We aren’t sure what is going on here – we may have fallen into some kind of alternative parallel universe where Jo-Ann fabrics has always had quality goods or we may just have a student who got lucky.
Jo-Ann Fabrics has really been surprising us lately with their apparel fabric selection and quality. After years and years of telling people not to even bother looking for anything other than quilting cottons, utility fabrics, and synthetic basics… bolts like this have started to show up in the workrooms with decent regularity:
This is a nice lightweight shirting that borders on some of the nicer batistes that are popular in niche fabric stores right now. It is nowhere NEAR as nice as you will find at Oak Fabrics, but definitely comparable to the shirting selection at Vogue or Rainbow Fabrics.
It passed the “wash and dry twice” test we put to questionable yardage with minimal shrinkage and NO loss of texture or drape. Usually we’ve found that the fiber quality is not great at Jo-Ann’s and notice a fuzz or pilling on their cottons after washing and drying. Nope. Not this.
So we’ll begin to slightly lean in the direction of “well…maybe…” right now, but whoever is doing their buying is doing a better job than we have seen in literally TWO DECADES at the store.