Paper City Fabrics breathes new life into thrift store model

HOLYOKE — Paper City Fabrics is stitching together sustainability and accessibility, using a thrift store model to give new life to donated textiles while keeping sewing affordable for the community.

By recirculating fabrics and notions back into the hands of local makers, the shop says that it fuels creativity and keeps usable materials out of landfills.

“We are a thrift store of fabric, which basically means most of the fabric in our shop, as well as all of the sewing notions, are donated to us so we are able to sell them back to the community at an affordable price,” Paper City Fabrics founder and co-owner Joseph Charles stated. “I think people get excited when they know that the stuff that they love is going to be passed on to somebody else for them to also love it.”

Charles talked with Reminder Publishing about the shop and its recent efforts to tie in their model to Earth Day.

Located at 330 High St., Paper City Fabrics sells all fabric for $6 per yard, keeping sewing affordable and diverting unused fabric and sewing supplies from landfills.

“For us, obviously, we’re getting all the fabric, we’re getting everything that’s donated for free, so for us, it’s a really great way to give that to the community and to be able to sell fabric and make it more accessible to everyone,” Charles stated.

Donations also come from many different places, including from movie sets and Broadway, but Charles said most donations come from home sellers.

“People who are cleaning out and want to see their beautiful vintage and antique fabric that they’ve collected over the years go back to someplace that is going to circulate it back out into the world,” Charles stated.

Paper City Fabrics hosted its first-ever Destash Bash on Saturday, April 18. The event encouraged local sewists, quilters and crafters to drop off bags of unwanted/unused fabric in exchange for a 10% off coupon they can use at Paper City Fabrics.

The Destash Bash is an extension of what Paper City Fabrics does every day, relying on the generosity of the community to drop off fabric and sewing supplies they no longer need. Charles said, “For Earth Day, we kind of wanted to just open it up and say, ‘hey, if you’ve got stuff to come donate, just come drop it off, we’ll give you a little discount coupon, and it was great.’ We had a bunch of people show up. We got some really incredible donations.”

The shop is beginning to sift through those donations now, which will be on display online and at the store.

Aside from utilizing the storefront, Paper City Fabrics also sells the fabric online to buyers across the country.

Paper City Fabrics also hosts an event a few times a year to recirculate scraps. “We have a big bag sale, and we just fill up bins with scraps, and people come, and they fill up a bag, and for us, it’s really just trying to recirculate as much as we can,” Charles explained.

Charles reiterated that the store model promotes a recycling method, and the business is committed to recirculating fabrics and notions to other makers and making sewing affordable and accessible for everyone, while preventing wasted material from ending up in landfills.

“I think a big part of our business is trying to be conscious of the amount of waste that there is within the fabric industry, specifically the fashion industry,” Charles stated. “Coming from that industry myself, I’m very much aware of just how much waste there is, and so for us, we just want to be conscious of that and making sure that the fabric doesn’t end up in a landfill or in the trash or wherever else it may go.”

Paper City Fabrics takes donations on an appointment-only basis. Readers can book an appointment or learn more about the shop at papercityfabrics.com.