Fabric Stores

I sew a lot of traditional Japanese clothing, and I’m a dyer as well. I often get asked where I source textiles. Here is a list of everywhere I’ve found good things. Some of it is very hit or miss (like the thrift stores). Some of it is extremely expensive, but very high quality. Hopefully you’ll be able to find something for your budget.

Discount & Deadstock

• Swanson’s Fabric – a thrift fabric store where everything is $5/yd.
• Paper City Fabrics – a thrift fabric store where everything is 4/yd. Thank you, Rayne on the Known Worlds Server.
• Lucky Deluxe Fabrics – another thrift store, another thank you to Rayne
• Queen of Raw – a deadstock fabric store, mostly wholesale, but really good quality. Check out the “low minimums” section.
• Denver Fabrics – buys designer overstock and resells them at low prices. They have several other “fronts” but are all the same store, like ‘fashion fabrics club’.
• Fabric Mart Fabrics – same business model as above, regularly has 60% off sales.
• Fabric Guru – lots of discount upholstery fabrics. Note: upholstery fabric is not for your body, it is often treated with weird chemicals and far too heavy a wieght. If you need heavy cloth, order high gsm hemp or learn to line garments.
• Loom Showroom – local to me store with lots of deadstock and discount upholstery. Also carries nice Japanese cotton prints.
• Core Fabrics – Sustainability focused fabric store that carries a lot of deadstock fabrics. Nice chambray linens, silks and viscoses.
• Beinoniny – Ebay seller with closeout designer fabrics. Consistently carries heavyweight silks for under $15/meter.
• The Fabric Market – Store in California that sells deadstock fabrics. Has a ‘linen’ and ‘silk’ section that’s consistently under $10/yd. Super nice people, they refund shipping overages.

Cottons

• Stone Mountain Fabric – lots of good, basic fabrics.
• Bansyo – Akane and Indigo dyeing.
• Rochester Textile – carries good Japanese prints from sevenberry.
• Traditional Fabric Mill – Cotton and Hemp woven in Japan on traditional looms.
• Toraya Fabric – just a basic Japanese fabric store that carries nice Japanese domestic plaid fabric.
• TM Fabric – another basic Japanese fabric store that carries nice domestic fabrics.
• HonNoKuniYa – has some nice Mikawa cottons I’ve used for hakama.
• Fukuneko-ya – narrow Loom Organic Cottons

Bast Fibers

• Fabrics Store – This is where the SCA gets most of their linen. I recommend it with some reservations. It is a good store in that it always has something close to the color you are looking for, there is an offering of stone washed linen for sensitive skin, and it ships quickly in the US. The disadvantages are that the linen doesn’t seem to hold up as well/pills more than longer staple linen from other sources, there are not a lot of classical Japanese colors, and it seems expensive (to me) for the quality. In a pinch I often use the handkerchief linen for dyeing, and it’s absolutely fine. You can almost always get a 38% discount on the white linen like this or this or this.
• Belfast Linen From Spechler Vogel (look for dealers) – Probably the best linen for undergarments. So well made it has a silky sheen. Fine, fine weave. Great for people with sensory issues.
• Dealer for Spechler Vogel Linen – This is the cheapest price on the internet for the above linen.
• Siliheco – Chinese hemp dealer. They used to be on Ebay but moved to etsy. Their actual website is a dumpster fire. Their plain hemps are exceptionally high quality.
• Hemp Traders – specifically, the 2.2 oz is really good and the canvas is really good and tough.
• The Hemp Lab – Fine, excellent quality Indian Hemp. If something is out of stock, email them. I recommend getting the swatch book. They also have many nice blends with other textiles like linen and lyocell.
• Rawganique – organic textiles from an ethics-conscious vendor. Really good hemp for upholsteries and heavy wear.
• 李跃淋 – Bolts and bolts of high quality linen, hemp and ramie at very low prices. Think ‘fell off the back of Uncle Wu’s truck’.
• 亚麻世家 – Bedding hemp, super soft and super wide. Wide enough you can order a full body panel length and waste very little cloth.
• nh448 – Their ramie is high quality, crisp and smooth.
• Hideki – Japanese store that sells a lot of high quality linens and cottons, some indigo dyed.
• Purl Soho – Watercolor linen is particularly beautiful if a bit scratchy. There’s cheaper places to get it, but they consistently stock it. They also consistently have all the liberty tana lawns.
• Dharma Trading – Decent quality cheap hemps and silks.
• 布久以逅 – Digitally printed ramie, nice patterns, a lot of stuff that’s nice for tang/song/nara.
• 芸裳布行 – Digitally printed ramie, nice patterns, a lot of stuff that’s nice for tang/song/nara.
• SortSun Ramie – Good underwear ramie.
• Sartor Bohemia – Reenactment focused linen and ramie.
• Renaissance Fabrics – Reenactment focused linens.
• Gray Line Linen – This comes at the recommendation of Ts’vee’a. High quality linen.
• WM Booth, Draper – reenactment wools and some linens, too. Thank you, Rose Marian.
• Pure Silks – lots of nice linen, and hemp, with the lea listed. The allows you to gauge the quality much more easily.
• The Fabric Factory – Indian fabric supplier with silks and linens.
• Linen Lab – High quality linens from korea. Can frequently find good colors and patterns.
• Aoni – Handwoven bast fiber supplier in Japan. Has unusual fibers like abaca, pina, and more. Prices are high because most of the fabric is loomed by hand. A good place to source noren fabric.

