Y'all, it's like Christmas all over again. [Happy doopy doos and such] So a while back, I made a video about Destashify,
which is a platform that allows individual sellers to come together and get rid of their extra
crafting or sewing supplies by selling them to other people. And a lot of you had critiques
of the website in the comments, which is totally fine - they're small, they're growing, they're doing
their best, and they expressly told me when I was making that video that they wanted critiques so
that they could learn what they should do better. Any place that is attempting to make secondhand
materials available to makers is something that I want to see grow and flourish. Which got me
thinking: where else could I find used, secondhand, vintage, or deadstock fabric online? So I thought
today I would do a haul video... but for science! Isn't it lovely when you can label your desire
to buy more fabric as a research experiment? So I have been slowly (or sometimes rather quickly)
trying out different online sites and stores over the last few months, and the fun part is that
I have not opened any of these packages that I've received, so some of them I have completely
forgotten what I bought. I do want to mention right now, just for all of my absolutely lovely
international viewers who I just appreciate so much - thank you so much for being here, and I
am... sorry. So many of you were like, "Oh no, Destashify doesn't ship to my country yet!" And today is
going to be most likely a lot of the same. If any of these places do offer international shipping,
I will put it on the screen somewhere for you. Hi! Squish, squish, squish. If you know of any online
sites that are doing this same sort of thing for your country, drop that in the comments for
other people from your country cause that would be an awesome way to share places like this from all
around the world. Also, I did just want to mention here that this video is not at all sponsored
by any of these places. None of them reached out to me, none of this was gifted or discounted - I just
wanted to share because I am obviously a huge fan of getting cheap materials, thrifted materials.
I just wanted to make that clear because we are going to talk in detail about these companies,
their sites, uh... their offerings, their prices, their shipping, everything. And speaking of pricing, this
is something that I think is a good idea to keep in mind... or maybe that's not the right way to put
it. But like something I want to make clear about myself and how I shop for fabric right from the
start: I have two different reasons for wanting to buy secondhand or deadstock material. The first
is, of course, that I am a massive cheapskate. I like cheap materials, I feel safer when I'm using
them, and I 100% was bit by the fabric shopping bug as soon as I started sewing... [sigh of acceptance]
So yeah, I wanna keep my fabric as cheap as possible, as much as possible. But reason number two is that I also
just prefer to use secondhand materials. Like y'all, let's be real: we home sewists are not going to
stop fast fashion. We are not even making a dent in the fabric waste that major corporations are
causing constantly, which is why I will say right now that if you prefer to buy fresh new fabric,
that is perfectly okay. There is absolutely no judgment from this realm. I still buy new fabric
when I need something specific and there's nothing wrong with that. But for me personally, I do just
feel really nice about buying secondhand or dead stock as often as possible. All that to say, when
cheapness goes out the window, and I am just given the option between new fabric or secondhand
fabric around the same price, I am still gonna choose the secondhand fabric. And I think this
is what a lot of people noticed on Destashify, is that the prices really did range, and they weren't
always what every person thought of as "thrift store prices." Which I will say - the definition of
expensive and cheap and "thrift store prices" so much depends on who you are and where you live,
what the cost of living is around you - it's not a set definition. So what I will do on pretty
much all of these websites, or whenever I have the option to on the website, is I will just go
to the All Fabric page and sort by "Price Low to High," and then I have a personal cut off. As I dig
through, I know that like, hey, at this point, I'm not willing to pay that much for fabric anymore.
