Taggie Sweatshop

The secretary in Dave’s office is pregnant and we were invited to her baby shower on Saturday. Earlier this week, Dave sent me the invitation and I immediately thought of making taggies and when Dave came home he asked if I would be make a few. Great minds. And. Hmmmm… Maybe? 

Before leaving Great Lakes, I made a plethora of taggies for the NMCRS in an effort to refill their stash and reduce the amount of fabric needing to be moved. Long story short – I needed fleece to make taggies. 

A friend and I set out to Kamakura to find a fabric store called Swany. Here was our route. 

This journey was a little tricky because it required us to not only switch trains, but also train stations. Google maps can be a little challenging to follow when on foot and as a result we made one wrong turn. No worries, we turned around and continued to the other station and found the correct track and train. 

Once in Kamakura, we were able to find the store effortlessly compared with finding th train station in Zushi. On our way to Swany we crossed a bridge and passed over small river with koi! They were gigantic! 

And so was the store! Three stories! 

This is actually one of the few stores that has English on the outside. It made finding it that much easier. 

Inside the store were lots and lots of fabric options. Cute patterns and prints. Different textures including coated, wool and canvas. 

Unfortunately, the one fabric the store didn’t have was fleece! I was able to find a small piece in the baby section as well as some jersey type material. I made a few purchases hoping for success. 

On our way to the train station, we passed by a ¥100 store (like a dollar store, but much better). Of course we needed to stop because you never know what you might find… Perhaps fleece!?! Sure enough – I was able to find fleece! Although it was in the form of a towel with edging. I thought I should be able to cut off the edging and use the material. It was worth a try anyways. 

Once I was home, I set to work cutting and sewing. I set up the sweatshop at the kitchen table because I put my sewing table in storage. After an hour or so, I had 4 taggies. 

The three with fleece from the ¥100 store worked great. ¥100 for the win! The jersey like material was too stretchy and a bit flimsy. To sew up my story, my lesson learned was to explore all options, shift my paradigm of thinking the obvious answer is the best choice and always check the ¥100 for options first!