Wools

• Royal Blue Traders – you need to email/message them on facebook. The owner is a professional historical tailor that has done work for museums.
• Renaissance Fabrics – Re-enactment focused wools.
• Sartor Bohemia – Re-enactment focused wools.
• WM Booth, Draper – reenactment wools and some linens, too. Thank you, Rose Marian.

Silks

• Tosen – Kimono Bolt Outlet, Some Unfinished Kimono too! All new bolts, and they will wash them for you as well and tailor them. Some irregular and “tailoring practice” bolts at deep discounts.
• Wahukuyatoku – Recycled Kimono Bolts.
• Tokuan – Silk Brocade. Probably the only place to find japan-made period, true silk brocade for those heian gowns.
• Yukata Shop – irregular but new bolts. So far nothing has had a musty/mothball smell, so this is a good place to order if you have chemical sensitivities but like vintage kimono silk.
• Exotic Silks (Wholesale, 15m orders)
• Dharma Trading
• 方大丝绸 – Chinese silk vendor that carries most modern weaves in 100s of colors. Good prices.
• 吴罗织造 – fine jacquards and brocades, lots of rinzu and classical Chinese styles.
• 再源絲綢 – lots of nice “rinzu” jacquards/damasks. Be careful, lots of blends.
• 金凤凰丝绸 – lots of printed silks, and silks with gold foil woven on top. I’d go here for some cool summer silks, especially outer layers.
• 喜布坊 – Brocades, some synthetics, check the fibre content.
• 丽妲官方企业店 – Modern weave basic silks, and silk jacquards.
• PRISM Silks – Modern USA based silk vendor with fair prices and a lot of color selection.
• Indian Laces and Fabrics – Indian rayon/silk brocades and other high fashion fabrics. Some designs are geometric enough to be japanese.
• Forest Fabric – Mostly synthetic japanese brocades. Good for obi.
• Renaissance Fabrics – Some nice silks here, re-enactment focused.
• Sartor Bohemia – Reenactment brocades and silks. Of real interest are the historical brocades. The non-historical ones are all over taobao/aliexpress.
• Tatsumura – silk brocades. They reproduce some shoshoin patterns, but I haven’t see how to order yardage on the site, just finished items.
• Pure Silks – lots of nice silks, mostly standard offerings, fair prices.
• Fabric Factory – Indian silks, including 19 momme habotai in red.
• Sogdian Crafts – Uzbek silk ikat directly from Tashkent.
• 祥丝语绸艺 – Printed and woven classical designs. Has some traditional brocades like the ones from the shosoin.
• 金小猪zzz真丝布料全品类卖家 – More printed and woven classical designs alongside basic silks.
• 圣家宜纺织 – Classical chinese and japanese brocades, please check for fiber content

Chinese Remnant Stores

These are stores on taobao that sell overstock silks and designer fabrics. They are for garments where you can tolerate flaws – linings, work clothes, dye projects, and experimentation. Do not buy these and complain to me that they are not suitable for your fancy dress or elevation garb. Use a broker that will take pictures for you to make these purchases if you are worried about the outcome.

If you can’t find want you want in these stores, these search parameters should help for finding silk remnants.

• 雨花布店 – Remnant silks and some woolens.
• 希希布坊 – Remnant silks, super wrinkled.
• 小蓝真丝布业 – Remnant silks.
• 叶子布店 – Remnant silks and fine woolens.
• 七彩之韵旗舰店 – Remnant and discount silks.
• 福鑫通服装特卖 – Remnant and discount silks.

Places To Go When You are Desperate and Wealthy

• Miss Matatabi – many of these fabrics are cheaper on rakuten or amazon jp, by A LOT.
• B and J Fabrics – this is a good place to find fabrics you like and then buy them elsewhere.
• Mood Fabrics
• Merchant and Mills
• G Street Fabrics
• Etsy – everything here is marked up because of the 13+% commission Etsy takes and because the target demo is wealthy older white women. Find things you like here and google them.
• Britex – Another place like B and J, which has everything, but its extremely expensive.

I have a great store that isn’t listed!

Awesome! Click the contact me button on the homepage and email me the site, I’ll add it and credit you. Or leave a comment!