Where Have All the Fabric Stores Gone?

I haven’t sewn lately…it’s been a couple of years, in fact. I used to sew a lot when my daughter was young. I liked sewing dresses for her (and me). Once or twice I even made matching dresses for the both of us.

The bug to sew bit this week. It may have something to do with the fact that I have no dresses, and all the ones at the stores I simply do not like. The ones I do like would cost a week or two worth of groceries. So I took myself to Hancock Fabric Store.

Of course this was after a trip to Target where I found a pair of shoes that I had to have loved. Have I ever mentioned I have a shoe fetish? I come by it honestly. My grandmother had tons of them, with matching purses, no less. The color spoke to me, and so did the price…$19.99.

It was because of these shoes that I found myself at the fabric store. I don’t have much to wear them with, so I needed to rectify that particular problem.

I dug around in my collection of patterns and found a sundress that I liked and made years ago.

And I made this:

I had to modify the pattern some; didn’t put in the darts, shortened it about 6 inches, and made the back V neckline shorter…oh, and since I had misplaced the directions for the skirt, I winged it a bit, but it was your basic gather waist/attach bodice kind of dress, all in a couple of hours (except for hemming). That is a record for me!

And this is what it looks like together:

Now back to my question ‘where have all the fabric stores gone’? There seriously aren’t that many anymore. What’s up with Walmart? They got rid of their sewing section. Their fabric was usually a bit cheaper, although not a huge selection.  There are more knitting stores these days. I don’t know how to knit.

Maybe I should learn…just saying.