Less is more

Occasionally, there comes a time when you have to source something that you know you like to source, but that might seem rather boring to others.  For me, this would be plain old solid cotton fabric: pretty much my favorite thing to sew with.  Being slightly afraid of prints, it is really nice to be able to go out and have such a huge selection of lovely solids to choose from.  And not only just regular solid fabric: you have all sorts of weights, all sorts of textures and about a million colors right at your fingertips.

Personally, I prefer getting a solid that has a little bit of stretch to it because I think that having a little give makes a fabric easier to work with.  The solids with stretch also sometimes have a slight sheen to them which gives the fabric a little more depth than a matte solid fabric.  Mood (37th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues), of course, has a nice selection of solid cotton fabrics in many different colors.  They mostly have mid-weight, stretch cotton in amazing colors.  The biggest issue I have with Mood, is the fact that this particular section of bolts (located in the back far right of the store) is incredibly disorganized.  There are two areas for the fabric on opposite sides of the aisle: one side of the isle is nicely color coordinated, while the other side of the aisle has no rhyme or reason.  All the colors are mixed together which makes it really difficult to find what you want.  If you are willing to overlook that problem, the prices are right overall.  They range from about $8 to $14 per yard, depending on if it's plain or some sort of specialty cotton.  I did find this really awesome fabric that is black on one side, and sparkly on the other side for only $10 per yard which I thought was a steal considering that the back had some neat detailing.  I will admit though, that the nicer the feel of the fabric, generally the more expensive it will be.

Another place I like to go for my wonderful solids, is Elegant (on 40th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues).  The selection at this store is laid out much better, as it is all color coded.  A minor problem I have with this particular fabric venue is the fact that, even though the colors are lumped together, so are all of the different contents.  These are not just plain old cotton solids: there's polyester, there's rayon, there's stretch and non-stretch.  It can get a little overwhelming because you really have to make sure that you thoroughly feel every fabric to make sure it's exactly what you want.  You do have to do a little searching for the actual section because there are about a million nooks and crannies in this store, but the aisle you want is in the second to last aisle on the left, closer to the middle cutting tables.  The price range here is actually a good deal more expensive than Mood: anywhere from about $14 to $25 per yard on pretty much the same fabrics.

I would also always suggest popping into a couple of the much smaller, lesser known stores.  They don't have the selection, but their advantage is that they sometimes have fabrics that the bigger stores won't.  Also, if you hit the right one, you might be able to talk down the price a little bit.  The ones below are a couple of good ones.  The man who owns Fabrics Garden (39th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues, up a few steps) is a really nice guy.  If you go in enough times, he starts to recognize you and he will negotiate with you.  Swan Fabrics (39th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues) I've only been to a couple of times.  It is a VERY small store and the people who own the store can be a little bit pushy but I have found some really nice things there for very reasonable prices.

And just for a little something different, here is a picture of a dress I made out of solid cotton stretch fabric which I purchased from Mood for $8 per yard.  It is a really nice medium weight, mustard yellow cotton/spandex.