More Online Shopping

I'll start with Etsy. I haven't been shopping at Etsy for very long but one time was all it took to get me hooked. Search options are convenient and ordering is super easy. Most recently, I have ordered fabric from HouseOfMamiWata and MoreLoveMama. Both of these sellers are located in Texas, practically right next door to me, geographically speaking, so I received my orders in just two days.

Shopping online for notions is even more of a necessity for me than online fabric shopping. The only place within 40 miles of me that has any notions at all is Walmart. They have very, very few and almost never what I need. You would think with such a small notions department they would at least have a few of the basics but that is exactly what is lacking. They have a few odd novelty buttons, but no standard shirt buttons, double fold bias tape but no single fold, and so forth. So online I go. Here are my three favorite sites for notions.

Create For Less - This site has all kinds of craft supplies but I mostly go there for buttons and trim. They have a lot of Dill buttons, which I love not only for the buttons themselves but for the packaging. They usually come in surprisingly easy to open blister packs. No staples!

Lots of Buttons - Like the name says, lots of buttons. Only ordered a couple of times but everything I received was high quality and in convenient packaging. My only complaint is that sizes are like 20L, 32L, and so forth and I always have to look up what those "L" sizes really mean. They do have a size chart but I wish they would just show the sizes in fractions of an inch like I'm used to in the first place.

WAWAK Sewing - Again, I have saved the best for last. This site has everything plus items you never thought of but my favorite thing is the zippers. OMG, the zippers! They have zippers from three inches to over 100 inches. They have brass jeans zippers in 27 different colors and sizes from 3 to 11 inches. Also jacket zippers and specialty zippers like ones that are closed on both ends, for example, and of course, standard nylon skirt and dress zippers. And the prices. Seriously, go look at the zipper prices. Some other items come in large quantities like, for example, a gross of shirt buttons and a 30 yard package of elastic if you ever need that much.

See my Online Fabric Shopping list, in case you missed it.

Online Fabric Shopping

I noticed some discussion, here and there, of online fabric shopping so, since I have considerable experience in that area I decided to share some thoughts and links.

I can't remember the first time I bought fabric online. I had said that fabric was one thing I could never buy online. I have to be able to touch it but maybe I needed something I couldn't find locally or maybe I read a recommendation on a blog and decided to take a chance. Whatever started it, I soon became hooked on online fabric shopping and now it feels like practically my only option.

I live in the boonies. The nearest major fabric store is in Tulsa, an hour away. I live about 12 miles outside a small town where there are two grocery stores, a Walmart, a Lowes, and about a thousand antique shops. (Okay, I exaggerate a bit.) And one small quilt shop. So you see, my local fabric shopping options are extremely limited. Online shopping was made for me.

I am hesitant to buy certain kinds of fabric online. I am confident buying quilting cotton because I know pretty much what I'll be getting. I have bought a lot of stretch denim and stretch twill online and I'm sometimes happy with what I get, other times less so. And I have had really bad luck buying knits online. There are just too many variables - weight, stretch, recovery - and even if a site gives ounces per yard and percent of stretch it's still impossible to tell what you're really getting. I have bought fabric that seemed like a good weight - like 10 ounces per yard - and it turned out to be much thinner than I expected.

Anyway, here, in no particular order, are some of the online fabric stores I have purchased from.

Fabric.com - Huge selection of fabric, good prices and you can get swatches of some fabrics, but not all. There are good search options too so it's easy to find what you want.

Denver Fabrics - Great selection of fabrics including some hard to find. I have ordered a lot of stretch twill and some cotton lawn from them and I've generally been happy. Some of the "stretch" twill I've purchased has been nicely stretchy but some has had barely any stretch at all. This has been one of my frustrations. Denver Fabrics seems to be an outlet store. If you see something you like don't hesitate. It will be gone tomorrow.

Girl Charlee - This is where my fear of buying knits online was confirmed. I bought one piece of cotton/poly knit that I was very happy with. Most of the other fabrics I've bought from this store have been either acceptable or disappointing. And it's really hard to find anything specific. For example all jersey knit is listed together so if I want 100% cotton I have to look through page after page of fabrics, clicking on each one only to find that most of them are cotton/rayon blends. However, if you like rayon blend knits (I do not!) this is your site.

