Wardrobe by Walmart

I did not expect to be buying apparel fabric at Walmart, but it’s 2022 and nothing is normal. May I present the Harper Cardigan in what I believe is a rayon French terry:

(That is not a pleat in the front band, just a trick of the light.) This is not polyester fabric, of that I am sure. Rayon and polyester both can be slinky, but polyester has a plasticky feel to it that rayon lacks. This fabric was a delight to sew. It’s thin and drapey, but because it’s a micro French terry, it has more body than would a rayon spandex knit.

I LOVE THIS CARDIGAN. I put it on and did not want to take it off. Could I have five more in bright jewel tones?

The Harper Cardigan is a free pattern from Sinclair Designs and has gone straight to the top of my tried-and-true pile. This pattern is worth paying for, so if you go there to download it, please consider buying one or two (or more!) of their excellent patterns. All are well designed, well written, and are accompanied by lots of clear color photos. I made the size 14 in Regular (the patterns come in Petite and Tall versions, too) and the fit is perfect. The is the Classic length. The pattern also has options for cropped, long, and duster length versions. I spent about two hours on it. The construction is simple and straightforward. Everything was done on the serger because the hem, cuffs, and front neckline are banded.

Royal blue seems to be dominating my closet at the moment, which is fine as it is one of my favorite colors. And now I have two royal blue cardigans, although I would be tempted to reach for this one more often, I think. The royal blue waterfall cardigan consists of so much fabric that it feels overwhelming in a way that my black one doesn’t. That might change after I alter the fronts to remove some of the excess, but I haven’t done that yet.

I also have a three-yard length of some rayon spandex from the Walmart rack in a gorgeous raspberry color that I think I’m going to make into a long-sleeve Laundry Day Tee with a cowl, just for fun.

This next top is a Nancy Raglan from 5 out of 4 Patterns. This pattern is also in the tried-and-true pile. I’ve made two others. The main fabric is Robert Kaufman Trainers fleece, purchased at The Confident Stitch in Missoula. (Someone needs to get out the steamer.)

When I cut this out, I discovered that I did not have quite enough of the Trainers fleece for the two-layer cowl. I wasn’t even sure I had enough for one layer, so I set it all aside for a couple of days. While I was at Walmart the other day, cleaning out the Rack of Mystery Fabric, I spotted this lighter green heather knit (another rayon, I think), and decided that at $3 for two yards, I could take it home to see if it coordinated with the fleece. After a bit of origami, I was able to get one layer of the cowl from the fleece. (Plan B would have been to use two layers of the light green knit with interfacing.) The other layer makes a nice contrast cowl.

I am not a Dark Winter—one of the subseasons of Winter that looks best in darker jewel tones—but I don’t need to dress like a peacock all the time and this is a good color for me, even with the lighter cowl. I like that it is a truer green because I am still rather tired of teal.

[I am such a Robert Kaufman fangirl. I think I have more of their fabric in my stash than just about anything else. (They make Kona.) I wish the fabrics were easier to find.]

This top is going to get a lot of use, I think. I know I am making a ton of clothing right now, but I expect to do another culling once I am done and pare down to just those items I really like and will wear. Also, my two previous Nancy Raglans are looking a bit worn.

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The Craft Industry Alliance newsletter showed up in my inbox yesterday, after I had written my blog post, with a bit more of the backstory behind the Fabric.com closure. This paragraph, in particular, jumped out at me:

About six months ago, Amazon reached out to Fabric.com vendors to say that all fabric would soon need to be sold directly on Amazon.com. Vendors were told to upload all of their products to Amazon in one, three, or five-yard increments, seemingly with no regard to the fact that fabric manufacturers sell wholesale by the roll or bolt, and not by the yard. “They expect us to cut and ship overnight for free,” this executive said. “They don’t understand fabric at all.”

Amazon is a necessary evil in my world as I sell the bulk of my knitting books through them. I’ve specified, repeatedly, that books are sold in case quantities, but that does not keep them from trying to order one book at a time, at wholesale, and expecting me to ship it via UPS, effectively cutting my profit margin to zero. I ignore those orders. I know that Amazon gave financial considerations as a reason for shuttering Fabric.com, but part of me wonders if that was a self-inflicted wound given that Amazon seems to be lumbering around like a bull in a china shop.

The entire retail fabric world feels like it is shifting underneath us. (I am sure that is true of many other industries, too.) We’ll have to wait and see how it shakes out, but change comes with opportunity, and that can be positive.