Textile Discount Warehouse, I love you.

Monday night, the husband and I headed over to Textile Discount Outlet to find fabric to reupholster our new vintage sofas.  We'd already struck out at Joann Fabrics (pricey, low selection) and Vouge (good prices, okay selection), but after reading the Yelp reviews of Textile Discount Warehouse, I had high hopes that we could finally find just the right fabric.  Boy am I glad we went.  The reviews were right!  The warehouse is a huge, three-story building FULL of all the fabric and sewing notions your heart desires.  Bolt after bolt.  Isle after isle.  Room after room.  The place is even bigger than I imagined.  Now I know why most Yelp reviewers recommended you take a couple hours just to look around.

There's a print for everyone at the warehouse!

The main floor is where you'll most likely find your fabric.  There are four big rooms of hanging bolts organized by type. They have all the fabric you can think of: ethnic prints, solids, spandex, lace, satin, animal prints, retro themes, etc.  As a bonus, almost all the fabric is 54" or 60" wide so you get even more for your money.  You'll also find multiple isles of ribbon, tie-backs, and lace.  One thing I'd suggest is that you bring small scissors.  I saw it mentioned in a review so I brought mine and I'm glad...the bolts are too big to carry around doing comparisons so I was able to easily snip off a small swatch instead.

Ribbons anyone?

Just one isle of fabric on the main floor.

The attic and basement are supposedly where you find even bigger discounts.  The bolts are on shelves so it takes a lot of digging to see what's there.  You'll definitely need patience and a few hours to find hidden gems here. I came across an awesome teal in the basement.  I hid it inside a bigger bolt so I can come back and get it later!  The basement also has loads of zippers, buckles, buttons, and even more ribbon!  I'm pretty sure they own stock in the ribbon business!  The attic had even more fabric and an awesome door original to the warehouse...super cool.

The awesome attic door.  I envision it in my dream loft one day!

Just some of the many buckles we found in the basement.

If you're in the market for fabric and you're in the Chicago area, you definitely need to hit up the warehouse.  Keep in mind it is a warehouse with concrete floors, open ceilings, and no frills.  It's actually cleaner than we expected.  If I have to give up decorative displays in order to get dirt cheap prices, I'm all for it!  We left with an awesome green fabric that was only $6.50/yard (the most expensive fabric we saw in our 2hr shopping session was $12.99).  Because we bought 15yards, we got a 10% discount which brought it down to $5.85/yd.  Our total for the night was $107 including the yard of grey wool fabric we bought.  We went into the reupholstering project expecting to pay about $350 at Joann...more if we missed the 50% off sale...so we're looking at a savings of at least $250.  AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went with green fabric for our couch.  It looks solid here, but it actually has a great texture.

For more pics, head over to our facebook page.