Cheap fabrics for dressmaking

I’m not a big sewer but I do like to buy fabric occasionally for certain crafting projects and for miscellaneous mending needs. The trouble is that most of the time the fabric you can get at regular fabric stores is way too expensive to make it worth buying and making anything out of! Now I’m sure that many of you that are bigger sewers than I am and you have more tips than this so make sure to share them with the rest of us in the comments section as well.

As far as price goes, I've found that your non-traditional fabric buying options are best, however, as far as selection goes you may need to stick with a regular fabric store and just rely on the coupons they provide. Here is a list of cheap places to buy fabric that you can try!

Garage Sales.

This doesn't happen all the time but occasionally I will be able to find fabric (mostly scrap) at garage sales. I’ve noticed that if a sale is going to have a good amount of fabric it is generally advertised in their newspaper ad. If you don't see any ads that speak directly about fabric, look for garage sale ads advertising a "nick nack" or miscellaneous sale. Garage sales that are advertising children's clothing and similar items are generally not the place to look for fabric.

Senior Center Sales.

This one is similar to garage sales above but one put on in a senior center. We have one of these sales yearly in my area at a large senior center and it usually has a huge table full of all kinds of fabric! If you like to repurpose old fabric for projects this is also a great place to look for that. Many older clothing garments were made of a more quality fabric than you can find on clothing now and it works well for repurposing projects.

Thrift Stores.

This is usually a fairly reliable source of inexpensive fabric. All of the local thrift stores I can think of have a nice “crafting” section that usually has dozen of bundles of fabric. These bundles are a little more expensive than the previous 2 options, but as I said, you have a pretty good chance at getting fabric at a thrift store whereas rummage sales and senior center sales can be hit and miss. I’ve even found some fairly large amounts of fabric at thrift stores not just scrap pieces. ! You get a large piece of fabric that is usually priced pretty low. I love making Rag Rugs out of old sheets.

The Fabric Store.

Wait…didn’t I just say that fabric stores were expensive? Well they can be, but like in all stores, there are always ways to find a deal! Look for clearance racks of discontinued patterns. Some fabric stores also hold sales were you can find half price deals on the “regular” fabrics, however the best luck I’ve had at finding deals is shopping the clearance.