Sewing is more than a hobby to many people — it’s a way to save money on clothing and home decor. We briefly discussed this in our article, Is It Cheaper to Sew Clothes than Buy them at the Store?, but thought you’d like to know some more specific ways to save money at the fabric store.

Wait to Buy Patterns Until They’re on Sale
When patterns aren’t on sale, they easily cost upwards of $15. Sure, that might be worth your money if you’re going to reuse it over and over again, but I still can’t bring myself to pay full price for one. If you have the time to wait, several fabric stores have sales where patterns are less than $2 a piece — that’s when I like to stock up.

Alternatively, you can find sewing patterns and tutorials on the Internet for a low cost, or even free, like at Pattern Playground. I’ve also found that online sewing tutorials are easier to follow than typical sewing patterns anyway, because they are usually accompanied by videos or step-by-step pictures. If you’ve never sewn anything before, I suggest that you start with online tutorials for this very reason.

Use Coupons at the Register
Another way to save money at the fabric store is to use coupons. Fabric stores often run ads that give you a percentage off your entire purchase price. Some fabric stores even have coupons that give you a large discount on a single cut of fabric. I make it a rule never to go to the fabric store without one of these fabric store coupons. It’s pretty easy to search for coupons on the Internet and then print them out before you go. Jo-Ann Fabric runs promotions like this all the time.

Buy Seasonal Fabric
Most fabric stores sell seasonal fabric at a discount. For instance, costume fabric usually goes on sale around Halloween and satin fabric goes on sale around prom time. You can also take advantage of the clearance racks at the end of a season because fabric stores want to quickly get rid of any seasonal fabric they still have in stock.

Browse the Remnant Rack
If you have a small project in mind that requires less than one yard a fabric, you can save a lot of money by picking up your fabric on the remnant rack. These remnants are small cuts of fabric that are too small to be left on the bolt by themselves. They are sold for anywhere from 20-50 percent off the original price.

Comparison Shop
Before you make any large purchase at the fabric store, you should do some price checking to make sure you are getting a good deal. This is easy to do with a bar code scanner on your cellphone. You can quickly look at the price of the same item at another retail store for comparison. If you find a better deal, you might even be able to convince the cashier to give you the same price. The technology is there, so why not use it?