC, off NC 70 and not too far from I-95 Smithfield exits. Best upholstery fabric east of High Point, and some of it works for clothing.

They had dress fabric until Hurricane Matthew took out the location that was closer to the creek.

It is the same struggle every were people buying cheaper products on line drives the local shops out of business. Fortunately in our area we have a few local shops but I continue to go out of my way to support them. They do have a higher quality of fabric they I can buy on line in a lot of cases but it costs them to stock that fabric.

As mentioned above, there is no shortage of fabric stores here in Los Angeles, although there used to be more. We do have a garment district, which helps. Michael Levine's has a huge selection of cheap fabrics downtown, but I prefer F&S in West L.A. I met Mindy Cohn and Charlotte Rae there one time - Charlotte was shopping for feather boas and was extremely friendly and talkative. Mindy showed me some sparkly material (not fabric) that she was buying to give to friends of hers who made costumes for Las Vegas strippers, and so I bought some of that.

The company that I work for now has a textile department, and so I get fabric from that or else remnants for client upholstery projects - after the remnants have been abandoned for over three years.

Update from 11 years ago, San Diego area:

Joann's hangs in there. We are getting more garment fabric there than there used to be.

Yardage Town, which used to have 12 locations or so including one in my little town, has 6 left: Clairemont Mesa, El Cajon, Vista, Chula Vista, National City (the flagship store), and Encinitas.

Paradise Sewing (mostly quilting) survives but keeps moving due to rent increases.

Several quilting stores exist in the North County area.

Hobby Lobby has finally moved into San Diego County with a nice store in San Marcos. However, it doesn't have much in line of garment fabrics unless you are sewing for children.

Like many, I have only occasionally been sewing garments. For awhile, I was sewing costumes. I also have made many things for my classroom (Kinder teacher) including some dry-erase marker "pockets" (which serve to hold the marker and then use as an eraser), and tote bags for Literature Pals and Math Home Activities. I even made a pocket chart when a purchased one of the size I wanted was priced way too high for me.

Donna

Hancocks, Walmart, Joann and quilt shops do not qualify when looking for quality fashion fabric. Thanks for all the good answers. Things will get better after 2020! WWG1WGA

Don't count on it getting better. There is very little good fabric being made anymore and it is not coming back.

I recently bought a length of linen from an online vendor and it is beautiful stuff.

Aside from something like this linen, I have seen nothing in that darned Joanns that I ever want to buy. Of course it is closed in this present moment. But even before they were forced to close there was very, very little to even go in there for. Even the notions, threads and elastics and velcro was either absent or was a complete mess.

I suspect that Joanns might try a come back as what is often referred to as a "maker space". The company had been going over to this format in some locations before the virus. It is where they have a space where you come and use the machines, all kinds of machines, and they rent you the space and sell you the supplies. I think that there are about half a dozen or so that I have seen mentioned. However, given the new world that we live in, that might not be feasible.

It is a move away from old fashioned sewing and fabric and patterns and such.

Don't be surprised to see that fabric stores as we knew them completely disappear from the landscape, seeing as how they had almost disappeared before this.

Given the new dynamics of our social distancing, who knows what will happen?

It is interesting that this thread was picked up from so many years ago. This started happening right around the turn of this century. Many were in denial that it was happening. Some of the comments from so many years ago could have been my very own.