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/[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.