Seek!

Out near Springfield, a friend found a fabric store worthy of the movies. It’s not very inviting from the outside, looking exactly like the warehouse it is. You enter into a very small furniture sales area, ignorable, you continue to cutting tables and registers. Both welcome, normal things placed here to completely put you off your guard. Everything will be normal you think, it was just the entrance. . .

The first few racks are well labeled and lit. Things make sense. Then on to the linen tables where things are not quite labeled enough but it’s open and airy so no big deal.

And then you look at the half of the building you skipped because it’s lit just dimly enough to seem a seperte space. Here is where the store becomes a character rather than a normal, predictable store.

Without warning, you enter a jungle of complete confusion. It’s no longer possible to know where to look. You can find interesting fabrics that would be great for Some project. Not the Russian tunic you might have had in mind but Something.

Having found the perfect fabric, you aren’t allowed to know what the material content is. Is it a wonderful linen than will keep you cool in the August sun or is it a sneaky polyester that will give you heatstroke? You’re not allowed to know!

How much does it cost? That’s privledged info that only the most experienced employees poses. And you can’t find them. Having found them, it’s not like you can drag them down the aisles to ID and price a thousand fabrics that you might possibly be interested in.

How do you drive a Tom crazy? Present him with a costly decision with zero facts! We found one label which read “blue small camo print” which is the only information that I could have gotten WITHOUT a label! argh!

Of course I need to bring my friends out there next time. And some matches so we can do burn tests to ID materials.