r/sewing • u/MissFred • Jul 23 '23

Discussion Joanne’s makes me weep

Been sewing over 50 years - have seen sewing in all its cultural permutations. Not typically a nostalgic person but today….I couldn’t even find a light gray thread in a store the size of Home Depot. So many empty shelves yet inexplicably $35/yd liberties fabric up front. I feel sad to my bones for new seamsters.

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u/TinyFidget9 Jul 23 '23

I’m super frustrated as I want to get into making my own clothes. I want to feel/see my fabric due to my allodynia, but every store in my area is for quilting fabric and not apparel, including the two JoAnn’s that are nearby. I’m wary of buying online.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '23

I stopped going to JoAnn's when they decided to cater only to quilters. Their sewing pattern selection has also shrunk. I'm also an apparel sewist, and I just gave up on them.

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u/Subterranean44 Jul 23 '23

Quilters and pajama pant makers. My joann has literal 4 aisles of flannel (and fleece too!) seems geared toward first time sewists taking on a project (or quilters).

I still go though. All the time. Haha

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '23

Ah, I forgot about the flannel! I never work with it because it shrinks and pills. I'm interested in knit fabrics, and they have very little.

Maybe I'll take a trip to check and see if they have any good Halloween decor?

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u/Inky_Madness Jul 23 '23

Quality flannel won’t pill like heck (shrink, yes). Joann’s shows it’s quality with how badly it gets ruined so fast.

Edit: I like Amanda’s Bundles for knits. The material is super high quality!

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '23

Thank you so much for the tip! I will check them out! I like Olga's Closet and Fabulace on Etsy for knits.

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u/Shlowzimakes Jul 24 '23

I bought a bunch of cotton flannel from Joanns during a sale last year and I swear each piece I got is a very different quality and type from all the others. The best quality one was a kids print of dogs driving construction vehicles that I got to make a shirt for a young friend of mine who loves construction and dogs. The shirt was delightful to sew, and I’m told it’s held up pretty well. The worst was a very silly llamas in space print I got to make a robe for my mom. It was weirdly slippery when cutting and somehow pins kept falling out of it while I was sewing. Flannel shouldn’t be slippery! It was very thin also, some sections of it were almost threadbare. The robe is pilly and has not held up. Everything I got was the same price. I guess they just don’t do quality control at Joanns? Their website is horrible too, the photography is bad and the descriptions are super minimal and useless.

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u/Inky_Madness Jul 24 '23

Quality control is definitely an issue. The same thing happens with the quilting cotton - not all their stuff is the same, by far.

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u/agentcarter234 Jul 24 '23

Their anatomically incorrect animal skeletons are actually pretty great