Minneapolis’ Textile Center opened a new secondhand supply shop, the Stashery, inside its University Avenue building on Friday, and Molly Friesen was among its first customers.
Friesen, of Richfield, perused skeins of yarn, stacks of fabric, knitting needles, patterns and sewing machines while wearing a dress she’d made from material acquired at one of the Textile Center’s garage sales. She said shopping at the Stashery was a calmer experience than the semi-annual sales, which can draw more than 1,000 customers, some of whom travel from beyond the metro and queue up before the doors open.
Friesen selected several fabrics that suited her taste, including a literary-themed tapestry and pleather with a colorful stained-glass pattern that inspired a new project. “I was thinking I’d make a circle skirt with it for Pride,” she said.
The three-decade-old Textile Center is one of the country’s most comprehensive community hubs for fiber arts, which include everything from quilting, weaving, knitting and felting to needlework, lace-making and basketry. The center exhibits the work of nationally noted artists in its free gallery and flies in instructors for its expert classes. It has an artisan gift shop, a circulating library, a professional-grade dye lab and even a garden of plants used for making natural pigments.
The Stashery grew out of the Textile Center’s successful garage sales, which fill multiple rooms with donated fabric, yarn, notions and tools. Erin Husted, the center’s director of operations, realized that the volume of donated items — everything from silk fabrics to alpaca yarn to crochet hooks and down feathers — was enough to stock a year-round shop run by staff and volunteers.
Husted said that while the Twin Cities have many amazing locally owned yarn shops and fabric stores, their prices can be higher those of the just-shuttered Joann chain. She views the Stashery as another option for artists and crafters who are beginners, as well as those who are eco-conscious or on a budget. “It’s a great way to get your feet wet without having to commit,” she said. “I think we’ll complement each other.”
Proceeds from the secondhand shop fuel Textile Center operations, which include teaching fiber arts to more people, who might eventually donate their extra tools and material for resale. And so the cycle goes, round and round, like an old spinning wheel a Stashery shopper might encounter.