But you can often find some real good deals on that lower end, particularly if you're not looking
for one specific type of fabric, but you're just doing some general fabric shopping and getting
ideas from the fabric that you bought rather than coming to it with an idea, you know? Price-wise, I
do definitely always have Remainders in the back of my head, because I can just drive over there
real fast, I don't have to pay for shipping, and the majority of their fabric is $4 a yard, and then
of course, I can get those remnants for 40 cents a yard, sometimes even 35 cents a yard. I mean, that
is an incredible privilege to live that close to a fabric thrift store like this, and I know that not
a lot of people have that, which is why I wanted to do this online search for other options. Anyway,
that was a lot of talking to get this started, but let's look at fabric now, yeah? I am excited! Would
you like to leave? Bye. We are going to start with what I already know is my favorite, at least of
the shopping experiences I had here. Oooo lordy. Ohhoho, it's heavy. This is from Swanson's Fabrics. They
remind me the most of Remainders: they are a thrift store, they're operating off of donations, they
have a brick and mortar store that is located in Massachusetts, if I recall my... states correctly.
But unlike Remainders, they also have an online store. You can order stuff from them if you live,
you know... very, very far away. So if you live close to the actual store, I highly recommend going to visit,
[slicing sound] but if not, check out their online store. They put new stuff online every single week. It's
great to keep up with their social media, and then you can go to the category on their site that is
As Seen On Inshtagram, Instagram, that was hard to say for some reason, I love that they also have a
Hot Garbage, like, classification - it's hilarious to me. They have bulk lots of like similar fabrics
or scraps. They also do yarn, I think they have some notions and stuff, but I'll have to confirm that.
(Confirm that please, editing me.) But all of their fabric is specifically listed as the amount that
there is of that fabric, which is something that I found really handy. As we'll see on some other
sites, there were places where they don't tell you how much of the fabric is available, so you just
kind of have to like keep doing the more yardage until you figure it out, and I don't know about you,
but I'm one of those people that like, if there's four yards of this fabric, and I was going to get
three yards, I'll just get the four yards, because why not just get that extra yard? So I found it
really handy that that's the first thing that you see in the listings, and then I can be like, hey,
there's only one and a half yards of this fabric that I liked - that's not enough for what I would
want to make out of it. And so then I'm not even like clicking on it and looking further... I don't
know, I just found that really super handy. Oh, I'm already so excited by this. Eee! I kinda went nuts on
all of these shopping trips, I gotta say. It was way too much fun. So first up, I got a little fabric
quarter quilting bundle. It is titled When Pigs Fly because there's pig fabric, ah! Two different pig
fabrics, and each one is in two different colors. I do remember getting that now, specifically like...
the pigs. HEEE!! Oo! So we've got like a thin waffle knit. Oh, and did I mention? (I think I forgot to mention.)
The thing that I love about Swanson's is that all of their fabric is $5 a yard. It does not matter
what kind of fabric it is: $5 a yard. So you can really just dig through their stock of fabric, and,
at least for me, it really doesn't come down to like how much is it, it's how much yardage is there,
and do I like it. Ah. Oohoohoohoo. Y'all. Gorgeous. This is like a pretty heavyweight fabric. It is originally
from Waverly Fabrics. This is cool! So this is another sort of canvas-y, thicker fabric. It's like that old
school print that you see a lot - in fact, I think I have some very similar fabric to this, but it's,
it's like a cotton, and it's all brown. But this one's got like the blues and the greens on there...
I love that. You know me - most of the time when I am shopping for fabric, I'm just looking for cool
prints. We've got some navy and white polka dot - oh, with stripe! That's interesting: it has a whole
striped border on it. it's also nice and thin and light and drapey. Now I'm remembering: they had some
great like, home decor fabrics or thicker fabrics, and I could not resist them. I don't know, I'm a
sucker for this kind of fabric, y'all. Oh, this is from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Cool.
Ooo! This one is like a denim. Oh, it's not just floral, it has animals in it! But they're kind of blended
in. I feel like if somebody saw this from afar, they would not notice at all, they'd just be like, oh
it's sort of a floraly print. Y'all, that is so fun. Huuuh. I got good stuff from them. Ohoo, so we have some
pink lace. Definitely feels like it needs to be washed, cause it's kind of stiff, but it is beautiful
lace, and there's like a chunk of it, y'all. Oo, this is very soft. This is like a ribbed knit. Y'all know
how I love a soft knit. Oo, this is pretty. This is so Easter-y. This is one of those two-way stretch knits.
