>>...I want new or near-new cloth in large pieces.<
While it does admittedly require a bit of luck, I have sometimes found blankets or sheets that have large sections of new or near-new fabric, but they have been discarded due to having a hole or an ugly stain. (I actually just got a very nice blanket for practically nothing this way - all I needed to do was sew up the corner!) If the damaged area(s) aren't too big, then you can often have quite a lot of useable fabric.
And you don't always need a ton of fabric for making stuff. I've made skirts and bags out of salvaged/thrifted pillowcases before.
Alternately, if you're stuck working with substandard fabric, you can probably try using simpler patterns to minimize the effort invested. Think a medieval tunic rather than a modern fitted shirt, for example. There are fewer seams, and less fitting is required, so overall it will be a lot less effort. (...and if using a machine, most of the time will be cutting and pinning. I usually handsew, which...can take awhile.)
To be fair, I don't usually have enough money lately to buy new-from-the-store fabric for my projects, and we do have several good thrift stores in town, so I am probably working with different goals and limitations than a lot of other people.
>>Some do, but the samples cost money. This is perfectly reasonable for specialty fabric like velvet, satin, etc. But it kills the frugality of buying things like muslin or cotton knit.<<
Ideally, I would suggest that brick-and-mortar stores could carry the sample books, and people could place orders for fabric after looking at the samples - just like one does with paint at the hardware store.
Probably a custom tailor or seamstress shop might find it worthwhile to invest in a sample book, but only the most die-hard of sewists would want to buy a whole book.
An individual hobbyist might be able to buy individual samples. If they can narrow their choices down to a handful of options, $5-10 to check that the proposed fabric for your major project is workable isn't that big of an issue, compared to, say, $300 of materials and several hundred hours to make a good cosplay outfit.
Also, if the fabrics don't change every year, it might be possible to build up a library of sorts over several years.
It would also be helpful if people could order individual samples "any 20 samples from this category for $20 plus shipping," because then they could get exactly what they want rather than having to buy a new and expensive book for every project.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-02-27 04:43 am (UTC)While it does admittedly require a bit of luck, I have sometimes found blankets or sheets that have large sections of new or near-new fabric, but they have been discarded due to having a hole or an ugly stain. (I actually just got a very nice blanket for practically nothing this way - all I needed to do was sew up the corner!) If the damaged area(s) aren't too big, then you can often have quite a lot of useable fabric.
And you don't always need a ton of fabric for making stuff. I've made skirts and bags out of salvaged/thrifted pillowcases before.
Alternately, if you're stuck working with substandard fabric, you can probably try using simpler patterns to minimize the effort invested. Think a medieval tunic rather than a modern fitted shirt, for example. There are fewer seams, and less fitting is required, so overall it will be a lot less effort. (...and if using a machine, most of the time will be cutting and pinning. I usually handsew, which...can take awhile.)
To be fair, I don't usually have enough money lately to buy new-from-the-store fabric for my projects, and we do have several good thrift stores in town, so I am probably working with different goals and limitations than a lot of other people.
>>Some do, but the samples cost money. This is perfectly reasonable for specialty fabric like velvet, satin, etc. But it kills the frugality of buying things like muslin or cotton knit.<<
Ideally, I would suggest that brick-and-mortar stores could carry the sample books, and people could place orders for fabric after looking at the samples - just like one does with paint at the hardware store.
Probably a custom tailor or seamstress shop might find it worthwhile to invest in a sample book, but only the most die-hard of sewists would want to buy a whole book.
An individual hobbyist might be able to buy individual samples. If they can narrow their choices down to a handful of options, $5-10 to check that the proposed fabric for your major project is workable isn't that big of an issue, compared to, say, $300 of materials and several hundred hours to make a good cosplay outfit.
Also, if the fabrics don't change every year, it might be possible to build up a library of sorts over several years.
It would also be helpful if people could order individual samples "any 20 samples from this category for $20 plus shipping," because then they could get exactly what they want rather than having to buy a new and expensive book for every project.