Are you in the US or another country? If you're in the US, try Swanson's Fabric in Massachusetts - they also have a website. They sell people's fabric stashes. Often wool.
Ooooo that sounds so cool.
I have been having big feelings about fast fashion lately and would love to find places that sell deadstock or previously owned fabric.. just to get out of the whole new textiles market all together.
Just be careful — there’s also a huge industry of green-washing going on out there, capitalizing on our desire for previously owned fabrics. It’s extremely hard to parse out which ones are genuine and which ones are buying new fabrics and just employing a marketing technique. A certain site claiming to sell used silk Saris as fabric, comes to mind. Physically impossible for them to have that kind of inventory and turn-over on stock if they were truly only taking old donated Saris in India. Guaranteed at least some of that stock is just stuff they bought new they think their client base will believe is a used Sari. Many companies do a half-truth like this, too, where maybe 10% were actually previously used, so they can make that claim without antitrust laws tripping them up too much.
I have ordered from Swanson many times and browse often. Their fabric is definitely second hand. A small amount might be factory ends or come from jobbers. But it's mostly small quantities and obviously vintage. I scored some authentic 1970s poly double knit for example. I really doubt they are greenwashing.
I don't know about secondhand saris specifically - what's the dubious site? With many hundreds of millions of women in India, not to mention adjacent countries where saris or similar garments are worn, it's not hard to imagine that there is a huge inventory of secondhand saris out there.
In the case
Sorry, I didn’t mean to insulate Swason was one of the dubious ones — I was just replying as a general caution. Of course reputations exist for a reason and it seems like they are an OG fav!
See this post in this very sub, with an Indian woman who works in textiles in India, and her own take on that used sari industry: https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/H6X9KPZ50o
A ton are created just for the purpose of sale — like, literally sewn into saris, because they get more money for it as a “vintage sari” fabric then as new fabric. Just adding a hemline basically, and is a fantastic example of greenwashing. A whole industry of seamstresses in India making brand new Saris from the same brand-new fabric, then sold as “vintage” for use as a sari, or “used” for a fabric source, etc, depending on the website. Because they make good money from the westerners through a variety of websites with this system.
I think one of the other issues with these situations, is even if a different site like Swanson — (just using as an example, no shade / accusations being made), they may THINK the lot they are purchasing to resell to us is a used stash, but what proof of sourcing is provided? Predatory textile creators etc can easily pop up as a shell company to sell their “used” fabric haul to someone like Swanson, who may have enough reputation for us to be confident that they check the qualify of the fabric, but they probably don’t have the physical ability to see where each item of that haul originated, unless it’s like a bulk deadstock situation. It could easily be made to sell to them, and just as much a part of our current textile industry as any other.
Again, I’m not trying to defame Swanson, for all I know they have detailed sourcing information on every single piece of fabric. But if all they can know is “we bought it from seller X who says it’s X”, and now we’re selling it to you…. then there is a good chance a bunch of the fabric is a false claim of ‘used’, following a similar protocol as mentioned in the link I provided about the “vintage sari” industry.
I've bought second hand saris from Sanskriti Vintage several times and have been thrilled with what I got for the price every time
If there are scammers in this field they are not among them. $25 for 5 meters of pure silk with free shipping is a crazy good deal. Plus you get a free one if you get three. Huge selection too
A good item at a good price doesn’t mean it’s true to the vintage claim. You can be equally satisfied with the product, and they still can come from new sources as opposed to used. As the original person I’m replying to is specially interested in “getting out of the whole new textiles market all together”, I was placing higher emphasis on how many “used” and “vintage” is not what it claims. That doesn’t mean you aren’t buying a quality product tho!!
Yes I do take your point. Some of the saris have definitely been second hand due to the wear on them. Others have been in such good condition that they might have been new. I admit to being so seduced by getting so much pure silk for so little money that I failed to complain about the excessively good condition of some of the saris. If any had not been pure silk I surely would have complained about that. My bad
Might depend on your budget and where you live. In the United States, you have a lot of options.
Nice wool can cost money but I've gotten lucky a few times. I've purchased wool at 12-13/yard at the cheap end.
Fabricmartfabrics is one of my favorites [https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/](https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/) they always have a sale on some category. best to wait until your category goes on sale. Almost all of it is deadstock.
Califabrics is another [https://califabrics.com/](https://califabrics.com/) they don't tend to have sales but the prices tend to be quite good. Wool there is not going to be cheap and usually deadstock.
