Sometimes I find really great deals on fabric in nz, and I want to tell someone and I channel that feeling into a blog post so that you can have the benefits of my obsessive hobby of keeping track of all the cool fabric stores in nz! Here are some of my favourite local nz fabric shops, and some of the absolute bargains I’ve spotted at them recently!
The Fabric Shop
Different to The Fabric Store, the Fabric Shop is based in Ōtara and is a great discount fabric store who I have shopped with a few times now.
Pictured above, this washer cotton (the exact washer cotton which I have purchased from other retailers at a higher price) has just landed in their store for $12 per metre. Easy to sew with, and perfect for sewing lovely summer layers, this fabric is perfect for summer tops and dresses and at that price you can afford to do those fabric-heavy patterns with lots of gathers!
They also have a great variety of colours of cotton double-gauze ($14p/m), which is really lovely to wear (but always a pain to sew with)!
The Fine Cloth Company
Not a discount fabric store per se, but with very well priced fabrics (and there’s often a bargain to be had): The Fine Cloth Company. If bright orange is your colour, then this $15p/m tencel is for you! Their current new arrivals include a lot of prints that I haven’t seen anywhere else in NZ- which is relatively rare in NZ where there’s often a common source for fabrics in many stores.
Use this link to save $25 when you order from them, and I’ll also get $25!
Fab Fabrics
Fab Fabrics is another Auckland-based discount fabric store. They often have a surprising selection of ‘fancy’ fabrics and silks at great prices!
Below, left to right cotton coral broderie $12p/m, unique daisy lace $50p/m, cotton/silk lawn $5p/m
Nick’s Fabrics
Another Auckland-based discount fabric store, Nick’s Fabrics. Strangely, they don’t have any options to sort their fabrics but if you click here it will order from newest to oldest or click here for cheapest to priciest.
Below left to right, viscose sage self check (also available in black) $15p/m, Liberty tana lawn $12p/m, pinhole merino jersey $10p/m
Backstreet Bargains
Based in Hamilton, Backstreet bargains often has…. bargains! I grabbed 5m of this floral viscose at $3p/m a while back (sold out now, sorry), and this stretch lace which was $3p/m for quite a while (now sold out). I generally check what’s new, their bulk bargains, their specials and their clearance to keep up-to-date. They’ve got some great new rayon prints (The Fabric Store have a lot of the same prints).
The life cycle for fabrics at Backstreet seems to be that you might see certain fabrics in print in some Auckland-based Draper stores (cough) or local fabric stores and then you’ll see them a few months later at Backstreet for an absolute steal. Looking at you floral viscose.
Your local emporium
My Christchurch-local Tom’s Emporium has been my recent go-to for finding bargain fabrics! There was an article on the Spinoff recently about the history behind the emporiums, with many across the country being involved in bulk buying agreements and then sharing the goods between them, which is true also of fabrics!
My local emporium (and probably yours too) has a great selection of knits that they bulked purchased when a local brand moved manufacturing offshore post-covid, and then they shared the fabrics across the NZ emporiums! It’s well worth a visit if you have one local to you!
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