I’m working on a Halloween costume and I need to find a big fabric store with a large selection. I’ll be up in the bay area so I’d prefer this to be between Sunnyvale and San Francisco inclusive. I need stretchy knit fabrics in beige, pink, brown and purple and some faux furry stuff. Any recommendations?
Years ago when I was having a custom sit-flying suit (for freestyle skydiving) built I went to Mendels Fabrics at 1556 Haight in SF. Wide selection, all kinds of wild stuff. They have a lot online and you can give them a call if you’re looking for something particular.
There’s also Stone Mountain Fabric in Berkeley on Shattuck.
The biggest fabric store I’ve ever seen is Britex fabrics in San Francisco, near Union Square.
Not cheap - nothing in the city is - but the best selection of everything.
I have found the closest thing to the type of fabric stores in LA’s fashion district in both price and selection (not very close but better than a lot of stores) is Discount Fabrics on 11th Street in SF. Their Lycra is in the $10 range ($15 or more at Joann and much higher quality than Joann). Think of them as a mini-Mood. If you’re going to be in LA, check out the fashion district. Multiple stores, concentrated on the intersection of 9th and Maple. Lycra sells for $6 per yard.
The fabric prices I’m quoting are for 54-60 inch widths. Consumer fabrics are normally 45 inches wide.
You could try Eddie’s Quilting Bee in Sunnyvale. I’m not sure about how much stretchy stuff they have, but you can check their inventory online.
Britex on Maiden Lane near Union Square can get you anything, and they have a lot of difficult to get stuff in stock. It is, as another has mentioned, very expensive. My mom used to drag me in tow there when I was a wee one. Oh, and Maiden Lane was where all the whorehouses were during and after the gold rush. There is also a Frank Lloyd Wright building (an art gallery last I checked) on Maiden Lane that is a mini Guggenheim on the inside.
Thanks, I’ll check it out. I always like to spend a bit of time hanging in the Haight.
Cool. I’ll grab a cheap Irish Coffee at the Gold Dust Lounge while I’m at it.
Discount sounds great. I’ll hit the fashion district the next time I’m in downtown LA.
The Second Stone, thanks for the tidbit of historical info. I’ll check it out.
I ended up checking Britex, but indeed their prices were pretty expensive. I checked out Discout Fabrics and found it to be right up my alley. Cheap fabric and funky stuff to make strange clothing. Thanks!
Anytime. Glad to help.