Fabric Outlet to close in November after nearly 30 years

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Fabric Outlet, the decades-old store on Mission Street for all things sewing — fabrics, trims, notions, yarn and crochet supplies — will close its doors on Nov. 23, its owners announced on Thursday. 

“This decision has been anything but easy,” the owners said in an Instagram post. “Serving you over the years — sharing in your creativity, your projects, and your love for fabrics — has truly been one of the great joys of our lives.”

A closing sale will start on Saturday, Sept. 28, with 40 to 75 percent off on fabrics and trims, and 25 percent off on yarn and crochet supplies. The owners advised customers to arrive early “for the best selection.”

Business has declined since the pandemic, said Gina Cooney, co-owner of Fabric Outlet, in an interview with Mission Local. Located in the basement of 2109 Mission St. at 17th Street, the store has been around since 1995.  

“Every year you’re looking at numbers and thinking, ‘Okay, maybe this is the point it’s going to escalate up.’ And it really hasn’t,” Cooney said. “Every year, it’s gone down just a little bit more.”

Even though fabric shoppers prefer to buy wares in person, feeling and touching the textiles themselves, they shifted their shopping habits during the early months of the pandemic, said Cooney. 

With the store’s lease up at the end of the year, its owners felt it would be risky to commit to another lease, and opted to close. 

“It’s not terribly surprising,” said Ryen Motzek, president of the Mission Merchants Association. It’s a common problem for Mission Street businesses, where the commercial space is usually bigger, and having a larger square footage means paying more rent. “It’s hard for businesses to keep up.”

The store will continue to sell fabrics through its online store, Cali Fabrics. 

One customer comes early to the sale

Walking down the stairs into the Fabric Outlet basement, customers are transported into a colorful world. On the left, there are rolls of textiles and the service counter where employees cut them up. On the right, trinkets like buttons and charms are displayed in plastic boxes, priced at less than a dollar.

“Coming down the stairs always brings a sense of anticipation and wonder,” said Soad Kader, an artist living in the Mission since 1997. 

Kader arrived on Friday afternoon — before the sale started — to guarantee getting the best selection. She had started taking a class at City College on sewing with knits, and had been at Fabric Outlet just a week ago. 

Kader selected some fabrics and put them on hold at the counter: One is a flannel in mustard yellow, and the other a pink fabric with hollowed lace rectangles. “I saw this the other day and didn’t get it, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she said. 

Although Kader had gone on and off with sewing over the years, she has always incorporated fabrics in her collage art, and Fabric Outlet has been her neighborhood store for years. 

“It’s always fun. You come here and see these colors and fabrics,” Kader said. “It’s a source of inspiration in and out of itself.” 

‘Every kind of sewer’

“There’s every version of sewer that comes through the doors here,” Cooney, the store’s owner, said. 

There are expert seamstresses, who need someone to cut their fabric, no questions asked. But beginning sewers also come in and ask about what needles and thread to use for a specific type of material, or how to fix a broken sewing machine. 

And Fabric Outlet plays a part in people’s creative projects too, Cooney said. This was evident on Friday: A photographer, with his camera strapped on, was shopping for a backdrop for portraits. Just this morning, someone bought a bunch of lace to make an eight-foot-tall corset display as a period piece. 

For Anne Hwang, Fabric Outlet is a place that contributed to her family memories. She’s been coming to the store for 15 years, and she made her then-6-year-old daughter a travel bag for her first time on an airplane. 

It was made of a waterproof nylon material from the store: “It’s so tough, and you need a special needle in the sewing machine, or it will break,” Hwang recalled, smiling. She picked the fabric in bright purple — “my little girl especially loves that color” — and sewed sakura flowers from her daughter’s favorite Ghibli film, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya” on top. 

“It didn’t look super professional, but she loved it,” Hwang said. 

For Halloween one year, Hwang made her daughter an “incredibly stuffed tall Totoro hat” with big eyes and ears that could stand up, from the poly stuffing at the corner of the store. 

“After Halloween, she just wanted to wear it all the time,” Hwang said. “So she’d be on the playground in North Beach or in SoMa with this giant Totoro hat on, for months.” 

Hwang started sewing about 20 years ago, simply because she didn’t like anything sold at the stores. “Nothing felt like me, so I started making things for myself,” she said. 

And now, Hwang’s daughter also thinks she can make anything. “She understands that you don’t have to just accept what’s in the store. You can adjust it. You can customize it. You can make it fit you better,” Hwang said. 

“Do what you want, you know? Wear one sleeve if you want. Wear one long pant leg and one short pant leg,” she continued. “Just do what you want.”