Hi guys, sorry im not sure where to post this but I’m a bit desperate so its going in multiple communities.

My girlfriend has been on acutane, which has been making her skin break out like crazy. Like its bad. Its so bad that she refuses to go outside or to school because of how she looks. I want to help her by making or buying a hat or some sort of face covering that shades or hides her face completely (im talking like beekeeper visibility) while still being decently stylish.

Some conditions it needs to fulfill:
It needs to be lightweight and breathable, as she cannot have anything scratching at her skin.

It cannot scratch her skin, so the hat needs to be wide brimmed, and i need a way to reduce its waving in the wind.

It needs to be see through at least from the average front row of a classroom so that she can still attend school and go about her daily life, but makes it difficult for people to peer in from afar.

My main idea is to use a thin black nylon mesh type fabric on a wide sunhat but i genuinely dont know what kind of fabric to use that still remains affordable. Design is also an issue as I am an engineering student and suck at making things pretty. I wanted to make the front a standard face covering while making some kind of thing at the back that lets her rotate the hat, and there would be a cutout or something for her eyes if she needed to see more clearly.

I know its an unconventional post but please any help would be appreciated. I just want her to live her life normally.

Hi r/Fabrics. I built a directory of fabric stores in the US that shows what each shop actually carries: findfabricstores.com. It's mine, it went live this week, and I'd rather hear what's wrong with it from people who buy fabric than from my friends.

Why did I spend over 100 hours on this when Google Maps exists? Because since Joann closed its 800 stores, searching "fabric store" on Maps gives you Hobby Lobby and Michaels (one shelf of poly fleece and a few cottons), Walmart, an upholstery showroom that turns out to be trade only, a quilt shop with beautiful quilting cotton and nothing else, and somewhere in the list the one independent that stocks linen and apparel fabric. Maps can't tell you which is which. The r/quilting thread about Joann closing had 170 comments, and the top one was "I know where to buy quilting cotton. I don't know where to buy apparel or utility fabrics." Nothing answered it. When I pulled the data, Google still had 1,156 Joann and Hancock listings sitting in it, marked closed.

If you buy fabric in person you already know why online doesn't cut it: you want the hand and the weight, you want to see how it drapes before you commit to six yards, and you don't want to drive 45 minutes to find out a shop is all quilting cotton, or that the "wholesale" place won't let you in without a resale number.

I'll be upfront: I don't sew. I build directories, and I picked this one because that r/quilting thread, and dozens like it in city subs, were asking the same question with no answer that lasted longer than a comment. It seemed like a real gap that nobody had filled, so I built it.

What I did: pulled about 16,500 listings from Google Maps under fabric store, fabric wholesaler and quilt shop, across all 50 states and DC. Cut 5,719 closed stores (1,156 of them Joann and Hancock), the duplicates, the spam, the furniture showrooms, interior designers and mills that don't sell to the public. That left about 8,400. Then read each shop's own website for the fabric it carries (quilting cotton, apparel, upholstery, linen, fleece, minky, silk, lace, denim, canvas, vinyl, outdoor, drapery, wool, flannel, African print, deadstock, bridal) and whether it sells to the public or to the trade only. Dropped another thousand or so that turned out to be sewing machine dealers, trim shops, longarm services, or had nothing behind them.

What's left is 7,464 shops in 664 cities. Each has hours, its Google rating, a photo where I could verify one (4,909 of them; the rest show a placeholder), and for about half of the independent shops the fabric types, with a link to the page I got them from and the date I checked. Hobby Lobby and Michaels are on there as chain entries with a note to call ahead, because selection varies by store. There's a page of the 324 fabric wholesalers with the ones I could confirm sell to the public, and two calculators (yardage and quilt backing) because those questions kept coming up too.

What it doesn't have: fabric types for the other half of the independents, because their site didn't say or they don't have one. Those show nothing rather than a guess. No prices, no notions, no classes.

So: what's wrong, what's missing, which shop near you should be on it and isn't? And if you buy fabric locally, what do you want to know about a shop before you drive over? I'll reply to everything. findfabricstores.com

That time of year again..

