The best thrift stores in Philly for secondhand fabric
As you can probably tell from my website, I loooooove sewing with vintage fabric. I'm a total sucker for 60's-90's prints, especially florals!
Unfortunately, its hard to find those kind of prints at your local Joann's. It's especially hard if you're on a broke college student budget. So, here's my list of affordable places I get my fabric from! I'm kind of tempted to keep this info to myself...but I suppose I'll be nice and share.
Places local to Philadelphia:
Thunderbird Salvage
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thunderbirdsalvage/?hl=en
Ok this place is hands down one of my favorite places to go thrifting/antique-ing/fabric hunting. For one, it's huge and in an old church. Really cool vibe. They've also got the widest variety of stuff you've ever seen, as they clean out estates. (Check out the funky sculpture we saw while there!) I love bringing my mom and my boyfriend here, we have very different tastes when it comes to shopping but Thunderbird makes everyone happy. Some of my favorite finds from here have been deadstock 1980's roller skates, an entire haul of authentic 1970's clothes, books from the 1920's, and 1950's accessories/hats....not to mention the fabric! I've walked out of this place with an entire laundry basket worth of vintage fabric. And it came to a grand total of $15! All in all, I probably spent about $1 per yard.
Pro tips: Bring gloves, it can get dusty. Be prepared to dig around, it's a salvage not a consignment store. Also, you can negotiate prices!
I know they've gotten some weird reviews alleging that the owners are alt right types. I'm very visibly a person of color and have been going here for years without issue. The owners have always been very nice to me, and they've spoken up on social media before in support of BLM.
Jomar
Website: https://jomarwholesale.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwmv-DBhAMEiwA7xYrd7T8dm8aKyaDQ4z-O9w4BaPlPp0RCQE2WI0wu_yVI615U1k7MZBafRoCDlEQAvD_BwE
(You cannot get fabric or individual clothing items on the site, only bulk packages)
Again, $1 per yard fabric is the MOVE. And Jomar holds sales alot, which means that you can sometimes get fabric for even less than that per yard! This place tends to have a mix of fabrics, not all are vintage. Besides fabric, you can also find trims, sewing supplies, buttons, patches and more at fantastic prices. Plus, Jomar also takes clothing and jewelry items from estates. So if you're looking for the best vintage or designer clothing for cheap, this is a must visit. I've gotten some fantastic vintage dresses (even ones from the 1950's!) as well as brands like Gucci and Versace. I've gotten designer items authenticated by other places and they were legit! How much did I pay for these? At most $10 each. A score!
Online places:
Greatoakantiques on ebay
site: https://www.ebay.com/usr/greatoakesantiques
I'd say the best value from this shop is to buy yards in bulk. I once paid $10 with free shipping for about 3 yards of vintage gingham!
claudia4204 on ebay
site: https://www.ebay.com/usr/claudia4204
This shop has some fantastic 70's cottons for about $5-$8 a yard with free shipping.
Petrascrafts64 on etsy
site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/petrascrafts64
This one comes with a big disclaimer, the fabric smelled HEAVILY like cigarettes. I had to wash it 5 times to get it out. However, I also got 8 yards for $24 with free shipping. So try this one out with a word of caution.
Local free groups on FB marketplace
My favorite for Philadelphia is Free Your Stuff West Philly. Just like it says, it's free! You just pick up the items from that person's porch or curb.
Anyway, that's all my tips for now, hope this list helps! Happy sewing!