a trip to the sewing studio in florida

There's a chance that I might have a fabric addiction. But as I recently saw on an awesome t-shirt, I might be a fabric addict, but I can quilt whenever I want. Anyway, my love of this delightful supply recently led me to The Sewing Studio.

When planning the family road trip to Disney World, I may have looked up a few quilt shops along the way. I just wanted to be prepared in case we had a few minutes to spare. We got all the way to Florida without stopping (even though I saw a billboard for a fabric outlet, which I'm choosing to believe was not going to have what I would be looking for).

Once in the Orlando area, I did an intensive search. The shop near my relatives in FL wasn't open on the day I was free. And a few others didn't appear promising from their websites. But I thought that the one about an hour north of where we were staying looked good. My aunt confirmed that I should check it out.

After five days of Walt Disney World parks, we began heading north for home and routing ourselves past The Sewing Studio. From the outside, it looks like many older buildings in Florida, but the inside holds many treasures.



Walking in the front door, I was greeted by samples made with fabrics I love and in patterns I've been admiring. Then a moment later, a very helpful employee welcomed me (and my parents and sister, who were excited to check out the store as well). She must have noted the mildly overwhelmed look on my face, because she offered to give me a tour. Of course, I accepted!

What you see in this photo is just a piece of this store. The room in the photo is nearly double what you see, and there's more than one room. Our tour took us past the sewing machine section, through a variety of quilting fabrics and an enormous selection of buttons.



Again, this shows maybe a third of the buttons. And we were still only in that first room!

We continued into the next room, holding more quilting cottons, gorgeous linen, denims, apparel fabrics, and a HUGE section of bridal fabrics. A smaller room contained some trims and rolls of heavier fabrics, as well as a peek into the workshop where someone seemed to be handling sewing machine repairs.

At last, we reached the Bargain Annex (which connects to their classroom).



I liked this room from the time I heard the name of it. But I formed a true attachment when they told me everything in here was 50% off. I immediately found some Christmas fabrics from Cotton + Steel, plus a few others.

By the way, each room had a cutting counter, and one room had two. The woman working in the Bargain Annex let me know that their regular Cotton + Steel was 20% off, so I knew where I would be visiting next.



If I told you that I headed straight to these shelves of C+S fabrics, I'd be lying. But I did get there and was pleased with their selection. They had some from the latest collections, plus some older collections, and a few basics too. I tried to limit myself, but only because of the goodness I had found before I actually reached this area.



The Bargain Annex isn't the only place where they have 50% off fabric! This bin held Allison Glass, lots of Moda, Tula Pink, and some delicious scented strawberry fabric.

I went a little crazy, and as you can see from the beginning of this post, I had a lot of fabric cut. Since I was on vacation, I'm calling this a souvenir trip.

But even with my stacks of fabric to cut and pages of cuttings to ring up, everyone was so kind and helpful. I'm not sure if I was more impressed with the selection, prices, or service! Even better, when I managed to leave a piece of fabric behind, they mailed it to me super fast.

If you are ever in the Orlando area, it's worth the trip to visit The Sewing Studio. And even if you don't have plans to visit, almost all of their fabrics are online, and they are continuing to add more.

I can't say enough nice things about these folks. The next time I'm in Florida, I know I'll be back!

Oh, and mega thanks to my family for waiting patiently as I enjoyed the last bit of vacation surrounded by fabric!