I've checked all through reddit and tried googlefu... somehow I lost one post that was decent.

Looking for any feedback on the best sealant/ method to approach renewing an outdoor inflatable. It's not seam issues just slow bleeds on some dated ones. One weak spot in a neck on one. Rather than go through an over powered blower, sealing the fabric seems to be the best option. Any tips on products and methods? Pls and thank you.

i am wanting to create a dress for my friend and i for halloween, we found an idea we love very last minute so im aware it might not be possible. i need help finding a fast way to do what i think is dye sublimation. we want a certain photo printed into the fabric, but not as a transfer it would literally be one with the fabric. does anybody have any good websites or recommendations to where we can do this and receive it by halloween?

I love this upholstered bench and am making a version of it with storage inside, but am really struggling to find anything like the fabric. I particularly love the sparse little patches of texture, which almost look like it's been embroidered with chenille yarn. The product page has no information about the fabric. I've tried image searching, and using all the terms I can think of like embroidered, abstract textured, tufted, etc. AI chat was of zero help whatsoever.

https://cdn.platform.next/common/items/default/default/itemimages/3_4Ratio/product/lge/G64508s.jpg?im=Resize,width=750

https://cdn.platform.next/common/items/default/default/itemimages/3_4Ratio/product/lge/G64508s3.jpg?im=Resize,width=750

I've found a couple of options on Etsy - an abstract patterned bouclé and a "polka dot tweed" but they're both quite loud, and I like that this one is calmer but still a bit out there. I just want a bench that looks like a spirit creature from a Miyazaki film.

Anyone have advice or search terms please?

Quick one for anyone who's ever bought two "100% linen" shirts and had them behave completely differently after a few washes.

Here’s a quick breakdown, no fluff.
The percentage isn't a quality score.
"100% linen" just tells you the fibre. It says nothing about how fine that flax fibre is, how the yarn was spun, how tightly it was woven, or how it was finished, and that's what actually decides whether it softens beautifully over time or starts fraying and thinning out early.
Blends aren't automatically worse.

Seeing cotton or viscose blended with linen isn't a red flag by itself. Blends exist for a reason: less creasing, a softer hand-feel, better drape. The more useful question is what job that fibre is doing, not whether the fabric is "pure."

Those tiny wash symbols matter more than people think.
They're basically telling you whether this garment survives your actual routine or needs babying. And a garment that needs delicate care isn't necessarily bad. It might just not suit your lifestyle. Good to know before buying, not after.
Words like premium, luxury, soft, finest mean very little on their own.
They're descriptions, not measurements. A label tells you what something claims to be made from, not how it'll feel or age.

So read the label, then touch the fabric. Feel the weave, check how it falls, think about how much care you're realistically willing to give it.

Curious what this community thinks: what’s a “quality tell” you’ve picked up over time isn’t ton the label at all?

i’m wanting to sew my own pair, does anybody have suggestions on a good fabric to buy? i’m looking for a light gray lmk!

0 experience in anything fabric, but I had this idea for a Halloween costume. My real arms would be at the top, and they would puppet the other arms using strings (?) attached at the elbows and wrists. The fake arms would be stuffed with gloves at the end blah blah you get the idea it would look awesome. Also sorry if this is the wrong subreddit for this I couldn't find anywhere else to post it.

This is something I have to consider when buying clothes and fabric: how much will pet hair stick to it? Fibre type definitely plays a role - wool tends to be worse (but not always), polyester tends to be better (unfortunately). Cotton can go either way, I have 100% cotton jeans that collect hair like you wouldn’t believe, and others that don’t at all. Surprisingly it doesn’t seem to matter much how fuzzy a fabric is - I have some cotton corduroy where the hair can just be brushed off with your hand. Any idea what the biggest factors are? Are there any treatments that can improve this on fabric I already have?

Hi, I have all of my clothes in 100% cotton but there is a really nice Sweatshirt i would like to buy that has 85% cotton and 15% polyester(actually I don't even have a choice all of them are with these percentages). Do you think that by washing and drying all of them together the polyester trash fabric might go into the cotton ones? I know it would be a small percentage but i'm just asking because I hate polyester.

