Yesterday I posted about meeting sewcialists in Montreal this past weekend – now it’s time for a fabric haul, because you KNOW that I can’t turn down a good knit!
There are tons of places to find about about Montreal fabric shopping, like Sew-Eng’s detailed map and her recent Seamwork article, and a rundown by Heather from Closet Case Files. (Toronto people, we are falling behind! Do we have similar resources for the GTA?) I went the easy route though – drive wherever Heather wanted to take us!
We checked out St. Hubert, with lots of little family-run shops – a lot like Queen West, in Toronto, aka. somewhere I like to browse but never buy. We also went to a big store called Tonitex, which had a great selection of fleece and quilting cotton (if you are into that sort of thing!) My spiritual home though was GlobeTex – a big, dimly-lit warehouse with knits stacked to the ceiling! (They do carry other stuff – wool, non-stretch denim, um… other stuff… I just looked at the jersey, ok?)
It ain’t pretty, but it’s great!
Here’s what I got, and a little more about the store itself:
(Are you giggling at my intro/outro? I know I am! The thing is, when I film a video, the first and last frame always seem to be me in some bizarre derpy expression, and that’s the frame that ends up being frozen at the beginning or end! So I figured, how hard can it be to make a little title clip? Answer: HARD! I tried about 5 different online video editors AND iMovie, and then gave up and did it in YouTube instead. Now, of course, the problem is that the film quality from my old iPad looks even worse next to crisp images… Must. Not. Buy. New. Gadgets!)
It’s always fun to explore fabric shopping options in new places, but I do feel pretty luck that I’ve got two fashion districts within an hour or two drive from where I live. (And I’m going to one of them today!) In the end though, I’m a small-town girl and I do like certain things about shopping locally – like prices on the fabric! I’m really shy about asking what the price is on something, and even more reluctant to haggle. (I can haggle just fine in, say, India, but I feel like that kind of haggling might be too aggressive here!) Where do you shop most: chain stores with cheap and cheerful basics, well-curated indie shops and family-run places where you pay for quality, or bargain-hunting at markets and warehouses?
PS. If anyone has video editing advice or suggestions on cheap options for better-quality filming, I’m all ears!
PPS. As always, my other Fabric Haul Videos are linked in the lefthand sidebar!
Crafting A Rainbow 
Very professional video! Love the intro :-). We passed on going north to Canada this summer but next summer for sure! Did you realize your video on You Tube is in the ‘comedy’ category? How does rayon jersey wear generally? Does it pill?
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Bahaha – Is it really marked as “comedy”? I just had a look through to try to chance that, but I couldn’t figure it out… I’ll work on that! 😉 If you do come north next summer and you are in the Toronto area, please give me a shout!
Funnily enough, I was just talking to friends about which jerseys pill the worse… I’d say rayon and bamboo quite good, actually. Cheap polyester double knits are the worst for pilling, I find. Polyester ITY is quite pill-resistant unless it snags on something – so I often end up with pilling on my stomach because I lean on the countertop without noticing and fabric catches on the rough underside!
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Great video Gillian!
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Thank you! I always get nervous people will hate videos. But then, no one is forcing anyone to watch them, right? 😉
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Lurve those middle two rayon prints! I like a real mix of shopping experiences… if I want to treat myself or get something specific I’ll visit something more boutiquey (like Cloth House or Ray Stitch here in London), but I love a rummage in a remnants bin, and the choice (and prices) at a warehouse or market.
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Yeah, those two prints would be right up your alley! 🙂 I’ve sewn one of them up already… not sure what to do with 1m of the blue though!
You folks seem well catered too in the UK – lots of fabric options, in London, at least!
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I loved seeing your fabric haul! I’d love to find myself shopping for fabric in Montreal some day – although I am quite spoiled in LA with our garment district (but it would be cool to experience it somewhere new!). And as a professional video editor, I think your video intro/outro is quite cute and looks great for making it on youtube!
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Oh man, I would *love* to visit the LA garment district! Though really all I can picture of it is some hazy pastiche of that Project Runway season in LA mixed with pictures of the Michael Levine Loft! (Is that even in LA? I could be totally off-base.)
I feel like I’m missing something with video editing resources online. I mean, surely there is an app or a website that does a free video editing service that is somewhere between too easy/not enough control and way too complicated?! There’s PicMonkey or Canva for pictures – Where are the good video tools hiding? (I”m sure whatever you use for work is waaaay beyond what I need, and therefore you wouldn’t be using free stuff anyway! I’m just whining. 😉
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Well if you’re ever in LA – give me a shout! 😀 And the Loft is definitely in LA (and where I get a lot of fabric)! It’s a kind of bizarre place where all the fabric is just in cardboard boxes, and it’s all by the pound pricing (which leads me to buy questionable things that “don’t weigh that much”).
And I’m not sure of any good online editing tools, but if you ever find yourself with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you can use Premiere – which is professional grade, but there are lots of tutorials online. Also, I’m not sure how good it is, but maybe checkout WeVideo. I took a quick look at it, and there is a free version to try out – but it looks kind of cool.
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I mostly buy rayon jerseys as well and they do tend to launder and wear well, better than most cotton jerseys and waaaaaay better than polyester. I also love the drape rayon gives. I’m lucky enough to have a new (almost a year) fabric store which carries a nice variety of women’s and children’s fabric nearby (I’ve worked there a couple of times, but that’s proven to be an unwise career move budgetwise) They carry mostly cheap fabric but nice quality none the less, I think their most expensive piece of fabric is like $15/m, so I’m really happy with that!
