Resources for Sewing (November)

Looking up resources and information today on a variety of topics for sewing, here are some good resources: I will eventually add these to the Stidmama Sews pages, but needed to get them up before I forgot¡

Fabrics:

• Fabric Blog: Link takes you to a page about fabric weights, but there are many other useful pages. They also sell fabric, but I haven’t ordered from them because they are in the UK!
• Dharma Trading Company: My resource for dyeable fabrics, paints, and dyes
• JoAnn Crafts: This used to be JoAnn Fabrics (They bought out House of Fabrics, So-Fro, and several other smaller chains in the 80s and 90s), but I see they have rebranded are they also compete with Michael’s and other craft stores. I don’t really “like” purchasing from large conglomerates, but sometimes my wallet and availability of materials require me to use them.

Notions and Patterns:

• The Green Pepper: Founded in the early 1970s for people who love to hike and do other outdoors activities, I have used a couple of their simpler patterns in the past. Today I pulled out a pattern for an apron to prepare to make a couple of utilitarian gifts for our son G and his girlfriend S. Since I am documenting sewing projects, I was videotaping some of the thinking and prep work and mentioned I wasn’t sure they were in business (they are!) or if the pattern was still available (it is, but is now number 536: Work Apron and Tool Belt). They also sell hard-to-find fabrics and notions for heavy-duty sewing. Going to order some webbing and buckles for the straps for the aprons today!
• JoAnn (see link above) carries patterns from all the major brands (which appear to now belong to a single conglomerate…)
• RedThreaded: They make stays and corsets from a wide range of eras beginning in the 1700s, and have produced both printed and paper patterns for most of them. They also carry hard-to-find notions such as a curved wooden busk for long regency stays!