Oohoohoohoo... Look at this! Y'all, that is gorgeous! You've got the polka dot, but then with that beautiful
floral print in there... and according to this label, there's 5 and 1/2 yards. That is enough for
some... amazing stuff. This is a fun one: one of those like stretch meshes, but with like a snake
print in bright colors on it. Oh my goodness, why is it heavier out of the box? Okay y'all, I got
some gorgeous stuff there. I am so pleased with all of this, but I did say we were going to talk
logistics, so first of all, how long did it take for me to get it? 10 days. I live on the other side
of America, and I received the box 10 days after ordering. Shipping and handling was $40, which is
pretty high, generally speaking, but then also, like this is a lot of fabric. This box I think was the
heaviest out of all of the ones that I got - it's a chunk. And being a small business that's basically
being run by like one person, I don't really mind there being a higher handling fee, because this is
an extra service - her having to find all of this and pack it all up and get it into a box. Would it
be way more convenient to just go there in person if you live anywhere close? Absolutely. But for
me, that was not necessarily an astronomical price for how far it was coming and how heavy it was and
all of that. So I got 40.5 yards of fabric, and then this, which is 7 fat quarters, and it was $10, and I
paid $5 a yard, so it was $202.50, again, not counting that. A chunk of money, but you know, a chunk of
fabric for it. That is Swanson's. It was my favorite shopping experience. I love everything about this,
I am so happy with it, but wait: there's a lot more. Clearly. Hoooo. You can go there- nope, don't fall over.
Next up, we have Sew By Sew. This is one that I already knew about. I have followed her on Instagram for
a little while, I just hadn't bought anything from her yet. She is doing dead stock, so this is
not thrifted, this is not used or secondhand: it is dead stock fabric specifically. What I tend to
find is that places that are reselling dead stock fabric tend to have higher prices than what
you would find at a thrift store like Remainders or Swanson's. That's pretty fair and logical,
because they're not operating off of donations. As far as I know, they are still having to go out
and source and purchase that fabric before they resell it. So I think deadstock really appeals more
to small fashion designers: people who are trying to actually sell the clothing that they make, and
therefore, they need a large quantity of fabric, so that they can make more than one piece. And this
is a great way to get a larger quantity of fabric for cheaper than you would get it... elsewhere.
If you're ever wanting to make something that is going to require a large quantity of fabric, it
can be really helpful to look at dead stock sites, because it might be harder to find, you know, 15 or
20 yards of the fabric you're looking for from a thrift store. So it is helpful for that. Um, for me,
the prices were a little too high for me to just randomly buy fabric there, except: she does mystery
bundles, so that is what I got. So they do this by weight, so you can get 1 lb, 3 lb, 5 lb, or 10 lb
mystery bundles, and then you can choose sort of your theme - well, not sort of - you can choose your
theme of what type of fabric you're looking for (not type like woven versus knit, but type like
cottagecore or 70s or whatever). Oh, and then you can also choose a color. I forgot about that. So
I got a 10 lb, cottagecore, purple and lavender mystery bundle. So it's not just like completely
random mystery bundle. 10 lbs of fabric was $78. Very nicely, she did have free shipping within the US if
you spent more than $50, so that's super handy. And I am already loving what I'm seeing here. We have
some plaid - I love that color combo so much. And then we've got some florals... Ooh, this one has like
a raised dot texture to it. Oh I love that. Lots of florals in here, which is great, always really fun.
I'm trying to get away from having so many stripes, so floral is great. These are definitely a lot of
like very drapey flowy fabrics, which makes sense for the cottagecore vibe. I really like that one.
