fabric rant

I do wish we had a dressmaker's fabric shop near us, compared to upholstery and quilting shops. But I guess making clothes is just too small of a niche market now to be covered in our little area. Clothing requires more yardage than small projects, but still must be durable and affordable. And because of this, the fabrics I choose are the cheaper yardages, which definitely does not pay to have a niche shop anyway! *sigh* And I don't mean 'prom dress' type fabric... there IS a lot of that available, I mean the velveteens and shirtings and linings and tweedies and chambray etc.. real clothing use fabrics to choose from instead of 'quilting cotton' and/or satin prom skirt.

I've found some things of use at the upholstery store, and they have more trimmings... but they have no identification on any of their fabrics - it is look and touch and guess. And clothing has to be washed - they don't expect anything they carry to be washed... I do anyway, and then I look and touch and guess again to see what could be made out of the fabric. The long length of red and blue bought over a year ago have been washed about five times each have improved GREATLY from that many washings. They are almost usable to make something out of now.

I try not to let much go to waste. What I buy on the clearance yardages at WM and the upholstery store does usually get used, eventually. The fabric I made the skirt out of last night was the other half of the fabric I made pants out of over two years ago. All that is left of that four yards now is tiny strips and confetti ;)

There are a few 'later' stacks of yards picked up cheap that are on top of my shelf. I have two yards of a light brown velveteen 'pretender' fabric (2.00/yd last year) I want to make a 'riding hood' type cloak for Esme, but I'm not sure if she would wear it - so I might wash it a few more times and see if I have any other ideas for it.