Dressew and Button Button

I had a look in Dressew and Button Button today, partly to restock on a couple of things and partly to look for bag parts.

First I went to Button Button, figuring that if I got anything big from Dressew I wouldn't want to carry it around. It's a nice little store. I saw some good-quality buttons that I'd also seen for sale in Germany, and some fancy Czech glass ones that I hadn't seen in I don't know how long. Same brand and design as a kind I had in my collection, but different colors. There were vintage buttons as well. Very nice selection.

Then I went to Dressew. I have certainly heard about it; long story short, seeing it in person I was both over- and underwhelmed. For anyone familiar with Philadelphia, I would call it a Jo-Mar with less nice fabric, waaay more notions, and similar amounts of random other stuff like the old Juniata Park store used to have (after they closed the top floor, now am I getting obscure enough?)

Here's what I'd go back for:

• huge selection of interfacings, mainly fusibles, and also one plain non-fusible hair canvas
• cotton India tape and twill tape; also your usual packaged bias tape, rickrack and such, along with some bias by the meter (I had a faint unreasonable hope they'd have Hug Snug, but no, didn't see it.)
• lots of lingerie elastics in a random assortment of colors; I'd like to bring some swatches and see if they happen to match my fabrics
• buttons, not as nice as Button Button's (though sometimes that's a good thing, if you're trying to make something look like RTW and your fabric isn't that nice either)
• zippers, seriously
• basic notions, like needles, pins, small snaps, etc. Not the best selection of big snaps or other sorts of metal hardware, at least not that I saw, and I didn't see many metal buttons to speak of, either. Lots of ready-made purse handles, though.
• shoulder pads, mostly either covered or foam IIRC
• lining fabrics; they've got lots, but many of them are acetate, something I don't prefer for damp weather. OTOH, there are a few colors of Bemberg and Kasha here and there, and unusual colors of swimsuit lining
• big selection of Gütermann thread including their lightweight silk, but nothing heavy like buttonhole twist... maybe I should try that silk shop on Granville Island?

Things I just saw in passing and couldn't say much about:

• most of their fabric; I didn't notice anything stunning but it's probably good for costumes and curtains, I'm guessing? (I can have tunnel vision when I have other priorities)
• fake flowers
• ribbons
• huge amounts of cheap lace, rattail and other cording, piping, and so forth
• curtain notions
• probably a very good selection of the notions you'd need for some historic costumes, like hoopskirts and corsets, though I didn't look at that aisle closely
• yarn and crochet thread 
• Burda patterns at OK prices

This time they had many ready-made costumes; I don't know how much of that they normally have and how much was just for Halloween. I think they have a reputation for changing out their stock a lot, so who knows how accurate this will all be later on. Anyway, I found zippers, lining, and interfacing for the bag I had planned; the cutter very helpfully pointed out a cheaper, more suitable interfacing than what I'd seen on the shelf.

I do plan on going back to both when I'm a little less goal-oriented. I noticed Atex Fabrics across from Dressew and it should be worth having a look there too.