Kuni Island Fabrics

On Monday, I took TheBus down to Honolulu to go fabric shopping.

I had planned to start at Hidden Yardage but they were closed Monday. The next three were in the same vicinity - I started at Kaimuki Dry Goods (previous post) and asked those ladies about lunch. The kids had eaten at Koko Head Diner which was nearby. One of the gals recommended Big City Diner which turned out to be very good.

They called ahead for me to the Calico Cat to double-check -- it was also closed on Mondays.

I found out Kuni Island Fabrics was back the way I had come. And open! Huge relief - cuz my phone was dying. Although I learned how to use Google maps for my transit routes, using the GPS sucks up your battery power just like that!









Downstairs is some fabric and projects/crafts for sale. Upstairs is a sewing classroom. Fabric runs to japanese/Asian style with some other US lines.

They also had quilted fabric - which you see more of in japan - for making bags without having to buy interfacings/battings to get a stiffer fabric.

I loved seeing all the crafts for sale - from tissue holders to small zip bags to small garments.

In the above photo, is a top made from fabric squares, embellished with sashiko stitching lines. I found two fat quarters of this fabric in a basket.

The bags and purses were priced much more moderately than what I found in Haleiwa.

The other real deal at this shop is the fat quarters.

These were just $1.99. A fat quarter is 1/4 of a yard - cut a certain way. These FQ equate to $8/yd. Some of these are SevenBerry from Japan. I love the feel of this fine cotton as well as the inks & patterns.

On the other hand, the FQ of the top with sashiko embellishments went for $4.10.









No knits here, just wovens.

I also bought this tiny needle book.



Everything rusts immediately here. By sticking your needles in the wool, they don't sport rust spots.


All in all, random pieces of loveliness. Those batik pieces at the top of the post - they had pineapples on them. The blue quilted batik had my usual turtle.



My stack shows a preponderance of blues & greens.

The shop lady admitted to owning more fabric than me --storage lockers were involved. I'm not sure how you can store fabrics here in this warm, moist environment. I'm luck to live in Oregon where we have few moths and other not-sewing-friendly insects.



mahalo.