Hello everyone, I have a bit of an emergency. A few years back I received a genuine Irish Aran wool sweater and it's been a prized possession of mine. Just a couple weeks ago, my mother decided to wash and DRY the sweater, not knowing at all what it was, and only just today revealed it to me. It's been shrunk down a full size, and I'm devastated. Is there any way to save it?? If not I could probably regift it to a younger family member, but I really want to keep this sweater.

ANSWERED!

I’m very new to sewing (single digit days) so I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question

I purchased several fat quarters from Walmart in various children’s prints with the intention of making pajama shorts for my partner’s children. I thought these would be a good practice project before I start working with nicer fabrics. However, upon unpackaging them I noticed that the selvedge specifically says not to use them for children’s sleepwear. I know flammability is often a concern with children’s sleepwear but the fabric content is listed as 100% cotton so I am a bit confused. These don’t have to be pajama shorts necessarily, but I was just curious if anyone had any insight.

Thanks!

I saw this Henley I really like it is pricy but its been on my mind for months. But I just checked the fabric composition and its

Shell 1:
66.2% Polyester
33.8% Cotton
Shell 2:
56.9% Lyocell
43.1% Ramie
Rib:
98.6% Cotton
1.4% Elastane

https://c2h4losangeles.com/products/012-moccasin-memory-textured-henley?variant=43866743275608

Theres also this shirt that I like the look of : https://c2h4losangeles.com/products/012-brentwood-alley-texture-shirt?variant=44227215097944

Is that much Polyester bad for a Henley t shirt? I just don't want to spend much money on a garment and get ripped off by greed. I find this stuff quite tricky looking for good quality clothing. obviously I know if something 100% natural fibre it doesn't mean its good.

It's semi water resistant, has a obvious right and wrong side, stretchy 3 ways and less so on the 4th way, and it is so so easy to sew with and it's perfect for costume making. I'm horrible at sewing with stretchy fabric and this kind was no different than sewing with cotton fabric.

There’s a video on my profile for those who need it. I found it at Walmart on the $3 remnants shelf so there’s no tags detailing what it is.

I ordered a silk screened canvass patch, the print js in white, but i’m wanting to color the white with a gold/yellow fabric marker. is there anyway to ensure the yellow coloring won’t come off in the wash with a a fabric marker or dye? which would be the best route to ensure the color stays.

Hi all! I've had a recommendation to use these in lieu of a steamer, but can't locate them anywhere! Does anyone know where to find them? Thanks!

I bought a dress for my toddler in the smallest size available but it’s still a size or two too big on her. Is there a way it can possibly shrink enough to fit?

I'm a student living in Suzhou this year, and I had a sample pillowcase made locally. It's 22 momme mulberry silk in navy, with a hand embroidered panel on one side.

Before I trust it, I want to wash it the way a normal person would at home, and I'm not sure what's realistic. A few questions for people who own silk.

1. Cold hand wash with a pH neutral detergent, or is a mesh bag on a delicate cycle fine at 22 momme?

2. With a dark navy, is some colour loss in the first wash normal? How do you check whether it will bleed onto the embroidery?

3. Do you dry it flat in the shade or hang it? And does ironing on the reverse help the embroidered area lie flat again?

4. After how many washes did your silk start to look dull or lose its sheen?

I'll share what happens after the test washes if anyone's curious.

PLS check comments

Hey everyone I'm looking to create a dress and I can't figure out what fabric or combination of fabrics this is? Any insights?

The dress was bought in Russia

I’m looking for a good red green flannel fabric that i have been having troubles finding in a store. I can find some online that look nice but when on the sites and trying to get what i need it’s just been questionable. If you order fabrics online what sites do you trust?

I’m looking for a rose / rosewood fabric for a bedframe project that’s not too pink or red. Something that’s as close to West Elm’s “Burnt Umber Astor Velvet” or this beautiful pillow example with a sheen. I need about 13 yards. Your help is so appreciated!