They now sell cheap costume jewellery, (yeah, including earring), vases and lots of faux fabrics. Found right beside the silk duponi table was a whole selection of faux silk duponi. I was not impressed with this polyester poser.
Is it just me or have you noticed a decrease in natural fibre fabrics and quality that is less than impressive? Or is this a Winnipeg phenomenon? And what is up with carrying non-sewing gadgets?
And then when I got to the cash register the store manager instead of ringing in my purchase makes a comment regarding the merchandise I picked out.
"I know," not looking up as I search through my wallet.
"The polyester thread is on sale," she pushes on.
"No thank you," I said as I unsuccessfully try to cut her sales pitch off.
"Well, the cotton thread is only 20% off," she adds.
"That's fine," I reply.
I can tell you that I do not find shopping at my local fabric store as enjoyable as in the past. The fabric that I find inspiring are few and far between. The fashion fabric labels that appear with man-made fibre content are over-populating the store shelves along with the appearance of "unknown content" stamped across labels where fibre contents used to be displayed.
As I waited in line to pay for my thread I looked around the store and just felt so sad. I miss the fabric selection of my past. Polyester made an appearance to the consumer in the early nineteen fifties but now it seems to have overtaken the floor space in one form or another. I miss the days of feeling silk noir between my fingers as I try to decide on the colour or the by-gone days of finding 100% linen or wool.
I come home and hold a little tighter to those precious gems that sit in my fabric stash wondering if I should cut into them.
Measure twice, cut once. Gather the remnants & ask what have you done. What have you done?
~Night Vale Radio~
I'm with you. We only have one fabric store (that isn't quilting focussed) where I live, and it's Fabricland. I too, miss fondling lovely silks and cottons, now it's all polycrap. I feel a need to drive to Vancouver and go to real fabric stores.
ReplyDeleteI live in Vancouver and generally I'm quite happy with our selection of fabric stores, there really are a decent amount of fabric stores in the greater Vancouver area. I Still find myself seriously disappointed in the huge amount of polyester in the fabric stores. I went to Italy in April and I barely saw any polyester in the oooooodles of fabric I saw in the stores there. There was silk, cotton and wools, etc galore all made in Italy, it was fabric heaven. Problem was the least I paid for the fabric I bought was 25 euros/metre and I saw some Italian wool suiting in the window of one store for $189 euros/metre, though I did find cotton fabric for as low as 12 euros/ metre. So yes the fabric there is expensive but totally worth it and less stash inducing because who could afford a stash? :) The best part of fabric shopping in Italy is the amount of stores. I stayed in a small city on the Tuscan coast (aprox. 64,000 people) and I had 4 fabric stores literally surrounding the little family run hotel we were staying in, all of them averaged a 5 minute walk away.
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad state of affairs, I agree - you feel so cheap just walking into these shops. I have a huge stash as well - I predicted that quality fabrics were going to disappear some years ago, and I haven't been disappointed, unfortunately. I, like yoiu, wish there were more quality fabrics - not lots, but just at least some. I snap them up when I see them.
ReplyDeleteUgh! I totally get you. We were a bit excited to hear our only store in town was expanding. Until we arrived at the opening and were told it was rebranded as a 'crafts' location. Um, thanks. I haven't bought anything but zippers and baby calico since. The only dress fabrics are so crunched into a darkened corner its unappealing and hard to shop. Hello fabricmart and fabric.com!
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