More fabric shopping in San Francisco

Fabric shopping with fellow fabricaholics is the best. See my previous post if you need to be convinced.

Fabric shopping at places recommended by the local fabricoholics is also pretty good.

I was lucky enough to do both.

Britex Fabrics

The locals said that Britex was high end and expensive, but worth a visit. It was just around the corner from my hotel, so of course I went.

Expensive? Yes.

It’s location alone would demand that – sandwiched between Chanel, YSL and other designer names.

I expected this visit to be similar to a museum visit. I would ooh and ahh but nothing would be bought.

It was like a museum visit. It is a beautiful store. The silks, boucles and wools were exquisite. And beautifully displayed.

The trims were lovely. And the selection of buttons extensive.

And, to my surprise, there was a rayon challis with my name on it on the sales floor

 

Fabrix

Fabrix isn’t downtown but was very easy to reach by bus.

It was, as described by the locals, the polar opposite of Britex.

It is not a beautiful store. Fabrics are arranged by price rather than fiber or colour.

The prices are very good.

I restrained myself and bought only one piece of fabric, a printed poly satin with a silk like look and feel.

And this 20cm wide guipure lace could not be resisted, not at $10 per yard!

 

Thanks to everyone for their great advice. I highly recommend all four stores I visited in San Francisco, and of, course, meeting up with the sewing BABES was the best fun.

My fabric stash has been enriched.

San Francisco sewing BABES Berkeley meet up

I have some new sewing friends:

Jennifer, Wendy, me, Heather, Jilly and Glenda, from the San Francisco Sewing BABES group

What a great group they are. I was welcomed and felt at home straight away. Sewists are the best people!

They took me to lunch in Berkeley and then to two great fabric stores; Stone Mountain and Daughter and Piedmont Fabrics

 

Stone Mountain and Daughter Fabrics.

I loved the atmosphere in this shop. Suzan Steinberg (the Daughter) and her staff were genuinely welcoming and love fabric. There was a warm positive vibe to this store. What can I say? I was in Berkeley.

The shop is medium sized with a lovely selection of knits, silks and wools, plus lots of cottons. The quality was good and the prices reasonable (just like those in the know said on the last post). Upstairs is a space for classes, and the half price bargains.

Part of the cotton selection.

I found some wonderful rayon knit panels.

The pink is a 70 cm square, repeated twice across the width of the fabric. I have two panels.

The bright rainbow butterfly print is one panel running the width of the fabric (140 cm) and 90 cm across. Only half of it is in the photo. There is a solid border both ends, about 20 cm deep. I have one panel of this too. I’m thinking it will be a dress, combined with black.

This lovely silk charmeuse was half price.

And a bargain polyester chiffon made its way into my bag too. I do like a classical themed print!

 

Piedmont Fabrics

A short drive took us to Piedmont Fabrics, another shop in Berkeley. This is smaller shop, but again a nice selection of fabrics and notions, includes some pre-loved (vintage) buttons

Outside the store, hugging my purchases.

Polyester stretch lace

This piece of charcoal and blue wool embroidered cotton needed to escape from the remnant bin.

This stunning fabric has beautiful texture and sheen. It had to come home to Australia.

 

Thank you Heather, Glenda, Jilly, Wendy and Jennifer. I had an awesome time!

 

Advice needed on fabric shopping in San Francisco

What advice can you give me? Apart from ‘take large bags and a credit card, and don’t exceed your luggage limit’?

(image source)

 

I’ll be in San Francisco next week for an American Chemical Society Meeting. I have some time free on the last day before I start the long and boring plane flight back to Australia. Thanks, Qantas, for scheduling flights out of the West Coast at midnight!

Last time I was in San Francisco I stumbled on a vintage fabric shop (Urban Burp) by accident. This was an awesome store, and I have a skirt to remember it by but the shop has moved since and is temporarily closed.

So, where should I go?

My googling tells me I could try these spots:

• Britex Fabrics, 146 Geary St
• Satin moon fabrics and Fabrix, both on Clement St.
• Discount Fabrics, 2315 Irving St
• Fabric Outlet, 2109 Mission St
• Mendels, 1556 Haight St
• Stone Mountain and Daughter, if I have time to get to Berkeley

What do you think? Have I missed something? I’m staying close to Union Square, I’ll be relying on public transport and have about 5 hours to shop…

And if you’re in San Francisco next Thursday, would you like to meet up?

 

Vintage fabric shopping in San Francisco

A day stopover in San Francisco to get over jet lag before a very full eleven day work trip. What a great idea! This was the lovely view of the Bay Bridge from my hotel in the Embacadero.

And the best way to get over jet lag is to get out in the sunshine and walk around.

It’s a colourful place!

I went out with no, repeat no, intentions of purchasing any fabric, but when you come across a shop called Urban Burp that sells vintage fabrics, well, resistance was futile. There is a great blog post about this place with nice pictures of how fabulous it is on the inside on True Up.

What came home with me? Just enough turquoise damask for a pencil skirt (even the receipt is sort of vintagey!). You can see that the prices were very reasonable.

Technical stuff:

Its a cotton/rayon blend with a fairly stiff hand from the late 50’s/early 60’s. The rayon part is the shiny white threads. I’ve washed it (wool wash by hand) since returning home and it survived that treatment well, with not too much shrinkage. A lot of colour came out. Electra (owner of Urban Burp) said it was a dress fabric and not an upholstery fabric but I’m not so sure. Hopefully the colour won’t continue to bleed with every wash.