During our recent trip out West, Lady Hara and I took a drive up to Healdsburg, CA. Healdsburg is a small town that has transformed itself into a tourist destination by populating its town square area with winery tasting rooms and boutique shops. We were there for the wine, but next time we decide to go there it will also be for the fabric.
"Fabrications" (
www.winecountryfabrics.com/) has a nearly useless web site, but two of the racks in their store are just
with good Japanese fabrics at reasonable prices. Plenty of nice cotton prints of course, but also real woven cotton ikat, and even some unusual things like fabric printed with sashiko patterns that wash out after stitching.
I was only willing to buy one kosode's worth of fabric this trip, so I went with some of the cotton ikat.
The color in the second picture is a little more accurate, off-white with dark blue figures. For scale, each of the large figures is about 4 inches across, and the dark blue squares at the center are about 5/8". This fabric was only $12 per yard. I could imagine seeing it for $20 a yard out here in Pittsburgh, if you could even find it in a store.
I don't know how you'd get them to do mail order, but it's definitely worth a day trip if you want some nice fabric they don't carry at the JoFab.
I am an employee of Fabrications, and just ran across your posting regarding our store. Thank you so much for the good reference. We still don't really sell on line, but have shipped to those who have called us for specific items on occasion. I would like you to have our new website address. It is much better than the old one and I will be updating with more info as time goes by. Please visit
www.fabricationshealdsburg.com . I hope you will return to see us again someday.