Spandex World - Some very nice cotton spandex knit (as well as many other spandex fabrics) and they will send swatches. Unfortunately, shipping is beyond ridiculous. I don't really blame the store for that but I really hate to buy fabric when the shipping charge is more than the cost of the fabric itself.

Nick Of Time Textiles - Great selection of cotton spandex knit and sweatshirt fleece. (and many other fabrics but those are the two I've purchased) They send swatches. Same complaint as with Spandex World - shipping costs more than the fabric. If you're buying a huge quantity of fabric you can sometimes get a deal on shipping.

Rocky Woods Fabrics - Specialty outdoor fabrics. Windbreaker nylon, including waterproof nylon, Cordura nylon, canvas, wool, neoprene, mesh, ribbing, and lots of different camo fabrics.

Hemp Traders - A hemp store, not a fabric store but they do have hemp fabrics. I bought some of their 55%hemp/45% cotton knit and I love it. Must buy more!

Extra Special Fabric - Western theme quilting cotton, plus a little fleece, faux fur and a few others. This one is located in Guthrie Oklahoma, on the far side of the state from me but I have been there in person once and I ordered from them twice, I think. When I ordered they didn't even have an online order form; I had to place my order by phone. I don't know if that has changed. Excellent fabric and service though.

eQuilter.com - I have saved my favorite for last. Absolutely the most beautiful cotton prints anywhere! The website is super easy and fun to use too. Fabrics are organized by theme and you can also search by color. Mostly quilting cotton of course but they also have some flannel and yarn dyed shirting.

There are also a lot of fabric sellers on Etsy but this has taken me a lot longer than I expected so I will save those for another time.

Somebody Stop Me

Life as a seamstress (or sewer or sewist or whatever we're supposed to call ourselves) can be hard. Challenging. Yeah, that's better. It's not hard - really, it's not - it's challenging. It's December and I've been spending money like I've got a money orchard in my back yard. (There's a weird old movie about a family with two money trees.) So, I had decided that I am not going to buy any fabric in November and December. Well, except for those two pieces from Girl Charlee that I had to go ahead and buy because they were down to the last few yards. And that other piece that I couldn't resist. But really, I've been very good the for the last month and a half. But eQuilter sends out a weekly email of their new fabrics. This week I looked, even though I knew I shouldn't, and there are something like 15 fabrics that I want. Not just want but WANT! WANT! WANT! with a powerful WANT.

There is a good thing about buying fabric in December. I'm getting so many packages anyway, it's easy to sneak some fabric in without the husband realizing that I'm buying more fabric. Not that I have to sneak fabric in. No really, I don't. It's just that maybe I'm a little bit embarrassed about how much fabric I have? My stash isn't anywhere near as big as some stashes, and I can easily afford more, but I grew up in a penny pinching family. My mother sewed but she never really had much of a stash, just maybe half a dozen or so pieces at a time. The habits and standards of childhood stay with you your whole life.

By the way, speaking of packages, I would like to say to all the companies I buy stuff from, please stop sending my stuff in bags and giant envelopes. I need more boxes.

I have been sewing. I was working on a thing that I had planned to wear this past weekend but it took longer than I expected and by Friday I was just burned out over it so, even though the only thing left to do was three buttons and buttonholes, I just quit. I will try to finish it today and maybe photograph and post it tomorrow or the next day. It's funny how sometimes the last little thing is just too much.

Yes, More Fabric

What do you do when you just can't decide which project to start next? Well, go shopping, of course. Look what I found! I absolutely love every one of these.

The two pieces on the left are both 4 yards each and will become dresses. Unfortunately, Walmart, the only place within 40 miles of me that has zippers, did not have the right color zipper for either one. I was going to make the large floral first but I will definitely need a zipper for that one so I started thinking about the bright pink and came to an unusually (for me) quick decision to make yet another Kwik Sew 2671 - bodice of view B, skirt of view A with some other small modifications. It's all cut out and ready to sew.

I sort of have slight issues with pink. I love, love, LOVE pink but I feel a little self-conscious wearing a lot of it, like a whole dress, especially a bright pink like this. Is it too girly - I mean like little girly? Will I look like a freaky giant baby in it? Will I be taken less seriously wearing so much pink? (Not that anyone takes me seriously anyway) And, is it the wrong color for my complexion? Yes, it is but I don't really care so much about that and I'm trying to not care about the rest of it because I'm going to love this dress and I'm going to wear it to death.

