review fabric shops

Fabric Friday Reviews: My Sewing Box

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Hello Everybody and welcome back to Fabric Friday! This week’s fabric purveyor is My Sewing Box, a wonderful independent fabric shop and haberdashery run by a mother daughter team, Amy & Angela. I particularly enjoy their instagram where they do long stories on the different equipment, fabric and notions they sell and what you should use it for; making My Sewing Box an extremely beginner friendly store.

My Sewing Box

  • Online Shop / Physical Shop / Both
  • Web Link: https://www.mysewingbox.co.uk
  • Core Purpose: Dressmaking Fabrics
  • Units of Sale for Fabric: 1/4 metre 

I have followed My Sewing Box for quite some time, as I’ve mentioned I love their instagram account and the way they relate to and understand their customer base. Their website is excellent and although I found the main menu a little overwhelming when I first looked, the main body of the website is simple, user friendly and well designed. Equally the payment process was simple and delivery was affordable and exceptionally quick even during an extremely busy Christmas period. They apologised on their IG for slow delivery but honestly they were quicker than most companies normal delivery! Delivery is free over £45 and standard delivery I paid is £4.50, again a little steeper than other suppliers but very speedy and very reliable so again, good value for money.

One thing that put me off to begin with was that fabric is priced and bought by quarter meter. Something you guys know I find a little frustrating! However the choice of fabrics available does make up for it. They stock a fantastic range of fabrics, haberdashery and notions for all skill levels and projects. I finally took the plunge after seeing their range of Christmas French Terry and I bought two types in their Black Friday sale to make myself a very cosy Christmas Jumper! My Sewing Box is a little pricier than other stores but I would say excellent value for money. I love how they have diversified and stock sewing gifts and books. They also offer a monthly subscription box which I am tempted by, I am actually going to look into whether I can buy one box as a one off to try it out first.

Rating

  • Range of Fabrics – 7/10
  • Cost – 6/10
  • Delivery (Speed / Cost) – 8/10
  • Ease of Use – 8/10
  • Ease of Payment – 8/10

Overall Score: 7.4/10

Overall My Sewing Box is a wonderful independent fabric shop, ideal for beginners because of their helpfulness and knowledge of their stock. They are a little pricier but I would say fulfil value for money easily and offer a wonderful service – I will definitely be shopping here again!

Fabric Friday Reviews: Felicity Fabrics

Jess1 Comment

Hello everyone and apologies for another belated Friday blog! I wrote this last Friday but my laptop was being a little temperamental so here we are on a bright cold Monday afternoon and I’m going to tell you all about the wonderful Felicity Fabrics. Yet another recommendation from Tamlyn of Sewn on the Tyne, this shop is one I’ve followed since I first started my instagram. I have always liked Felicity Fabrics’ stock choices but found them a little out of my price range so they were very much on my wishlist! That is until they had a 24 hour sale on their brand new fabrics and I was able to FINALLY get hold of some of the ‘Dotty About Dots’ Lady McElroy Viscose in Bottle Green, a fabric I’ve been eyeing up for around 6 months now. My fabric is destined to become a TATB Lotta Dress so that will be very exciting when I have time to sew it up. Now, on to the review!

Felicity Fabrics

  • Online Shop / Physical Shop / Both
  • Web Link: https://felicityfabrics.co.uk
  • Core Purpose: Dressmaking Fabrics, Haberdashery and Patterns
  • Units of Sale for Fabric: 1/2 metre

Felicity Fabrics is run by a mother daughter duo with a family history of sewing and from the moment your parcel arrives you can tell that this enterprise is personal to them. The fabric is carefully wrapped in tissue paper and sent in a proper branded cardboard box and then there is also a little envelope inside with a fabric swatch with all the fabric details handwritten on the back as well as a handwritten note from Felicity Fabrics! Honestly I could not get over the delivery, which is why they have scored the first ever 10 in this area on the blog!