I love your fabric haul videos and I think it’s cute the way you pronounce ‘out’ and ‘house’ 😉
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Your local fabric store sounds nice! You always have great fabric. I think if we ever shopped together we’d be fighting over the same bolts! 😉
It’s funny you picked up on words that Canadians stereotypically pronounce a bit differently – when I hear myself, I think I have way more American style twang than I should! Especially when I say “cotton” like “cah-ten”. Why do I do that??
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Gotta save the video to watch when I’m back at my computer, but I wanted to say I love when you do them!
I mostly shop chain because that’s what available here. There is one warehousey type place, and a couple of indie places, but they are hard to get to and open only within the hours I work – especially the indie places which are open 10am-2pm on week days, and about three hours on saturday – they’re not SO far from my work but it would be a 3 hour round trip from home on a weekend. It’s hard to motive to make it out there.
So I stick to basics, like rayon and voile that i know will be ok quality. And I don’t buy many knits! My box stores are utterly rubbish at knits and I’m hesitant to buy online because of the variability, so I have limited knits in my stash, except a few merinos hoarded during an interstate trip.
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Wow, your indie store has terrible hours! Do their clientele not work? Crazy. The nice thing about chain stores is at least you usually know what to expect, and they do sell a variety – at least around here, indies tend to be all quilting cotton and just a few bolts of lawn, double gauze, or expensive knit.
If you do decide to try buying knits online, my best advice is pay close attention to the weight and the lycra content. As long as it’s a medium-weight with some lycra and preferably some natural fibres, I figure it’s a safe-ish bet. The only knits I’ve bought online and been unable to use were either too stable or too thin!
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It’s a very driving-based town, and I think their clientele have, at the very least, long lunch breaks and cars. I have a pretty felxible work life, but no car, so even though it’s moderately central, it’s just a bit too annoying for me to go unless I really want something. And since i have a stash FULL of things… I just go to the convenient box store and impulse buy things instead. Whoops! This is the indie store http://www.thedrapery.com.au/products they have a pretty nice range, and lots of the kinds of things I want to sew, but… I just haven’t managed it. And it’s close enough that buying online and paying for postage seems silly…
Thanks for the tip about online knits! I need to source some to make some more bike shorts and I’m coming up blank locally. I asked Heather B this on her haul video, but do you think Kaufman laguna cotton would hold up ok for them?
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Great haul and nice video! I love Globetex too, thanks to Heather and Caroline, but the place is dangerous for my wallet! You’re right about the connection with Fabricland (Fabricville in Québec) and also Club Tissus. I’ve also spotted the same fabrics, i.e. some rayon for $3.50 at Globetex and $12.99 (reg. price) at Club Tissus. Wow!
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Ooh, what is this Club Tissus? Is it a store in Montreal? Maybe we can fabric shop together next time i’m there!
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Club Tissus is just another big fabric store like Fabricville, but maybe with a better selection of higher end fabrics. I have fun searching into their designer fabric sales. I would sure like to fabric shop with you! Anytime.
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Considering how much variety I have to choose from, I do seem to buy a surprising amount of fabric from Fabricland. But I do love my independent stores for the nicer quality and friendly service (granted, since I shop for work, I spend a lot of time visiting these places, the friendliness can sometimes take time). I am pleased to say that about 25% of my stash is either from swaps or the textile museum sale, keeping great fabric from going to waste.
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Ahh, fabric shopping for work. That sounds lovely but is maybe not all that fun in real life. If I am shopping in TO, I definitely prefer being with someone like you who knows the stores and the people – otherwise I feel awkward as soon as I walk into the store. I enjoy your use of Fabricland fabric though – I love seeing fabric I recognise and thinking, “I could make that too!” : )
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Great video. I think the first fabric was from the 70’s not the 80″s:-). Montreal looked amazing!! I think it would be great to list places to buy fabric in T.O, also. In my limited experience there, I’ve only bought fabric on Queen Street. What shops are recommended for purchasing knit fabric there?
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Does it read 70’s to you? As I said 80’s, I though “Oh man, maybe 90’s?” What can i say, I was really not into fashion during those decades! 😛
For knits in Toronto, King Textile has a good selection including lots of sweater knits. Not enough prints for my taste though! 🙂 The Workroom farther west on Queen has some nice bamboo and pricey indie designer knits… Ewe Knit has some Liberty jersey… other than that, I really don’t know! I like looking at Toronto fabric stores, but rarely buy!
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I love these videos! You are looking gorgeous. Thanks for the review of GlobeTex. It would take me 40 minutes to get to the garment district in Toronto by public transit but I buy a surprising amount from Fabricland too. I know the store and selection so well that I feel I can make good choices. I find it frustrating at the Queen St. stores because it is so hard to browse. But, I love the stretch denim from King Textiles and if I want a nice linen I would go to Downtown Fabrics.
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Aww, thank you! I feel the same about Fabricland – I always figure that people who go in just once probably judge it and don’t find anything great, but if you haunt the remnants tables and sales enough, there is great stuff to be had!
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Wow, cool shop. There is NOTHING like that round by me. Actually there is not a lot fabric-wise except John Lewis (a department store) which is pretty expensive and don’t do a lot bar quilting cottons. I love your 80’s fabric. My brother had curtains with a similar pattern in black, grey and red with a duvet cover to match. That style was everywhere. Looking forward to seeing what you make from your haul. Xx
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From what I’ve seen of John Lewis fabric online, they look waaay to pricey for me! What a shame they are the only thing nearby!
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Thanks so much for this! The fabrics you got look great – I can’t wait to see them all sewn up! Next time I’m in Montreal I’m going to check out Globetex!
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You’ll like Globetex for sure!!!!!
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Great terry! And I agree, FabricLand is so cheap now – they don’t give you more than an extra inch.
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I’m glad you think so too! I used to get at least 10cm extra each time, or more, I swear.
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