Fabric Shopping

So the kids and I went to Yuzawaya in Kamata to pick up material for their costumes. It’s a great shop (good selection and less expensive than Tokyu Hands). You can find all supplies related to sewing, knitting and every type of arts and crafts. It can be a bit confusing at first to find exactly what you are looking for since there are 8 different buildings each dedicated to a specific craft. And although the buildings are pretty close to each other, they are not exactly side by side on the same block. The fabric section is inside building number 10. Once you find the building you want, you’ll want to stay for hours looking at everything. I can linger for a long time so of course the kids are never happy going there. For them it’s a real bore. The only reason Keiji was excited this time is because he found Kamen Rider Den-O fabric. And Arisa was happy because there is also a huge selection of Hello Kitty fabric, which I admit am rather excited about as well (that photo below shows 3 shelves full of Hello Kitty printed fabric). There are also fabrics with prints of Thomas and Friends, Anpanman, Miffy, Shinkansen and Mickey& Minnie.

Fabric is sold by the meter. The minimum amount of fabric you can have cut is 50 cm. The cost of Keiji’s Kamen Rider Den-O fabric, as well as the other character-print fabric, is about 1260 yen per meter. It seemed expensive at first, but then I realized that 1260 yen is still less than half the price of the Kamen Rider Den-O pajama set which is 3000 yen at Akachan Honpo. So I just go 50t cm and this was enough to make a pair of pajama pants. I still have some left over to make and a small tote bag. 1 meter could make a whole pajama set. There is also a quilted version of the character fabrics, which start at 1900 yen per meter. And there are soft fleece fabrics with prints of Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters. There were only a few selection of these. They’d make nice blankets. Coming here will make you want to sew.

To get to Yuzawaya in Kamata by train, get off at Kamata station on the JR Keihin Tohoku line. Take the West Exit and walk towards Tokyu Plaza. The various buildings are scattered in the area past Tokyu Plaza.