The fabrics themselves are all good quality and there is a nice range of patterned and plain fabrics. The fabric selection shows evidence of being curated, not necessarily to a colour palette, but to a similar mood which I like. Equally there is a small but good range of fabric types including some Ochre Waffle that I would love to get my hands on! There is also a good range of patterns and haberdashery available and a nice remnants section. The fabric is priced mid-range with a few more expensive pieces in the mix and their remnants section has good sized pieces.

Website is well branded if a bit slow but otherwise functionality is good. They’ve considered what people want and given it to them (the ideal website). The one thing I would highlight is that their phone interface is quite hard to order fabric on, I didn’t have the option to increase the the number of units I wanted on my phone I just had to keep adding 1 to my bag until I had enough. Not a huge problem but just little irritating. Felicity fabrics also have a wonderful blog full of guest bloggers, its such an inspiring space and I love looking through. The only thing I would like to see on the blog is blog headers showing the person in their garment, useful if you’re not familiar with the pattern in use.

Rating

  • Range of Fabrics – 8/10
  • Cost – 6/10
  • Delivery (Speed / Cost) – 10/10
  • Ease of Use – 7/10
  • Ease of Payment – 8/10

Overall Score: 7.8/10

Felicity Fabrics have got the little details down, Tamlyn described their fabric deliveries as like receiving a present and its true, the box, the little sealed envelope, the wrapping; it makes buying fabric feel like a real occasion. While my bank balance won’t allow me to shop there regularly Felicity Fabrics have earned a top spot on my favourite lists and I’m very very impressed and I will definitely be returning.

Fabric Friday Reviews: Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn

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Welcome to this week’s online fabric shop review and it had to be Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn. If I’m honest I’d never heard of Rainbow Fabrics until a fellow maker posted about the sale in their Instagram story. Her selection of fabrics piqued my interest so I went to have a nose about the website. 20 minutes later and I had bought nearly 12 metres of fabric and had zero regrets. I love Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn, I won’t make any bones about it, what I will still try to do is maintain an air of detachment to give you a balanced review. So, on to the specs!

Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn

  • Online Shop / Physical Shop / Both
  • Web Link: https://www.rainbowfabrics.co.uk
  • Core Purpose: Dressmaking Fabrics and Haberdashery
  • Units of Sale for Fabric: 1 metre

Rainbow Fabrics have a bricks and mortar shop in Kilburn as well as an excellent online outlet. The choice of fabrics is superb, not only do they carry a wide range of fabrics but they also carry designer deadstock and their sale is second to none. I bought a beautiful selection of fabrics from here in the sale as a tester order and I was incredibly really impressed by the fabric quality. They sell their fabrics by the metre which I prefer because I find it easier to work out the cost of my projects.

The delivery is a standard fee of £3-£4 depending on speed with free shipping over £40. The delivery was quite slow for both of my orders however I can’t say if that is standard due to the current Covid-19 situation so I will have to do an order when things have got back to normal to compare. The cost of fabric and the range more than make up for the speed. The payment interface is easy and there are no fussy steps to create an account, just straight into buying fabric. Honestly the only downside to Rainbow Fabrics is that the website is super clunky on a computer. So much so that I have actually placed all my orders so far on my phone/tablet because the mobile version works much more smoothly. That being said they have a great instagram presence and a really friendly team.

Rating

  • Range of Fabrics – 9/10
  • Cost – 9/10
  • Delivery (Speed / Cost) – 8/10
  • Ease of Use – 6/10
  • Ease of Payment – 8/10

Overall Score: 8/10

Rainbow fabrics is by far the most affordable fabric shop I use and I would throughly recommend it to beginners who don’t have much to spend on fabric or who are concerned about spending alot on a project they may mess up the first time. It may not sound great but it seriously is something to consider as a beginner. You will have to unpick things, you will mess up and that is fine, its all part of the process but it definitely feels worse if you’ve spent upwards of £50 on fabric. I used the rainbow fabrics sale to buy fabrics I’d never used before like chiffon that was £1 per metre or viscose crepe that was around £3 a metre. These are fabrics I’ve always wanted to sew couldn’t afford to mess up with and Rainbow gives you the options. Yes there are some stunning expensive fabrics on there but there are also some great quality and beautiful looking cheaper fabrics that make it the perfect one-stop shop for beginner dressmakers.