Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Fabric Online Shopathon

I've had many people ask me where I get the fabric used in my sewing projects.  I do head to Fabricland on occasion when I need the basics-- yes, I do have a fabricland membership.  Every time I drag my children into that store I have a good laugh.  As a young child I swore I would never, NEVER subject my children to the tortures of fabricland.  Many hours of my childhood were wasted spent in Fabricland.  It it truly an unpleasant place to shop-- it's diorganized, they often don't have what I'm looking for, you need to buy a membership to make it worthwhile, and... let's be honest... the ladies that work there are still as crusty and unpleasant as always.  The store really hasn't changed in 20 years, heck, they even still give you handwritten receipts!  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options around here.  So, I've started to purchase fabric online.  Better selection, better prices, and no disgruntled salesladies!  Purchasing material online can be a bit tricky-- the fabric doesn't always look the same in person as it did online-- but I've been pretty satisfied with my purchases thus far.

If you're feeling the need to sew, here are a few sites worth checking out!

Fabric.com

This is one of my favorites-- because they have everything!  They also have great prices and super fast shipping-- I usually receive my order in 3 business days... right to my front door!  The one drawback... paying for shipping and duty :)  However, I can usually find a 20% off coupon online-- this usually makes up for the extra shipping costs.  And, if you live where I do, you can always drive across the border for pick up :)

When both kids are napping (like they are right now... heaven!) I love to peruse this site to look at all the new arrivals.  I thought I might as well share some of my favorites while I'm at it!

Here are a few of my favorite contemporary selections:

Love yellow.  It's one of my favorite accent colors.


Those birds are adorable.



This fabric would make killer roman shades in a little boy's room.


This would make great throw pillows in a room that needs a pick me up.


Like this design-- I have a similar fabric in my kitchen at the moment.  It makes me feel happy as I cook...


And here are a few more subdued/traditional choices...

This is my tree skirt fabric.  Yes, I chose the traditional option.  Thank you for all of your feedback!
It's on sale for 6.99 a yard.  wow.


When I saw this one I thought it would make a really great shower curtain in a bathroom of any color.


The blues in this one are so pretty.  I could design a whole room around the colors in this fabric.


Now, on to my next favorite site... Tonic Living

They have awesome retro inspired prints for great prices-- everything is around $10 a meter.  Here's what I like about Tonic Living:

- they are a Canadian based company (everything's shipped out of Ontario)
- prices are amazing
- they have $1 samples-- not teeny tiny samples-- really big ones (I've even framed a couple of the samples for cheap inexpensive art for the kid's rooms-- they're that big!)
- I can always find a coupon code to use for at least 10% off by searching online.

Some drawbacks-- they don't ship as fast as fabric.com.  They don't have a huge selection.  Some of their fabrics have been more lightweight than I had anticipated... that's where pre-ordering the samples comes in handy!

And, here are some of my current favorites:

Again, love the yellow.  So fun and bright!


Pretty dramatic, but pretty awesome.


I'm considering this one for Caleb's room.  He would LOVE it.


Every room needs a bit of black.  Throw pillows anyone?


This would be adorable in a little girl's room.


And, here are a few other sites that I'm gonna try one day.  I've had friends/family order fabric from these sites and have had positive experiences.

Flannel Queen
If you're interested in making baby blankets, check this site out!  They've got anything and everything you could imagine.

Premier Fabrics 
Great source for inexpensive home decor fabrics.  I like that you can shop by style/print or color.  You'll notice that some of the other online stores carry certain lines of Premier's fabric.  Shop around!

Well... that all I have for you today.  Anyone else know of a really great place to shop for fabric?  Please share!

Happy shopping everyone!

6 comments:

Erica said...

You can't show me lovely fabric right now! I need to be finishing my other Christmas projects before I buy fabric just to have on hand!
(great sources though!)

Bonnie said...

Although I'm not a sewer myself, my friends LOVE Joann's down in Bellingham. As far as I know, you can also shop online. Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure you can. They have TONS of selection on fabric and really good prices! They're like a "Michael's" except better-- they have fabric and home decor and everything else 'crafty' you could ever want or need.

Bonnie said...

I just checked.... yup, you can shop online. The address is www.joann.com

Anonymous said...

I agree with everything you said about Fabricland. Unfortunately there aren't many options around here. I've checked out the tonic living website in the past - nice that it's Canadian but I haven't ordered anything yet.

Unfortunately Joann's doesn't ship to Canada at this time but if anyone wants something from there, I could pick it up when I head down to the States next week!

Bernice

Danae said...

Hi :) Kay, I'm going to admit I totally stalk your blog... (I found it via Carmen and Russ's as Carmen is my cousin). Anyway, just thought I'd say that I LOVE your style and decorating. You are as creative as I someday hope to be (not sure if it'll happen though).... And I'm a fellow prairie girl, so I get your prairie humour :) Keep up the blogs, and have a great Christmas! Hope you don't mind me stopping by here from time to time for inspiration!
Danae

Flannel Queen said...

Thank you for mentioning my shop, FlannelQueen.com. You and your readers can use coupon code OURHOUSE to get 10 percent off your purchase. Coupon expires December 31.
Thanks again,
Sara at Flannel Queen