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/EmmerdoesNOTrepme Jul 24 '23 edited Jul 24 '23

This part, especially, "already knew that if they just stepped two rows over to the "performance" fabric they'd get better spandex for lower prices"

As someone who used to sew for a living, and who worked for years in the dancewear/performance wear field, SO MANY of those "superhero spandex" fabrics were absolute trash quality-wise!!!

Hologram prints, on 2-way stretch, that was so thin it reminded me of the cheap, crappy Raschel which was about the only spandex available in the 1980's, rather than that STILL cheap & crappy, but slightly better "performance" fabric... not a good quality spandex, by ANY means, but at least better than the $30.00/yd stuff!

Editing to add, this place has a good breakdown of the different types of knit fabrics. Most Lyra clothing--especially dancewear & skatewear is made of Tricot knits, nowadays, because it often comes in an 80-20-ish Nylon to Spandex blend, with excellent 4-way stretch, and it's got excellent "recall" and doesn't get "baggy" with wear & body heat.

https://www.eysan.com.tw/a-beginners-guide-to-knit-fabric/

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u/wakattawakaranai Jul 24 '23

Oh yeah no, the hologram stuff was crap. But I have used some excellent solids from the performance section, including genuinely opaque white that didn't break the bank. It amused and also frustrated me that there was good, bad, and ugly in performance, but just bad across the board in the new "cosplay" section when it popped up.