My girls, when they were pre-teens, would use some of the clothing "spending money" we gave them, in thrift stores. They came up with some very cute little shirts! That's what happened when we handed them (late 90s) $125 each and told them, "with the exception of one pair of serviceable shoes and your underwear, this is your school clothes budget." We did that after they wanted $50-60 jeans. One of them tells me that this helped her learn to budget. Good, that's what we wanted! (She's in her 30s now.)

Where I live, we were spoiled for a long time. We had an entire old strip mall which was rented by churches to house their thrift stores. That was a place I'd go when I started to lose weight and needed some interim clothing, or when I needed to stock my classroom library, etc. Now the owner has sold the property, which will be razed and made into "affordable" housing units (if there IS such a thing in SoCal). That leaves us with a small Goodwill which is mostly books and small items, and a huge Salvation Army thrift, which is my new "go to" now that the strip thrifts are out.

That SA store is definitely seeing some donations, as people have spent their quarantine time cleaning out their homes of excess. Clothing? Yes. I picked up 3 men's shirts, all of them suitable for doll clothing.

Your post has now given me some other thoughts - I believe the SA thrift is closed on Sundays, so I might need to visit this week. I have some drop-offs as well.

Donna

After many years of not sewing I decided to make myself a few new tops a couple of months ago. I went to Joanns to find some fabric just to find out that there was very little that I would even consider using for clothing. It was very disappointing. Dallasannie, you have given me some ideas to explore.

Joanns is horrible, and has only gotten worse, and worse, to the point of being almost entirely useless. And, that is about the only fabric venue left in the way of walk in stores.

Online fabric shopping is the pits, too.

I follow several blogs of people in Australia and I don't know that it is a valid observation, but it seems to me that they might still have some surviving and thriving fabric venues. We have very, very few in America and large portions of the country are entirely void of any.

Even my local Joanns serves an area that is quite cosmopolitan and sophisticated and wealthy. But, it is that absolute pits.

Without a fabric store, where else does one go for the very basics of thread, needles, buttons, interfacing, or anything? I really don't know.

You will hard pressed to find a good blouse fabric at Joanns. I can second that observation.

That is why I am heading towards linen. It is hard to find any printed linen anywhere anymore. There was a time back a couple of decades ago when printed linen and linen blends were plentiful. Now prints have gone away in just about any fiber. It is hard to find any nice garment prints at all. The best thing to look over is the better cottons that are marketed as being for piecing. But, you have to pick and choose carefully unless you want to look like a quilt.

My sister had the same experience when she went into Joanns after having bought a new sewing machine. She was aghast and called me to talk about it. She was so shocked. Now, she wonders why she spent so much on a two thousand dollar machine.

After sewing a bit for Mardi Gras and now after making some masks for her and kids, she has nothing to sew with.

A friend of mine had much the same experience, too. She had been away from sewing for a good time and decided that she wanted to make something. She was taken aback at how it had all changed. She gave it all up.

I feel your pain.

What you describe is exactly my experience at Joanns. I found several patterns that I really liked but the fabric selection was horrible. I know that Michaels carries fabric but I expect the same selection. Quilting prints, tons of fleece and flannel and some drapery & upholstery fabric. I found one Isle about 8 ft. long with some light weight knits that might work but I was not looking for knits. It is a sad situation.

Upcycling, that is interesting, Thanks for sharing.

Our Michael's carries only pre-packed bundles of fabric. When I was in there just yesterday, they had pre-packed yardage felt (2 yd) and some really chinzy stuff (that was not chintz).

Our local Hobby Lobby stores carry a few things that Joann's never seems to have any more. I picked up white eyelet, gingham, and some jersey knits there. They also had more 100% cottons, maybe because they were not open during Quarantine.

Watch your thrift stores for fabric, as well as estate sales. My mom moved about 18 months ago and consigned her home to an estate sale company. They told her after the sale, "your fabric was the FIRST to go!" She had an incredible stash, and that was after I took what I wanted from it.

Donna

People talk about fabric at Michaels and I have never seen any kind fabric at Michaels, ever. Perhaps not all is uniform in each store.

If your local Michaels has any fabric, it has still got to be slim pickings for anyone who really sews.

I talked about how there are no prints anymore and how there used to be nice linen prints.

Just this morning I got a newsletter from Tessuti in Australia, advertising linen prints, at $48 Aus per meter!!! I love to look at their patterns, but no way am I going to order linen at that price from far away Australia! NO way would I buy fabric that expensive for my everyday clothes.

Folks will defend paying this price for fabric with the claim about how much better it all is, how much better made you can sew it, and how much longer life it will have.

I say nonsense to that. An everyday garment is just that, worn on an everyday basis and life is messy. Whether or not it is sewn into a quality garment also depends of your own skill at sewing. An unskilled person can turn $100 worth of printed linen into a wadder.

I don't mean to dismiss the idea of quality, but there is a limit to just what that quality is and how much it counts.

If I need thread, zippers, interfacing, it comes from a mail-order tailoring supply catalog. I see nothing at Joanns for fabric. I'm a member of an online sewing group - I don't know when the last time was anyone displayed a garment made from fabric from joanns. I order fabric online. Many will sell small swatches.

I bought one garment at Salvation Army, intending to up-cycle it. Frankly, that's more work than making something from scratch. It hung in my closet for a couple years, and I threw it out.

Yes, you have to choose your battles when remaking something.

One thing that I did that I still appreciate from the time when I used to cruise the resell clothing and collected linen and the like, is that I made some of the nicest pillow casings.

I cut and constructed to keep some of the nice features of the garment such as a nice button placket and nice pearl buttons, or a nicely stitched pocket. Some of the detail and trims on the older garements were worth preserving.

I agree that is is work.

I completely understand your comment about it being more work than constructing an entirely new garment,

But, some will apply themselves to it and there are some amazing results.

I don't have the energy for that anymore, but love to see what others are doing.

Quality vs. price is always going to be a debate. I'm with you, @User, $48/meter seems a bit high for an every-day item, even for an adult who is less-likely to outgrow something in 3 months (unless you're losing/gaining weight, of course).

Joann's seems to carry a variety of quality in their stores. They've got some beautiful Kona cotton, more for quilting than garments, though you can come up with a nice garment from some of the bolts without looking like part of a quilt. Then there's the stuff I picked up with the intentions of making masks. After dealing with it yesterday, I came to the conclusion that this is ONLY for masks. Yes, it's 100% cotton, but it felt and handled like a weak version of the old cloth diapers. I haven't done the masks from the fabric yet - I'd bought a little of a Superhero print and a little of Harry Potter - so will let you know when I'm finished. It could, quite possibly, be a waste of my time. But I'm willing to give it a try and see what happens.

Donna

Years ago, a woman from Maine started a newsletter entitled "The Tightwad Gazette." She and her family appeared on Phil Donahue. One woman in the audience was disgusted that the author bought a used baby shirt or dress, washed it, and when a stain didn't come out, sewed an applique or something over the stain. She seemed to think making a child wear used clothing was akin to child abuse.

Although I'm pretty good at altering clothes, I didn't get the creative gene. I see youtube videos and craft sites where people with much less experience than I have produce some amazing things.