The other three are 2-yard pieces. The top one is not quite as bright an orange as it looks in the picture. It's more a faded, antique-y looking orange. I don't know why because all the other fabrics in the picture look pretty accurate. I can make tops out these but I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't more than two yards of each. I don't really need more summer tops because I don't wear them all that often. I mostly wear dresses when it is hot. I might look for contrasting fabric to go with at least one of them. But I'm not going to rush. After the pink dress I think I might go into the deep stash and make something that has been waiting for a while.

My Favorite Stores

I guess this is more about a favorite fabric than a favorite store but I just ordered again a few days ago so I have this one on my mind: Spandex World. I love their cotton spandex knit. It's a good medium weight with good recovery, it comes in lots of colors, and it's only $8.00 a yard. I've only ever ordered the solids but they have some lovely prints too, as well as a lot of other spandex fabrics: nylon, metallic, stretch velvet, stretch vinyl, stretch lace and more.

My Favorite Stores

Well, you see what happens when I try to do a weekly series. No excuses; I'm just going to try to get back on track. (Also, I should have some actual sewing to show off later this week.)

I have only ordered from Girl Charlee Fabrics twice (so far) but I have to include them as a favorite because they do something on their website that I have long said all online fabric stores should do. They give fabric weight in ounces per yard and the percent of stretch for stretch fabrics. I'm pretty confident that I know what I'm getting when I buy quilting cotton online but with everything else I feel like I am taking a chance and every little bit of information is helpful.

If I could ask for one improvement it would be better categorization. Have 100% cotton, cotton/spandex, cotton/poly blends, rayon blends, and so forth in separate categories instead of everything together. It's even worse with the "specialty woven fabrics" with challis, chiffon, peachskin and pretty much everything else all in one category.

I was very pleased with the knits I ordered from Girl Charlee. Many of their fabrics are made in the USA.

My Favorite Stores

Probably every person who sews already knows about Fabric.com but I wanted to mention it anyway because, if I am remembering correctly, it is the first online fabric store from which I ever bought fabric. There was a time when I thought I would never buy fabric online. You have to actually see it and touch it. But my local choices are extremely limited. There's the fabric department at Walmart and there's a small quilt shop, which only opened a couple of years ago. The next nearest fabric stores are about an hour's drive away. And online there is so much fabric. How could I not?

Fabric.com has a huge selection of fabric and very good prices. Their website is not one of my favorites but it's okay and shipping time is about average.

My Favorite Stores

This week's featured store is Wawak Sewing. They have all manner of sewing supplies, accessories, and notions including things I didn't even know exist but what really keeps me coming back is zippers! Just one example: they have brass jeans zippers as short as 3 inches, (and up to 11 inches) in 18 different colors! And the prices! (Yes, I know. I'm using too many !!!) All of their jeans zippers are less than one US dollar each. And small orders are no problem. I try to wait until I need several items at once because I hate when shipping costs more than the item I'm ordering but if you only need one zipper you can order just one zipper.

Their selection of buttons seems fairly limited - just standard shirt buttons, coat buttons, etc - but you can buy them by the dozen or by the gross. (some styles) And, as I said, a lot of other sewing supplies and notions, including a lot of stuff intended for commercial/professional sewing like huge, 6000 yard spools of thread. In addition to the things you would expect, like thread, buttons, zippers, elastic, tape measures, bobbins, scissors, sewing machines and parts, they also have things like steam irons, hangers, garment bags, lint brushes... I hardly know where to stop. Just go browse.

My Favorite Stores

I have decided to start a series of brief reviews of my favorite online stores. (In some cases extremely brief; I'm not sure you would even call them "reviews") I will try to post these once a week.

First up is Create for Less. I mostly buy buttons from them but they have all kinds of sewing and craft supplies. They have a good selection of buttons, lots of the basics and a few fancy and novelty buttons. I wish they had a better selection of trims - laces, rick-rack, piping, etc. They do have quite a bit of that sort of thing but I often find myself wishing for more.

The website is easy to use. If I could have them make one improvement it would be to be able to search for hole buttons or shank buttons only. Shipping time (to Oklahoma) is about what I normally expect - usually a week or less.