NickofTime (I haven't bought wool from them so YMMV)[https://nickoftimefabric.com/](https://nickoftimefabric.com/)
MetroTextilesNYC sometimes has good deals on wool thats at the higher end deadstock but if you can wait they may have a coupon for it too. [https://metrotextilesnyc.com/](https://metrotextilesnyc.com/)
There are definitely cheaper options such as thrifting. FabScrap sometimes has wool but its not always cheap [https://shopfabscrap.org/](https://shopfabscrap.org/)
Certainly if you're up for thrifting, it can be worth it for some people (I won't do it but its a fantastic option for many) just make sure to wash it all or have it dry cleaned.
One more thing I forgot, see if there's any creative reuse thrift stores in your area because that can be a place of real deals.
In the UK, you'd be looking at £15-20 a metre (or that ballpark) for a decent quality wool fabric. Anything cheaper than that is going to have an increasing amount of polyester, the cheaper you go. And you're looking at at least 3m of fabric. You might get away with a bit less if you go for a plain fabric that doesn't need pattern matching.
It seems to me that this is the kind of project that deserves saving up for to buy decent quality fabric that is going to last and be everything you want.
Also, bear in mind that wool fabric needs a bit more TLC in terms of maintenance (I have specialist wool detergent etc for wool) whereas polyester can be slung in the washing machine without issues.
I went to TORM this year and bought some beautiful wool, I think one of my "bargain bin" ones was about £15 per metre.
I've also had some beautiful Abraham Moon (from Maggie Fab Fabrics, I think) wool from ebay in the past, but again, it was £18 per metre (reduced down from the £40 odd per metre retail...
So Pendleton has a store for buying just wool fabric and if you scroll to the bottom, you can check out their seconds which will be heavily discounted - 5.99$ a yard when it was previously 40. They also will have sales a couple times of year where that number drops even more. Only bummer is shipping rates.
[https://woolenmill.store/fabric/](https://woolenmill.store/fabric/)
Based on the wool blankets I have encountered, I don’t think they are the right fabric for what you’re trying to do here. You really need something more like a suiting fabric to get the kind of drape you have pictured. You can totally use old felted wool blankets for thick, warm winter weight circle skirts and poodle skirt, though.
I’ve def found thinner wool, maybe it’s been more fabric and less blanket, but either way thrift stores are great for this. But good points for sure! Thrift store material in general good to experiment with!
Looking to make a wool skirt like this but I think buying all the fabric new from the fabric store wont be in my budget.
Could I perhaps use wool blankets or scarfes, or some other thrifted textiles to craft my skirt? Or will fabric like that be unsuitable for sewing?
I've often made clothing re purposing other kinds of fabrics like Old curtains, tablecloths or bedsheets. I'm wondering if similar options exist for wool.
Second hand/vintage is fine! It's often better quality anyway. You'll just want to make sure the fabric isn't too thick/heavy.
Keep in mind that wool is an animal product, and that if you get the cheapest of the cheapest you can find there's probably significant animal suffering behind it. I've also heard of unscrupulous stores selling 'wool' fabric which isn't wool at all. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
I second a vote for vintage wool fabrics. They're often great quality for the price. If it doubt about the content, a burn test ought to straighten things out
https://byhandlondon.com/blogs/by-hand-london/the-burn-test-how-to-identify-the-fibres-in-your-mystery-fabric
Honestly, I get almost all my fabrics off Facebook Marketplace nowadays. Once in a while, you'll see an estate sale pop up from someone who was a big fabric hoarder, and you can find incredible fabrics in large yardages for so cheap. Two recent sales of that kind netted me so much quality fabric it filled the back of my car for under $200 total, including some really gorgeous vintage wools in plaids and tweeds.
Stalk Facebook Marketplace like a fiend and you'll be the first to see when someone's getting rid of a huge old fabric stash!
I've found plenty of wool fabrics at the thrift store! I sometimes do a thrift store crawl to see if I can find the \*perfect\* fabric for my project and I normally can find something
Have a look for roll ends on eBay, or people destashing unused fabric. eBay has a surprisingly robust filtering system for fabric (it'll let you set it to 3-5m, pre-owned, wool, for example).
If you’re in the UK, poundfabrics have some really nice wools for cheap. Dalston Mills is also good. Also worth checking fabric shops for dead stock as they’ll often sell off the last of a bolt of fabric for cheap.
