Vintage Fabric - Fresh off the bolt!

One of the destinations on our recent trip to New York City, was the Brooklyn General Store. Dear Sis found reference to it somewhere and did the research and it turned out that it was not too far (or too many subway stops, at least) from where we were staying, so that was on the agenda for day one.

Luckily, because day two was kind of washed out due to a combination of colds, fatigue and parking challenges.

Brooklyn General is a very old storefront, with old fashioned fixtures and furnishings, but also very modern selections of all things yarn-ery, embroidery and fabric. They also have some lovely (but VERY high-end) wool blankets - nothing that I would dream of cutting up to make a coat! They also had some wonderful wool socks, that came in different sizes (because feet are not all one size!)

DS carried her camera that day, so I didn't take mine. She has posted a photo

here, of us with Mary, a 'previously unmet' friend from Snitnknit, who took some photos of the inside of the store (and posted them here

).

In my opinion, Brooklyn General Store provided the ultimate souvenir of New York City!

Fat quarter bundles of 'new old stock' vintage fabric.

I had a terrible dilemma! Should I buy the fat quarter assortments (five fq's for $20) or yardage straight off the bolt!?!

Yes, they had bolts of vintage fabric!

Really beautiful vintage cotton!

They were originally from a store on Long Island. The original price was less than 25 cents a yard, if I recall. These days, the price is $20 a yard. At first, I thought that I would buy three or four half yard cuts of a few of my favorites, but I couldn't narrow it down to just three or four...

This was one of the faves, though. It is not a large print, the photo is a section about 8" across. I didn't even notice the people and the houses until I took the photos!

This was another favorite. The photo shows about 6" of the print.

I love the combination of grey with the other colors.

So then I noticed the blue and grey fabric and the grey 'animal print' spots with the yellow flowers and I decided to get an assortment of fq bundles. The price 'per yard' was a bit less with the bundles, anyway, and you know how I am about a bargain!

I bought three bundles and two pair of the fabulous wool knee high socks.

Between the three bundles, I ended up with multiples of the prints in the top row of the photo and just one each of the others.

Even though $16 a yard is not a crazy price for vintage fabric, calling it a souvenir made it a lot easier to splurge.

But now, I am thinking that I might ask Ms A if she planned to be in that neighborhood again, any time soon...