Welcome to the first in a series of posts on fabric and quilt shops in the South Bay. We have left for Vietnam, and I’ve scheduled these hopefully informative posts for you on South Bay shopping options so that you’ll have something to entertain you while I’m out of the country.

I’ve recently visited some shops I had never been to before, and revisited a few I hadn’t been to in a while. I took some photos and some notes while I was shop-hopping so I could share a little information with you. A few of the photos are a bit blurry when the light wasn’t great (it was raining on at least one day when I was out), but I think they are still informative.

I’ve done some less thorough posts on a few other shops in the past, so if you’re interested in Exclusive Buttons, Urban Burp, Britex, Fabrix, Stone Mountain & Daughter, or Satin Moon, all of which are in San Francisco/Berkeley/El Cerrito, you can check out those posts in the archive. There are some brief looks into the Fabric Depot and Josephine’s Dry Goods in Portland as well.

First Stop: Fabrics R US, San Jose, CA

Web site: none, but here’s the Yelp page.
Location: 1745 Berryessa Rd, San Jose, in the Berryessa Center at the northern corner of Lundy and Berryessa. Note that the location on the Yelp map shows the eastern corner, which is not correct. It is correct on the map below.

There are actually three separate parts of this store within this one shopping center. It’s HUGE!

Storefront #1 is freestanding out front in the parking lot — might be an old restaurant site. This photo shows it from the back — you can see the shopping center sign in the back left out by the road.



Storefront #2 is on the right, with tons of flannel out front; storefront #3 is on the left, just to the left of the Western Union.



What they carry: This is not a quilt shop, but a general fabric store. So, if you’re looking for something other than quilting fabric, you just might find it here. They had a lot of synthetics, decorator fabrics, and upholstery, and a large selection of really fancy fabrics that looked appropriate for traditional Asian clothing, saris, costumes, etc. They also had suiting, linens, furs, and all kinds of things. But be prepared to dig around. You might find any of these things pretty much anywhere in the store.

Here are some shots from the storefront #1. The piles of fabric outside this shop (see the second photo above) were all $1.99 a yard.









Some really furry furs!



Storefront #2





Outside next to storefront #2 — only in California would you keep all this fabric outside!



Storefront #3









Notions: If you’re looking for decorator trims and tassels, this is a great place to look. I have never seen so huge a collection of these kinds of trims anywhere. It was really impressive. But again, check all three storefronts, as it was spread around instead of all together.

From storefront #1



From storefront #3



Prices: The prices seemed very affordable when marked, but I didn’t see that many prices marked.

In addition, I found no fiber content or care information on any of the fabric, so it’s a bit of a crap shoot there.

Logistics: None of the three storefronts has a cutting table. Just find someone who works there and show them what you want. They’ll carry a yardstick over to the bolt, measure it off, make a small cut, and rip off the fabric. In contrast to some of the reviews I saw online, no one looked at me funny or followed me around, and several people asked nicely if I needed help.

I made a point to try not to get people in the pictures if possible (I don’t really want people taking my photo while I’m trying to shop). It gives the impression that there weren’t any people there, but this place was really quite busy, especially for a Thursday afternoon!

And while you’re there, why not stop for a bowl of pho? You have your choice of a couple of Vietnamese restaurants in the same shopping center.

Next stop on the tour: Quilters’ Nest in San Jose, CA