St. Clair Avenue between Dufferin and Lansdowne, has a mini textile district, mostly catering to the local Italian community. Amongst the many fabric and linens stores is one called Ontario Fashion Textiles (1356 St. Clair Ave. W., just east of Lansdowne). It is about 80% fabric and seems to have a nice selection at reasonable prices - this coming from a non-seamstress.
There is also a craft section. She carries a fair bit of Bernat and Patons and (shudder), Phentex. However, she also has some nice mid-range yarns. I saw some Needful and a selection of Italian brands (Lana Grossa, of course). Also spotted were pattern books, embroidery supplies, latch hook kits and yarn, and a very good button selection. A rack near the front entrance contains all your basic supplies from crochet hooks to thread to point protectors. Nothing fancy, just a good old utilitarian store. With the demise of LewisCraft, this find was such a relief.
Call this post an ad if you like. The owner was most helpful and promised to order something for me that she was out of at the moment. I purchased two kinds of yarn and some doodads for my Secret Pal as well as 4 yards of polyester lining fabric for under 4o dollars. If you're in that neighbourhood, (excellent cappucino just across the street and east a bit), drop in. Oddly, the store is closed on Wednesdays and, as with everything else in this Catholic part of the city, Sundays.
1 comment:
It's so great to have a scout in the neighborhood! Thanks for the tip. It's true, we do need somewhere to go now that Lewiscraft is gone (sob!)...
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