Fine Fabrics Of Santa Barbara

The customer service at Fine Fabrics is amazing! I am 100% grateful for their help! They are extremely friendly and helped me troubleshoot a tricky problem. Love them! I highly recommend them!

So first of all, I want to say the lady who helped me was very friendly and pleasant to deal with, The rest of the place was just sort of a mess. A lot of the fabrics didn’t have prices on them so the lady working had to search online and call the store owner to try and get a price, which is not ideal if you are on your lunch break or in a hurry. There was a very limited supply of fabrics and notions, but everything was pretty high end. I did walk out with a beautiful piece of fabric but don’t think I’ll be shopping here again just because it was sorta of an ordeal. Side Note: I asked if they carried any kind of upholstery fabric (which they didn’t) and while walking back to my car walked right past an upholstery fabric store, less than a block away. I wonder why no one working here told me there was another store, I mean I know it could possibly take away from their business but I would have appreciated the helpfulness and honesty and made me want to come back and shop at their store.

I’m unsure how places like this stay in business. I went in the store just to buy seam tape. The lady said their store is the only store in town that stocks notions. I didn’t see my item, so I ask the lady for seam tape, she stares a second and says, oh you mean seam binding. I didn’t say it, but no, I meant seam tape. The lady says, well, I think we have some around here somewhere in a basket, and to make a long story short, she could not find the basket. When I left, she was blithering on about someone moving the basket. They have a very poor and limited selection of notions. And fabric, it’s pretty if you are sewing a prom dress, but the selection is very weak.

I recently started back to sewing and wanted good quality fabrics. I definitely found them here. Susanne, the owner was helpful and encouraging. The selection was small which is the only reason I gave 4 stars rather than 5. It’s not your standard sewing/​quilting store. But for a fine dressmaker, it’s the place to shop in the Santa Barbara area.

I’ve been here once and my review will be based on that. I came here because another store sent me over when I inquired about thick Polyester thread appropriate for leather. I walked in and a tailor pointed me to their thread section. I looked it over and while the owner was on the phone in the back I realized their thread selection just wasn’t going to be thick enough, the woman politely walked out and asked what she could help with. After explaining what I was doing and why I came here, she nodded a few times, then told me Michael’s might be a better option. I said I also came in because I wasn’t sure what the size I was looking for was called and that a nearby remnants store sent me over. The last thing she said to me was ‘I’m sure you’ll know if its what you need when you find it.’ Umm, alright. It seemed logical at first when I realized this woman can’t help it when she speaks condescendingly to certain people. She had no I interest in speaking to me because she realized I was not there for her ‘finer’ fabrics or for a large transaction. She spoke to me as if I was some 1^st grader that walked into her store. I was glad to leave and never return to yet another instance of this classic Santa Barbara dismissive and belittling attitude.

The store that does not want to sell anything:
Today I visited the shop to pick up some basic essentials. Needles, trimming, and some clear thread. The woman working there seemed to be a little scattered brained as I asked for some help. First I asked for some basic pin needles. There was only one pack hanging that was $ 9 with a fancy decorative accent. She said they had more but didn’t want to go into the very small inventory box 3 feet away and get them for me because there were other customers in the store. So I picked up the overpriced needles and carried on. Next I asked for clear thread. Again, in the small inventory box. This time she grabbed them for me while venting on her reasons for not normally doing this but then she refused to sell them to me. She didn’t know the price and couldn’t figure it out. She then continued to go on and on about why she wasn’t going to sell it to me and ‘her rules’ and that I would have to come back another day. I have 3 kids, 5 and under and told her that was difficult and tried helping by finding the price online but she was not going to sell it to me. Next we go on to the trimming. After she cuts it and places it inside my bag she tells me that she cannot find the price. She then tells me there is another one somewhere in the store with the price. So we both search the store for this other ribbon. Once we find it, it also doesn’t have a price. So then she makes a giant show of the ‘favor’ she was going to do for me by actually selling me the ribbon. I am not sure if she was expecting me to thank her but it seemed like it. This entire time she talked and talked about her justifications for not being helpful and then blamed the pricing on some past employee that didn’t work there anymore. It was stressful listening to her and more frustrating then anything that they had what I needed but wouldn’t sell it to me. I thought the entire situation was crazy and time consuming.
I think I am going to stay with
for my fabric needs.