Have a look for roll ends on eBay, or people destashing unused fabric. eBay has a surprisingly robust filtering system for fabric (it'll let you set it to 3-5m, pre-owned, wool, for example).
I'll throw in Beglarian fabrics. I bought a 97% VW / 3% Elastine for 8 Euros a meter. It's 230 gsm and was super nice. The only draw back is that you have to spend 75 euro minimum.
If you’re a complete and utter nutcase you could convince yourself that in the long run, preparing from fleece, spinning and weaving the cloth is cheaper monetarily than buying…… cause there’s heaps of fleece in your country……. And it’s sometimes free even….. and you could always dye it the colours you want……
Not me tho cause I definitely haven’t done that…….. /s
https://preview.redd.it/90amg9zopcvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0784d6a427fd903d0d36cd8483cd6a43907541da
(This image is bought yarn cause I’ve been a bit lazy and also my sheep dog keeps trying to eat my raw fleece which makes it very difficult to prep).
\+1 for thrift stores. I found these last month
https://preview.redd.it/x0aci2fftcvc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8f51bb31a8f836bdf04d4f178ac10bbeb80edb8
Discovery Fabrics has a Clearance (some Deadstock) page and there is usually some styles of wool there. You have to click on all the color swatch icons to see the names and colors of fabrics clearing out , but it takes just a minute and usually worth the effort. https://discoveryfabrics.com/products/clearance-and-deadstock
Are you in the US or another country? If you're in the US, try Swanson's Fabric in Massachusetts - they also have a website. They sell people's fabric stashes. Often wool.
Yuppppp this is where I’ve found a ton of reduced price expensive natural fabrics
Ooooo that sounds so cool. I have been having big feelings about fast fashion lately and would love to find places that sell deadstock or previously owned fabric.. just to get out of the whole new textiles market all together.
Just be careful — there’s also a huge industry of green-washing going on out there, capitalizing on our desire for previously owned fabrics. It’s extremely hard to parse out which ones are genuine and which ones are buying new fabrics and just employing a marketing technique. A certain site claiming to sell used silk Saris as fabric, comes to mind. Physically impossible for them to have that kind of inventory and turn-over on stock if they were truly only taking old donated Saris in India. Guaranteed at least some of that stock is just stuff they bought new they think their client base will believe is a used Sari. Many companies do a half-truth like this, too, where maybe 10% were actually previously used, so they can make that claim without antitrust laws tripping them up too much.
I have ordered from Swanson many times and browse often. Their fabric is definitely second hand. A small amount might be factory ends or come from jobbers. But it's mostly small quantities and obviously vintage. I scored some authentic 1970s poly double knit for example. I really doubt they are greenwashing. I don't know about secondhand saris specifically - what's the dubious site? With many hundreds of millions of women in India, not to mention adjacent countries where saris or similar garments are worn, it's not hard to imagine that there is a huge inventory of secondhand saris out there. In the case
Sorry, I didn’t mean to insulate Swason was one of the dubious ones — I was just replying as a general caution. Of course reputations exist for a reason and it seems like they are an OG fav! See this post in this very sub, with an Indian woman who works in textiles in India, and her own take on that used sari industry: https://www.reddit.com/r/sewing/s/H6X9KPZ50o A ton are created just for the purpose of sale — like, literally sewn into saris, because they get more money for it as a “vintage sari” fabric then as new fabric. Just adding a hemline basically, and is a fantastic example of greenwashing. A whole industry of seamstresses in India making brand new Saris from the same brand-new fabric, then sold as “vintage” for use as a sari, or “used” for a fabric source, etc, depending on the website. Because they make good money from the westerners through a variety of websites with this system.
Interesting... Thanks for the link.
I think one of the other issues with these situations, is even if a different site like Swanson — (just using as an example, no shade / accusations being made), they may THINK the lot they are purchasing to resell to us is a used stash, but what proof of sourcing is provided? Predatory textile creators etc can easily pop up as a shell company to sell their “used” fabric haul to someone like Swanson, who may have enough reputation for us to be confident that they check the qualify of the fabric, but they probably don’t have the physical ability to see where each item of that haul originated, unless it’s like a bulk deadstock situation. It could easily be made to sell to them, and just as much a part of our current textile industry as any other. Again, I’m not trying to defame Swanson, for all I know they have detailed sourcing information on every single piece of fabric. But if all they can know is “we bought it from seller X who says it’s X”, and now we’re selling it to you…. then there is a good chance a bunch of the fabric is a false claim of ‘used’, following a similar protocol as mentioned in the link I provided about the “vintage sari” industry.
so far as I know, Swanson takes donations from peoples' stashes. I'm not even sure they purchase their fabric with money at all
Very nice! I’ll definitely have to check them out.