So these are definitely smaller pieces of fabric - this is not like 5 yards of anything. It's kinda,
you know, it's getting a remnant bundle. This feels very similar to like the remnant bags that I get
from Remainders. Oo! I love the feel of this one. Soft drapey knit, y'all: it's my favorite. Oh
y'all, it just keeps going. Oh that's a- guah! Should have seen that coming. All right, so it's definitely
quite a chunk of fabric here, and there's some really fun stuff in here. There's very few that I'm
like, eh, I don't like that at all. Most of them are really just very pretty florals, very silky, drapey
fabrics - definitely stuff that I can find use for. I'm not going to take the time to measure all of
these right now. I will do it afterward, and then I will put a number somewhere. So how much yardage
was actually in here for the 10 lb weight, and what does that equal as far as... (Oh, it's raining.
Nice.) dollars per yardage. Back on track. I will put that up here, but generally speaking, definitely
worth checking out, especially if you are looking for deadstock fabric, for stuff that has a larger
quantity, and you don't want to have to buy new. As far as using the site goes and the shopping
experience, they did have a lot of options for different ways to look at fabric, but they were
lacking that one page you could click on to just see all of the fabric, so I wasn't able to do my
whole "sort by low price to high," so there might have been good deals on there that were kind
of hidden, and I wasn't able to find them. And then, potentially because they is so much fabric -
I don't really know how much people tend to have of deadstock, maybe it's just a ton - but they also
didn't have any kind of listing of like how much fabric was available when you clicked on a type
of fabric. Again, maybe that's because like... there's tons of fabric available. I am definitely more used
to looking at thrifted fabrics than deadstock ones. But yeah, the mystery bundles are really fun. Oh, and
as far as timing goes, I got this box 13 days after I ordered it. Next! Hewwo? Watcha doin? Do you wanna
come here? Hi. Next up, we have A Thrifty Notion. They have a brick and mortar store in Kansas, so again,
if you're close, highly recommend checking that out, but they also have a lovely online store. I will
say, this was the fastest in terms of shipping - I got this one 4 days after I ordered it, so they're speedy.
[Slicing sound] I thought they had a really nice variety of products on their site, and they had more of those,
you know, mystery boxes or bundles, and those are always really fun to check out if you're just
kind of looking for cheap fabric to add to your stash in general. I will say their prices weren't
quite as good as, you know, Remainders or Swanson's, but you could start with those low prices and find some
good deals. I have zero memory of what I bought from them. Yeah, so they say here on their invoice:
"Most of our fabrics are secondhand, vintage, and deadstock," so there is sort of a combination on
this site of those three things, which might be why the prices range a little bit more. Vintage
fabrics aren't typically very cheap. Deadstock isn't as cheap as thrifted, so you really do
have a variety from this site. Okay, so here I got one piece of fabric, and I got two of the
like mystery bundles. Not really mystery, it was a woven fabric bundle called Mayday, and then a
woven fabric bundle called All Neutral Linings. Their shipping was about $10 - not too bad - and
if I recall correctly, the bundles were kind of like ranging in price from I think $15 up to $25,
depending on basically interest. I think this was the site that the longer a bundle was available,
the cheaper it became. So the lining fabric one was pretty cheap, which is why I got it. It was $15.
And then the Mayday one was $25. The fabric that I got was a little over $5 a yard, I think,
so not bad, but I'm pretty sure it was one of the cheaper things on their site. Again, you just got
to order cheap first. Oh, cute! Look at those three fabrics together: precious. And then we've also
got some really pretty floral. We've got some white material. So this was the MayDay bundle. Again,
there's no yardage, because it was just a bundle, so I will measure all of this post filming - give you
a number. This was the Neutral Linings bundle, so this really is lining fabric. It's all that sort
of thin, silky, but papery kind of fabric. And then here is the fabric I bought. It is a lace in blue.
Oooo! On the front side it has like shimmery, sparkly thread. That's really pretty. So yeah, again, not
like as exciting to me as a trip to Remainders or as Swanson's was, but definitely worth checking
out, especially if you live in Kansas, and you can go to their actual brick and mortar store. Y'all,
I gotta take a road trip sometime and just go to every single fabric thrift store in America.
