Fabric shopping in New York City

Happy New Year to all of you! I hope you had nice holidays. Before I flew to Germany for Christmas I treated myself to a short trip to NYC. I had never been there before so during the two days I spent there I wanted to do some sightseeing of course, but something else - not less important - was also on my list:
check out some fabric stores in the Garment District of Manhattan!!

I didn't really have too much time but I made it to three different stores. The first one didn't really impress me at all, which is why I won't share anything about it. But the two others were amazing!

1. Mood Fabrics
225 W 37th St 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10018
I doubt there will be any sewer who is not familiar with Project Runway or this awesome store. After riding the elevator to the third floor you will feel like entering paradise. At least if you are into making clothing. This store is huge but so well organized! There are actually two floors with an enormous selection of apparel fabrics. I was a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of bolts in each single aisle but they have a very good labeling system which made it easier to find what I was looking for. I particularly wanted to check for cotton knit fabrics and for tweed. I spent about 1.5 hours in the store and two different - very friendly - staff members helped me find the right fabrics for my purposes. This is what I bought:

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Two knit fabrics both of which I am planning on making into some sort of summer dresses. I especially love the left one with this phenomenal print and color scheme.
They are both 100% cotton which I love since I am having a hard time finding knit fabrics in my local stores that are not made of polyester. I should have probably bought so much more. But I was scared my suitcase would be too heavy in the end. I guess I will have to come back some time :)

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In the wool section I bought this purple tweed fabric. I was looking for something for my mom for her birthday which was at the end of December. She is a sewing addict as well (she is actually the one who got me into sewing, thanks Mama!) so I thought some nice fabric from Mood would be a perfect birthday gift. She likes making short jackets and coats and I think this fabric will look perfect on her.

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Swatch!!

At checkout they even signed me up for Mood Rewards. Now I have a pretty key chain which I carry around. Even though it might be a while until I come back :)

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2. The City Quilter
133 W 25th St
New York, NY 10001

This store is perfect if you are a quilter or bag maker. It has a decent size with a nice selection of cotton fabrics and also some home decor fabrics. They are all sorted by colors which I loved! First of all it just looks really nice and second of all it saved me a lot of time since I would only check out the shelves with my preferred color schemes. I bought four different fabrics here which of course are all going to be made into some sort of bag :)

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In case you are interested here's some information about the designers (from left to right):
1. Juggling Summer by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic for Moda.
2. Ladies' Stitching Club by Liesl Gibson of Oliver + S for Moda.
3. Twenty Three by Eric & Julie Comstock of Cosmo Cricket for Moda.
4. 1000 Cranes by Rashida Coleman Hale for Cloud 9 Fabrics.

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I can't wait to get started on sewing with my new fabrics! What is your first project for the new year going to be?? Maybe you even got some new fabrics for Christmas? I would love to know what you are up to for the new year so just leave me a comment if you like :)