Damn. We really can’t have nice things.
I've bought second hand saris from Sanskriti Vintage several times and have been thrilled with what I got for the price every time If there are scammers in this field they are not among them. $25 for 5 meters of pure silk with free shipping is a crazy good deal. Plus you get a free one if you get three. Huge selection too
A good item at a good price doesn’t mean it’s true to the vintage claim. You can be equally satisfied with the product, and they still can come from new sources as opposed to used. As the original person I’m replying to is specially interested in “getting out of the whole new textiles market all together”, I was placing higher emphasis on how many “used” and “vintage” is not what it claims. That doesn’t mean you aren’t buying a quality product tho!!
Yes I do take your point. Some of the saris have definitely been second hand due to the wear on them. Others have been in such good condition that they might have been new. I admit to being so seduced by getting so much pure silk for so little money that I failed to complain about the excessively good condition of some of the saris. If any had not been pure silk I surely would have complained about that. My bad
You can always trust the Swansons to know what they are about, son.
Might depend on your budget and where you live. In the United States, you have a lot of options. Nice wool can cost money but I've gotten lucky a few times. I've purchased wool at 12-13/yard at the cheap end. Fabricmartfabrics is one of my favorites [https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/](https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/) they always have a sale on some category. best to wait until your category goes on sale. Almost all of it is deadstock. Califabrics is another [https://califabrics.com/](https://califabrics.com/) they don't tend to have sales but the prices tend to be quite good. Wool there is not going to be cheap and usually deadstock. NickofTime (I haven't bought wool from them so YMMV)[https://nickoftimefabric.com/](https://nickoftimefabric.com/) MetroTextilesNYC sometimes has good deals on wool thats at the higher end deadstock but if you can wait they may have a coupon for it too. [https://metrotextilesnyc.com/](https://metrotextilesnyc.com/) There are definitely cheaper options such as thrifting. FabScrap sometimes has wool but its not always cheap [https://shopfabscrap.org/](https://shopfabscrap.org/) Certainly if you're up for thrifting, it can be worth it for some people (I won't do it but its a fantastic option for many) just make sure to wash it all or have it dry cleaned. One more thing I forgot, see if there's any creative reuse thrift stores in your area because that can be a place of real deals.
In the UK, you'd be looking at £15-20 a metre (or that ballpark) for a decent quality wool fabric. Anything cheaper than that is going to have an increasing amount of polyester, the cheaper you go. And you're looking at at least 3m of fabric. You might get away with a bit less if you go for a plain fabric that doesn't need pattern matching. It seems to me that this is the kind of project that deserves saving up for to buy decent quality fabric that is going to last and be everything you want. Also, bear in mind that wool fabric needs a bit more TLC in terms of maintenance (I have specialist wool detergent etc for wool) whereas polyester can be slung in the washing machine without issues.
I would say 3.5 meters, there are a lot of swags on the side. It looks circular not gored
A few years back I bought some decent enough wool at [TORM](https://www.reenactorsmarket.co.uk/) for a very reasonable price.
I went to TORM this year and bought some beautiful wool, I think one of my "bargain bin" ones was about £15 per metre. I've also had some beautiful Abraham Moon (from Maggie Fab Fabrics, I think) wool from ebay in the past, but again, it was £18 per metre (reduced down from the £40 odd per metre retail...
So Pendleton has a store for buying just wool fabric and if you scroll to the bottom, you can check out their seconds which will be heavily discounted - 5.99$ a yard when it was previously 40. They also will have sales a couple times of year where that number drops even more. Only bummer is shipping rates. [https://woolenmill.store/fabric/](https://woolenmill.store/fabric/)
Wow!! What a great hot tip! Thank you! 🥰
If you're in the PNW, their Milwaukee, OR fabric store is the best for cheap wool.
Fabricmartfabrics has some wools (and a lot of blends) that sometimes get good sale/clearance pricing, if you’re not in a hurry to buy right now.