'Twould be amazing. Next up, this is a little different. This is not necessarily secondhand or
thrifted or deadstock - this is vintage fabric. So this is from Backroom Finds, which, if you've been
around YouTube, you may know as Stephanie Canada. She has a channel here, she's delightful, definitely
go check out her videos. But she is specifically a vintage fabric reseller. So the prices are not
going to be Remainders, Swanson's, thrift store prices. So that's just good to keep in mind that
you really shouldn't expect the same price points when you go to a vintage seller as you do when
you go to a thrift seller, or as you should when you go to a deadstock seller. These are really
three different categories of fabric sale, and the prices will reflect that. That being said, she
had the option to look at all of the fabric and price it low to high, so for me personally, I just
did that, and I knew what my cut off was, and where I wasn't willing to pay a higher price, and I found
some great stuff. She's also really well known for selling vintage patterns, which obviously, I'm not
really a pattern person, but if you are, she has amazing stock of vintage patterns in all different
sizes, so definitely check her out for that. I got two materials from her (hueah) in large quantity, cause
y'all know how much I love a large quantity of fabric. This stuff was so unique... I don't know, I
just wanted it. It is a knit fabric, but the stretch is pretty light, and y'all - look how fun that is. I
believe I have... yes, seven yards of this. You can go right here. And then I got this beautiful peach
herringbone fabric. I have four yards of this. I recall this being just sort of on the cheaper side,
one of the cheapest things that she had listed at the time, and I was like... that's beautiful,
I love that. Shipping for her was $12.25. We are on opposite sides of America, and it arrived in 9
days - again, not bad. So this, I believe, was about $4 a yard, which is why I jumped at the chance. $4 is
like my "that's cheap fabric" place. And then this one was $10 a yard. More than I would typically
pay for fabric, but I really liked it, so I went for it. We have one more... unboxing. As you can see,
it's actually an unbagging, because this one is a little different than the others. They have an
online store called The Fabric Market. They also have a brick and mortar called F&M Fabrics,
and when I looked it up, I was like, oh look... it's in California. It's an hour and a half away
from me. I couldn't bring myself to pay shipping when I could just drive an hour and a half, so I
took a little road trip. But they have an online store. I don't think their online store has as
much stuff as the brick and mortar store, cause y'all, let me tell you, that place was huge, and it
was stocked. [Hold for info noise] But if you're not in California or near this store, they have an online site,
and it has similar prices. From what I could tell after visiting and then looking at the website again,
it looks like they add an extra dollar onto all of their online prices, which is fair. Keeping up an
online store is a lot of work. This looks like it's just a little family run business, so it's fair
to me to raise the price a little bit when you're selling it online, and even at that slightly raised
price, they had pretty good prices y'all. My biggest problem in the store was just being overwhelmed by
choice. I will be making that pilgrimage again in the future. Not anytime soon, because y'all, I have
a lot of fabric, but hoo! 'Twas good. So yeah, on this one, I can't give you any info on how fast the
shipping was or what the shipping costs were, but all in all, just based on their prices in general,
I'd say check em out. They have some good stuff. Remember that pleated skirt that I made a couple
weeks ago? I actually bought this fabric to make that skirt out of, so I got eight yards of it cause
I was like, ooh it's drapey and so beautiful. I mean, look at that color: stunning. Got it home, and I
was like, let me go ahead and do a burn test on this. What does it mean? This is uncharacteristically... informed of me, I guess,
but I think this is mercerized cotton. I could be entirely wrong, but it seems like a natural fiber.
