Today we have the second installment in what we plan to make into a large series of posts about fabric shopping around the world. Liesl kicked off the series with her Fabric Shopping in Madrid post, and today I’m bringing you a fabric shopping guide for my hometown, Minneapolis, MN.
When you try to shop for fabric in a country that isn’t your own, you’ll find that sewing terms aren’t easily translated. To help you out, we created the Sewing Translator, which many of you have contributed to and use. We hope it will be useful to you as well in your travels. Sewing Translator is now available in 14 different languages, and if you have an iPhone or iPad you can download it to use the native iOS app off-line as well. We hope you’ll make good use of it! You can find Sewing Translator in the Apple app store, and it’s free.
SR Harris Fabric
SR Harris is like fabric heaven. I’ve heard it’s on a par with what can be found in New York City. There are two locations, one of which is a 30,000 square foot warehouse. This place has aisles and aisles of fabrics. You take your fabrics to their large cutting tables, measure and cut your fabrics yourself. Then put an orange sticker on it with the amount and price. And you have to return your fabrics back to where they belong, so you cannot forget where you found them. Here is just a small section of the quilting cottons.
There are fashion fabrics galore. Here are some silks and sequined fabrics.
You’ll find lots of knit fabrics, everything you’d need for t-shirts and leggings.
Have fun with some faux furs.
And here are even more fashion fabrics.
You’ll also find buttons by the pound and many other notions as well as a wide variety of trims.
Knit and Bolt
Knit and Bolt is a charming neighborhood modern quilt shop that opened in April 2017.
They carry fabric lines like Robert Kaufman and Cotton+Steel. The space is very clean and you’ll find that there’s plenty of room while you’re shopping.
They also carry hard–to-find items like cork fabric, Zirkel magnetic pin holders, and everything that you would need for Sashiko embroidery. They offer several classes and you can even take a class on how to sew the Liesl + Co. Maritime Knit Top.
World’s Largest Textile Garage Sale
Held in mid-April in a large warehouse, World’s Largest Textile Garage Sale earned $63,000 in 2017. That just goes to show you how much fabric and sewing related items they sell, keeping tons upon tons of materials out of landfills. I won’t say much about it as I’ve already blogged about it here. Take a look at that post to find out more about this event.
Also there is a Garage Sale Pop Up, which is a much smaller version that takes place in October.
We’re going to continue this series, visiting cities all over the world. Would you like to contribute a post for your city? We would love to hear from you! Leave a comment telling us what city you could cover, and we will be in touch.