Part of city’s fabric closing

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2011 (5397 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Fabric Centre opened 58 years ago, it was one of a dozen or so places Winnipeg women could buy cloth, patterns, thread and buttons. Many people sewed, either out of thrift or because fashionable clothing wasn’t readily available in our prairie city.

Slowly, the speciality shops closed. Department stores eliminated their fabric departments along with candy and stationery departments. Even places like Walmart found a better use for the space once allotted to metres of cloth. Times have changed. Try buying a card of buttons or set of dome fasteners today.

In a matter of weeks, Fabric Centre is permanently closing its doors. An era will end, one that saw every member of a family involved in the business at one time or another.

There have been other fabric stores, of course. Mitchell Fabrics has clung stubbornly to a dodgy section of Main Street for decades. There are a handful of others, but many more have disappeared.

Fabric Centre started on Vaughan Street, back when ladies bought hats and gloves at the Bay, then crossed the street to flip through pattern books and admire bolts of cloth. A fire destroyed that store 10 years ago. The $2-million blaze ruined five businesses one cold November morning. After the fire hit, Fabric Centre was relocated. Owner Sheara Waxman, who took over the business from her parents, leased a store in St. Vital next to the Dakota Hotel. It has parking and bright windows and suits the customers who drive from all points in the city.

But after nearly six decades, the store is done. Waxman says the lease is up and she’s ready to move on to another challenge. People still sew, she says. She just won’t be selling them fine wool and bridal fabric, cloth to recover chairs or sparkly sequined material.

There was an uptick when home-renovation shows became popular. Once people were taught they could do anything with a staple gun and some drapery material, a new crowd came through the doors.

The most charming and heart-rending part of shutting the doors has been hearing the stories of longtime customers, Waxman says.

“People will say they bought from my parents,” she says. “We’ve always been about customer service and we really get to know people. Maybe you sold them fabric for their wedding dress. You get to know their kids.

“It’s been rewarding getting to know them. People will always sew.”

But the world has moved on, even at Fabric Centre. They don’t sell paper patterns anymore. The Butterick and Simplicity books are still there, sitting on a small table. If you want to buy a pattern, unfold it and use your sewing shears to carefully cut out the correct size, you have to place an order online first.

For this business, time’s up. The staff still see young customers, kids taking sewing classes in high school, and people in their early 20s who, out of economic need or nostalgia, have learned to sew. Dance groups need fabric, as do theatre companies. Ambitious parents come in to equip for a homemade Halloween costume.

People who were lucky enough to have mothers who sewed, who owned garments solid enough to pass down to one or two siblings, who can tell you what pinking shears look like, grow up to be adults who appreciate the skill. That won’t vanish but Fabric Centre will.

The store still has a notions section, a lovely word encompassing button covers, shoulder pads and bra extenders. Yes, they have cards of buttons. The supply is diminishing as word gets out they won’t be in business much longer. But you can wander the store, run an appraising finger over the satin and wonder when the last time was you saw a dressmaker’s dummy.

There’s a large sign in the window. “A World of Wonderful Fabrics,” it reads. Waxman’s taking it with her. A piece of her parents’ business will survive.

That, and the memories.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca