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Brick and mortar stores...
I buy many things over the internet, but I pretty much only shop for fabric in brick and mortar stores.
I'm not sure why I feel this odd reluctant to shop for fabric online. Partly, I suppose, my sense of touch plays as much of a role in why I buy a particular fabric as my vision. Hmmm... I wonder how long it will be before our personal computers have a tactile-based I/O device?
Plus, maybe, the immediacy associated with buying fabric in the store suits me and my sewing "lifestyle". ;)
How about you? Do you shop for fabric online? Does it always match your expectations? Do you ever send it back? (Are you allowed to send it back?) Are there online stores that you recommend?
10 comments:
I buy the bulk of my fabric online. The only brick and mortar store near me is a poorly stocked Hancock Fabrics. I use mainly fabric.com, Denver Fabrics, and Gorgeous Fabrics.
If I were forced to buy only what I could touch before hand my stash would be much smaller.
Hancock's is really the only game in town, although there are some other fabric sources between 1 - 2 hrs away...and there's always the Atlanta Expo as a fabric source. But that's only once a year.
So, my fabric buying habits certainly include online folks. Most of the time I've gotten lovely fabrics; only a few have been less than I expected. My main suppliers (not in any particular order) are EmmaOneSock, Gorgeous Fabrics, Michael, Fabric.com, Fabric Mart and Fashion Fabrics Club...
If I were nice I'd include the links, but I'm being lazy. They're pretty easy to find, though!
I need, need, need to fondle fabric. But if I had to buy online I'd shop at Gorgeous Fabrics. Ann has excellent customer service.
I've not yet bought any fabric online, though I've been eyeballing some on sale lately.
For me I think it's the immediacy that keeps me buying it in the stores.
I rarely buy online, though I do take a look sometimes. Locally I don't have very much, but there is a manufacturer here that sells their fabric 3x/year (Canvasbacks). I get a fair amount of stuff from them (though there have been rumblings for the past year or so that they are having troubles, and with what's been happening in the economy lately I don't know how much longer they will be around). Otherwise, there is another independent shop here that has a few things, or the chain stores.
I window shop a lot online - but since the Aussie dollar continues to drop against the US, that's all I can afford to do! I'm in the extremely fortunate position of having a best friend who aslo sews, and a capital city with good fabric shops only 90 minutes drive away. And one outstanding fabric shop here in town.
Patterns, on the other hand, I buy almost exclusively online - you can't imagine how green we get when you lot report on buying patterns for $1.99 - we think we've scored big time with $6 vogue/mccalls/buttericks on sale!! (and then we still have to factor in the postage!)
Well, I will be buying more online. Since Martin's is getting rid of the apparel fabric and Joann's was a disappointment the last two times I went in. I still find bargains at Joann's, but it is a lot of patient looking and waiting. Right now, it is about half brick and mortar and half online.
I am a touchy feely girl, so I really like to touch my fabrics before I purchase. But I am forced to buy online because my 2 choices around here only sell crap.
I've gotten a couple of duds from online purchases, but who knows, maybe they will eventually work for something else.
I haven't been diappointed yet with gorgeousfabrics.com.
I buy from bricks and mortar stores. I have bought from Emmaonesock but with the exchange rate dropping so much and the postage I won't be doing that any more. But here in Melbourne we have lots of fabric stores.
We only have Hancock Fabrics and I haven't found anything there that I like. Atlanta is 1 1/2 hours away and I heard Gail K's is good ... I just don't have much time to drive there to shop!
I truly miss great fabric stores though and a brick and mortar fabric stores!
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