Jeanie Brown really loves fabric. When she needed a print jersey for a project and couldn’t find it, it struck her how difficult it has become for home sewers to find apparel fabric. So she opened a fabric store. Make that “fabric gallery”, because the pieces on the walls are bolts of fabric, simply displayed and eloquently curated.
The fun part of a visit here, in fact, is hearing Brown fervently discuss her finds, and then patiently entertain our ideas which are tumbling off the walls. We also like it as a gallery because unlike the bustle and harsh fluorescents of most shops, the calm here is cool and quiet, and the track lighting reminds us of New York City. Here, the fabric is allowed to tell you what it wants to be.
An enormous white table dominating the rear of the studio is the proverbial blank page. The talk here is of natural fibers and point-of-departure garments that can be taken in a variety of directions. In fact Brown recently designed a skirt of silk, cotton, and linen fashioned from two bed sheets, a thrift-find silk dress, and her husband’s linen shirt. She plans to display a sample with instructions, certainly, but its purpose is really to inspire and remind us of what beautiful results can come from upcycling: the only limitation is our own imagination.
Jeanie Brown would be glad to discuss your ideas.
There is also an obvious love for old linens here. When Brown finds interesting pieces that deserve new life she launders and loves them, then stacks them on the counter for browsing. Then they usually fly out of the store, which may be to our advantage, since we might not otherwise have noticed the bolt of something called “Summer Hanky”. This patchwork panel is made up of randomly embroidered cream handkerchief squares, some with border trim, some without. We want the bolt. All of it. It should be noted at this point that Brown is extremely conscientious about her pricing, deliberating over certain selections until she is satisfied that the price is a fair one.
“Summer Hanky” detail
There is an excellent selection of cotton jersey in solid colors that feel like a second skin. There is also an interesting bolt of hemp jersey prepared for dyeing that is like folded custard. That’s what makes the collection literally feel special. It is apparent as you wander along the wall that each bolt has been individually chosen for its quality and hand. Even the humble cotton voile, eclipsed now by the more coveted, fall fabrics, still beckons. The hierarchy of Browns criteria is thus: 1) beauty, quality, a special element; 2) sustainability; 3) affordability. A piece of natural fiber gold lame would excite, but would have to be at least in the ballpark of reasonably-priced to qualify.
While silk is not a primary focus for the collection, she does have four pieces of silk charmeuse that feel like liquid mercury. They pour into our hands. There are also a few really pretty examples of oil cloth and laminated cotton in polk-dot colors. And lest you quilters feel forsaken, there is love here for you, too, in the form of to-die for, carefully selected “crossover cottons.” These are two beautiful groups from Art Gallery and the Japanese company Kokka, respectively, that appeal to the growing concern of apparel-makers that enjoy working with quilting cotton. These prints were primarily chosen for their skirt-making potential, but are so inspiring to look at that the sky is the limit here. We can attest to our own odyssey with summer skirts and quilting cotton when we didn’t know what the fabric was, we just had to take it home and find a way to wear it. Apparently others feel the same way, so the emergence of these interesting prints makes perfect sense.
Brown thinks, rightly, that the popularity of Bravo’s Project Runway has something to do with the DIY spirit that is bringing in new home sewers these days, as well as the so-called craft movement blooming around us. All of which encourages the uninitiated to take that first leap and buy a machine, or as often, dust off the inherited Singer slant-head and take the old girl for a maidenly spin.
A work in progress is just the beginning here.
Double provenance: As Brown’s friend Stephanie Moore of Cush Cush was closing the doors of her own local treasure, she sold Brown six pieces of authentic 1970’s drapery fabric. These have somehow been kept as pristine as the day they were made in the time-capsule of a Mexican warehouse. There is a green and brown woodsy design on a cream background in particular that keeps us up at night.
See the woodsy pattern at bottom.
Browns fervent wish is to expand her stock of natural fiber trimming, and already has some beautiful things including a double-faced cotton sateen that feels like silk satin. Polyester candidates need not apply here. The store also stocks patterns from independent pattern designers only, so you won’t find Simplicity books cluttering the big white table. So far, patterns from Loes Hinse, Colette, and Decades of Style are available, as well as children’s patterns from Oliver + S. Decades of Style is a particularly interesting line: Vintage patterns dating from 1920-1959 have been reworked (and resized) for modern methods, most notably with the addition of familiar symbols and construction text. The look book is a page-turner, but Brown will let you ogle and dream as long as you’d like (please note, the store closes at 6pm).
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