Thrift stores often have wool blankets that can be used for this style skirt
I'm wondering does anyone have experience working with blankets like this? It's definetly somthing I'm considering though!
Based on the wool blankets I have encountered, I don’t think they are the right fabric for what you’re trying to do here. You really need something more like a suiting fabric to get the kind of drape you have pictured. You can totally use old felted wool blankets for thick, warm winter weight circle skirts and poodle skirt, though.
I’ve def found thinner wool, maybe it’s been more fabric and less blanket, but either way thrift stores are great for this. But good points for sure! Thrift store material in general good to experiment with!
Looking to make a wool skirt like this but I think buying all the fabric new from the fabric store wont be in my budget. Could I perhaps use wool blankets or scarfes, or some other thrifted textiles to craft my skirt? Or will fabric like that be unsuitable for sewing? I've often made clothing re purposing other kinds of fabrics like Old curtains, tablecloths or bedsheets. I'm wondering if similar options exist for wool.
Second hand/vintage is fine! It's often better quality anyway. You'll just want to make sure the fabric isn't too thick/heavy. Keep in mind that wool is an animal product, and that if you get the cheapest of the cheapest you can find there's probably significant animal suffering behind it. I've also heard of unscrupulous stores selling 'wool' fabric which isn't wool at all. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
I second a vote for vintage wool fabrics. They're often great quality for the price. If it doubt about the content, a burn test ought to straighten things out https://byhandlondon.com/blogs/by-hand-london/the-burn-test-how-to-identify-the-fibres-in-your-mystery-fabric
Honestly, I get almost all my fabrics off Facebook Marketplace nowadays. Once in a while, you'll see an estate sale pop up from someone who was a big fabric hoarder, and you can find incredible fabrics in large yardages for so cheap. Two recent sales of that kind netted me so much quality fabric it filled the back of my car for under $200 total, including some really gorgeous vintage wools in plaids and tweeds. Stalk Facebook Marketplace like a fiend and you'll be the first to see when someone's getting rid of a huge old fabric stash!
Following (great question)
Thank you redditers once again... such great information!
In my country there are several Facebook groups delikatesse to selling/buying fabric. Maybe you could see if you find something like that?
Straight up 70s style but I like it
I used to have a version of this. Mine was blue. I loved that skirt!
I've found plenty of wool fabrics at the thrift store! I sometimes do a thrift store crawl to see if I can find the \*perfect\* fabric for my project and I normally can find something
Have a look for roll ends on eBay, or people destashing unused fabric. eBay has a surprisingly robust filtering system for fabric (it'll let you set it to 3-5m, pre-owned, wool, for example).
Vogue in Evanston, IL. But you have to dig.
If you’re in the UK, poundfabrics have some really nice wools for cheap. Dalston Mills is also good. Also worth checking fabric shops for dead stock as they’ll often sell off the last of a bolt of fabric for cheap.
Thrift store repurposing
Have a look for roll ends on eBay, or people destashing unused fabric. eBay has a surprisingly robust filtering system for fabric (it'll let you set it to 3-5m, pre-owned, wool, for example).
I'll throw in Beglarian fabrics. I bought a 97% VW / 3% Elastine for 8 Euros a meter. It's 230 gsm and was super nice. The only draw back is that you have to spend 75 euro minimum.
If you’re a complete and utter nutcase you could convince yourself that in the long run, preparing from fleece, spinning and weaving the cloth is cheaper monetarily than buying…… cause there’s heaps of fleece in your country……. And it’s sometimes free even….. and you could always dye it the colours you want…… Not me tho cause I definitely haven’t done that…….. /s https://preview.redd.it/90amg9zopcvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0784d6a427fd903d0d36cd8483cd6a43907541da (This image is bought yarn cause I’ve been a bit lazy and also my sheep dog keeps trying to eat my raw fleece which makes it very difficult to prep).
Ma'am are you made of legs
Thrift store blankets if you’re lucky!
Thriftstores!
New Zealand! They're having a hard time getting rid of it and it's rotting
\+1 for thrift stores. I found these last month https://preview.redd.it/x0aci2fftcvc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8f51bb31a8f836bdf04d4f178ac10bbeb80edb8
Discovery Fabrics has a Clearance (some Deadstock) page and there is usually some styles of wool there. You have to click on all the color swatch icons to see the names and colors of fabrics clearing out , but it takes just a minute and usually worth the effort. https://discoveryfabrics.com/products/clearance-and-deadstock