Fabric by the Pound

Yesterday, a friend & I went went down to LA's Fashion District. Despite living in LA for 6 years & sewing multiple projects, I had never been. We concentrated on the fabric area -- centered around Maple & 9th street -- since she wanted to make curtains for her new apartment. There were a lot of bead stores in that area, too.

There was quite a bit of fabric for $0.99 a yard (although the $1 per yard store was mysteriously closed). Also great deals on silk -- I really wish that I'd had a project in mind, because someone was offering dupioni silk for $4 a yard (he bargained down from $6). It had a lovely square pattern so it almost looked like it had been pieced together. (I found something similar at an online store, so you can see what it looked like. Although this has smaller squares than the one I liked.) But we are probably moving soon, so -- in a moment of great self-restraint -- I didn't buy any.

At slightly less of a bargain level, there was a huge fabric store: Michael Levine. I had to restrain myself from buying quite a bit of ribbon. I may be heading back there soon, though. It also had some really nice yarns, although they were certainly not a great deal.

What is a great deal is the loft across the street that is owned by the same company: they sell fabric for $2 a pound! Of course, it's just huge bins of random fabric, but still. I found a roll of pale green velvet upholstery fabric. (My camera is again not working, so I can't show it to you.) I paid less than $5 and I have enough to cover several pillows. I think it will nicely match a stripy throw pillow that we have (which I also covered with a fabric remnant, years ago).