It did not melt, it burned. And as we learned in that video, it's kind of better to do pleats on
a polyester, because then they actually stay. So I ended up going back to some black fabric that
I had, and then I was like, oh my god - I wanted to do eight yards of pleating?? I had half that amount,
and it was still insane. So thank god I did not use this. But anyway, here's the first thing I got
from them. Gorgeous. And this was $3.99 a yard. Their prices ranged a lot more than Remainders, but
they had a lot of "Remainders level" prices, and what I liked is in the store, they had them organized
by like aisle, so you could just go down one aisle, and it would be like everything on this aisle was
$2.99 or everything on this aisle was $5.99. Sorry, I know at this point I'm talking about the actual
brick and mortar store, and this is supposed to be about the online store, but y'all, phh, I just have to say:
it was awesome! So yeah, they had like linen for uh $5.99 I think, and then if you look on the website,
it's linen for $6.99. They had minky, which I did not know what that was until I saw it in the
store, that was like $12.99. They had like some home decor fabrics that were like $20 a yard. So
they did range, and they had some more expensive stuff, but they also had a lot of stuff that was
$4 a yard or even $3, and then some clearance stuff for $2 a yard. This was one of the clearance
things. Um, it's a terry cloth with cherries on it. I really want to make like terry cloth coveralls -
that's been in the back of my head for a while - but then like I never buy terry cloth, and I saw
this, and I was like what the crap? It's actually a really cute, bright print on terry cloth, which I
feel like I never see. I figured this was a good opportunity to get some linen, because linen is
just not something I have a lot of in my stash. I'm usually not willing to pay for it. $5.99 a yard -
sure, why not? This one... I just love it. It's this beautiful, light, drapey fabric. Chiffon-isn, maybe? I
don't know about fabrics. But it's so pretty, and it's so light and drapey. $4 a yard. Speaking light
and drapey in blue and white: y'all, is that not so beautiful? I mean, talk about cottagecore. This is
kind of what I had to look for there is stuff that just caught my eye, and this one caught my eye
out of so many other things. So beautiful. Again, $4 a yard, and I was able to get however much I
wanted of this stuff, cause they had giant rolls of it, so like six, seven yards, just in case I want
to make giant swooshy dresses. (Because you know I want to make giant swooshy dresses - when do I not?)
I think I'm just attracted to plaids that are in different colors than you typically see. Like a
purple, yellow, and lime green plaid - I've never seen that before. $4 a yard. I got some plain black,
sort of lightly-ribbed knit. Again, like with the linen, I was like, oo this is a good opportunity
to get a chunk of "utility fabric" almost. Just like a handy fabric that is nice to have. And then
this very soft and lovely, once again blue and white knit. Blue and white was clearly what was
standing out to me the most there. This one... I'm not going to go into it, but I had like a light
idea in my head, and I was like, this would be a fun fabric to do it out of, so I got three yards
of that, $4 a yard. I am very, very happy with this collection of fabric here, mainly because it's
such bright fun colors (except for the black and white). Ooohuh. So again, I highly recommend checking
them out in person - I highly recommend checking out any of the ones that you could in person. Massachusetts,
Kansas, California. But their prices are definitely great on their site as well, and we're talking
big chunks of fabric you can get here, more like deadstock levels of fabric, but cheaper prices than
what I was finding on any deadstock specific store. I do have a few honorable mentions: places that
I did not purchase fabric from, because y'all, I had to stop somewhere, but that still came
up during my searches, so I just wanted to mention them. But y'all, that is it for me for now.
I think I should probably... not buy fabric for a while. I'm not big on like grand gesture sort of
things, like I'm not going to buy any new fabric for the entire year. That's kind of hard to do,
because I just have specific projects sometimes. But I will say, I think I should avoid buying
fabric for just the random funsies of it for quite a while now. I am so thrilled with all of
these purchases though. I hope that this has been super helpful for you, if you have been looking
for secondhand fabric, for deadstock fabric, just for cheaper fabric in general, I hope these are
great resources for you. Thanks for giving me a reason to share them and therefore buy a ton of
fabric. And I am off to stash all of this in my fabric closet, which is currently still just piles
of fabric. When am I going to put shelves in there? Hoo! That's a question for another video. We're just gonna talk- [hideous throat clearing] A few people- Sorry. [Dramatic gasp] Everything is fine. Hoo ha hee hoo ha [Slicing sound] Ah.
[More slicing sounds] Ow. Danger. [Puppy burp] Oo burpees. Ooh I gotta wedgie. [More happy doopy doopy doos]
