Alright all y’all, you KNOW the implied subtitle is Patty Does Dallas, right? I mean, you all knew that was coming. I am incapable of resisting. Seventies adult film references are like the borg when one moves to the lone star state.

Everyone feel free to take a moment to take in my random pop culture references.

Alright. Back to business. Since the biggest poorly kept secret in 5th tier sewing blogs is that I stopped sewing when I moved to Texas, I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to anyone that I’ve put off seeking out non-chain fabric shops in my new stomping grounds. The local Joanne’s and Hancock have been enough to tide over my need for thread and needles, and no lie, folks, my main source of fabric since moving has been Lowes, as I’ve reupholstered every surface in our house with a nice poly-cotton dropcloth from the paint department.

The Golden d’Or

Saturday Mr. Bug and I headed out to find the mythical Golden d’Or in Dallas. For anyone remotely familiar with the state of highway construction ’round these parts, holy cow. It took a Garmin, the Google app on my iPhone and some surreptitious tailing of a giant truck through a Home Depot parking lot just to get there.

The store is on a really busy “street” (highway?) next to a furniture outlet. There was a giant bazaar across the street and a few store fronts down there were a few guys with super small horses giving rides to kids in a parking lot. Also, there were a lot of designer handbag stores and jewelry outlets. When we got back to our car, someone had left a religious tract in spanish with a lurid photo of Jesus or Mary (I’ve blocked it out.) It was very purple.

When I was heading down here, folks had mentioned this place. It’s a ratty, dirty, warehouse-type place that reminded me a bit of SR Harris in Minneapolis, except the prices didn’t seem quite as good, and there’s WAY less fashion and upholstery fabric. And TONS more dance and bridal fabrics.

What’s apple green and slippery all over?

There was a pretty good silk selection suitable for garment making (i.e., no endless aisles of stiff dupioni.) Check out this… two whole bins of silk charmeuse perfect for blouses, dresses or Colette Cinnamons. I’ve been meaning to try that pattern and almost bought a few yards of that apple green silk in the lower right-hand corner.

There was also a nice bin full of silk tweed. I like the pink and black one in the center. I can’t believe I didn’t get enough for a skirt!

Dance Dance Revolution

Now let’s get to what the Golden d’Or seemed to specialize in. Bright satin, sheer georgette, spangles, fringes, sequins and glitter. I’m telling y’all, if one were making dance costumes, this place’d be heaven!

There’s a large bridal section – a lot of those rolls of white fabric are 100% silk. I’m sucha sucka for natural fibers. Bring on the worms!

Sadly, there appeared to be an imprisoned big bird in the bridal section as well…

All about the trimmings

There’s a large room chock full of trim, buttons and elastic. Mismatched buttons, etc. A lot of it looked worn, older but certainly usable. By the time I found the trim room, Mr. Bug had found me, so I didn’t examine in closely, but it looked pretty run of the mill, just a lot. Nothing too exciting – and I think all the ribbon is man-made fiber.

Nice selection of rick-rack; including the super large stuff. I spy in my right eye some crafty aprons in my future.

Ahhh… Comfort

There was also a WHOLE ROOM of spandex. Ladies (assuming ya’ll are ladies)… this is all stretchy material. Towards the back of the room is a whole rack of ITY knits appropriate for dresses, some in some really good solid colors.

There was TONS of nylon tricot, which I was pretty excited about! I’ve looked for this as a lining for stretch garments and never have seen in it the wild. Just LOOK at the color selection!!

There was also power net in black, natural and white. Nice to know of a local source!

Grrrrrr. I’m a scary monster.

For those in need of a cozy wrap, there was a lot of super-nice fake fur and a TON of minky – the good stuff from Robert Kaufman. Obviously, not great for garment making, but very good for baby gift making.

In the back of the store was a giant clearance room with everything 50% off the marked prices. NOW we’re talking! Again, a lot of the fabric didn’t really float my boat, but I’m guessing it’s hit or miss at this place.

Also – not pictured because I’m  lazy – a pretty nice little selection of suit-weight wool. Nothing in super awesome colors (like, you know, coral) but the quality felt awesome-o. Of course, since we’re in Texas, I guess it’s not surprised that the wool selection was limited! There was also a VERY small selection of fabrics in the ‘designer’ section, but I couldn’t find any note of the designer on the bolts.

Most of the bolts of fabric weren’t marked as to content, so curious minds would have to do a burn test or live with the uncertainty with finds. And Mr. Bug would like me to convey that the entire store was terrifying for the males. At least, males like him who prefer a nice stroll through Dick’s sporting goods or Target. Look at the fear and pleading in his eyes. Hey girl, let me carry that bag of fabric for you so we can LEAVE.

I got a few yards of some undetermined, man-made stretchy stuff (thicker than ITY, and I don’t want to admit to plans to make clothing from swim-wear!)

The top fabric is brown and white – the colors look funky, it was almost dark when I took the picture. I’ve been rocking the longer shirt/scandalously short dress with leggings look a lot lately, and I thought these would make nice little Kwik Sew 3856s  in a barely-covering-my-rump length.

The blue fabric is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I liked the blue and white color scheme. I’m not 100% sure about the bandana-print-meets-leopard, but I’m thinking it’ll look pretty abstract/neutral as a dress…. right?

Thanks Golden d’Or! I’ll be back tomorrow or the next day with part two of our fabric shopping safari. We’ll head on over to City Craft, an urban, fancy-quilt fabric, sewing studio by some hella big houses in Dallas!