Buying Fabric

Dear Community,
do you prefer to buy your fabrics online or in-store? Do haberdashery shops like that still exist?

Unfortunately, there is no haberdashery left here in Schweinfurt. We used to have a great one, but it closed down about 20 years ago.

Best regards, Inge

I buy fabrics depending on what I need, sometimes locally and sometimes online, but online only from a retailer I’ve known for 40 years and know delivers good quality. Okay, when buying locally you can feel the fabric and take a closer look, but that’s not necessarily the deciding factor for me.

Best regards, Inge

When you buy fabric by the meter, doesn’t that sometimes mean a pattern might get cut off in an unflattering way? How can you make the most of the pattern when sewing if there are parts of the pattern that have been cut off?

With patterned fabrics, you have to order enough to use up the entire pattern repeat—otherwise the pattern won’t line up and the whole piece of fabric might end up unusable for what you wanted to sew. You can avoid this when shopping in person by talking to the fabric salespeople and telling them what you want.

Best regards, Inge

Unfortunately, there aren’t any haberdashery shops here anymore either. I think there’s still one fabric store in the city center, but of course, parking is a hassle there.
So I order everything online—it’s always worked out fine. I actually find this less of an issue with fabrics than with wool and yarn, where you might want to “feel” the material first.

We still have a yarn and fabric store with accessories in the neighboring town. I really enjoy shopping there when I need something. Unfortunately, the owner is retiring at the end of the year and is looking for a successor. I hope she finds someone, because the store is very popular and is always busy.