As is my habit, I went out with Amanda to fabric stores while I was in Portland last week. She found some shops which we had never visited.
Sewlarium is a new shop in Portland. I visited twice, once with Amanda, once with Julie.
It has been open since January and is owned by a young man named Zachariah. That’s right! A YOUNG MAN. He said that he is active in all the local guilds and his business has been slowly growing.
One part of his business is quilting. He has a longarm and is getting more longarm clients as people get to know him. He got his longarm about a year before he opened the shop and is still building his skills. The longarming he does is hand guided edge to edge using pantographs. He practices a lot on charity quilts from local guilds. Zachariah has a relationship with other longarmers if someone needs more sophisticated custom quilting. It seems to be normal to have a longarm in a shop now. It seems reasonable that small businesses need as many income streams as possible
When we walked in, we saw patterns and notions. He had a whole rack of Elizabeth Hartman patterns. I don’t want to make her patterns, but I always enjoy looking at them. The ideas are so funny. There were some I have never seen, such as Cats in Pajamas.
Around the patterns were a basket of toweling fabrics in various holiday motifs. There was also a display of Guterman thread. He also had some Aurifil in neutral colors near the cash register. Just out of the picture was a new display of new Ruby Star Society fabrics and some Alison Glass-looking fabrics from Moda right near the front door. Zachariah also had some notions near the front door.
I noticed that he had some of the Dropcloth Sampler kits on the wall with the notions.
There was fabric tucked everywhere, including under the cutting table. The fabric in the shop was very well curated.
Speaking of that, I saw a lot of the ‘Start to Sew’ and ‘Start to Quilt’ box kits around the shop. I think those kits might be related to EverSew machines which he also had in the shop. Full service!
I also saw quite a few panels. The second time I went in Zachariah was working on a panel kit making a monkey backpack. It was very cute.
I only saw one quilt kit (Tula Pink, of course).
Zachariah had good fabric. He had the new Ruby Star line, as mentioned, and most, if not all, of the Tula True Colors. He was also knowledgeable out fabric, which made me think he he has been quiltmaking for awhile, though I forgot to ask.
All over the shops we visited were Bigfoot. As you can see there is a panel hanging over the True Colors. This is just one of the various Bigfoot fabrics we saw.
Julie showed me some pre-made binding that actually looked cool. Aside from it not being washed, I think the pre-made binding would be a good option for some quilts. It would certainly save time.
I really liked this shop. It was open, clean and fresh looking. Zachariah was really friendly and chatted with us, but not too much.
The best thing about the shop was the wall of zippers! He had about 30 coils of #5 zippers on the wall. You could choose the one you wanted as well as the amount. It was fantastic. No online shopping required, though he does have an online shop if you are not in Portland.
He had a few zipper pulls, but I think he needs to stock up on a greater variety. I am sure that is in the cards.
The thing about these zippers is he said he was a bag guy, as in he enjoyed making bags. He lamented the fact that he has only a few bag patterns and no samples. I told him I knew he will get to adding more bags and more samples. I suggested having a Friday night bag club like the guild has after meetings. Poor guy has a lot on his plate so we’ll see.
I bought a few fabrics to make bags I have in mind plus some of his fabulous zippers!
Sewlarium 3236 N Lombard St. Portland, OR 97217 Daily: 11am - 7pm CLOSED TUESDAY (971)400-0446
