Donations Guide

As the year comes to a close, it can be satisfying to make space for all that a new year has to bring. If your version of making space includes downsizing your textile craft supplies, we’ve created a helpful guide for you!

How we got here

Kathryn started Swanson’s Fabrics on the hunch that many fiber artists and collectors held on to their carefully amassed stashes because they had nowhere good enough to take them. Downsizing, an already emotionally and physically trying experience, is often made more so by the worry that well-meaning thrift shops or donation centers might not value the supplies passing through their hands and relegate them to the trash.

Here we are 4 years later, having diverted thousands of pounds of textiles from the landfill and cherishing each donation entrusted to our care before finding its forever home in the hands of just the right creator. Several times a week, we receive emails from new donors worldwide introducing themselves and generously offering to send their excess to us. Inevitably, they ask: “Do you accept _____?”

Everything… everything?

The answer, most often, is yes.

(Unless it's clothing, which Kathryn says is like a vampire— once we let it in, we’ll never get it to leave.)

An easy way to gauge if we accept something is if you would find it in the stash of a home sewer. Often, we are met with disbelief—“Even…yarn? Even buttons…even the shawl I started 5 years ago and got bored with halfway through?” To which we say, “Yes, that too.”

Some of our most frequently asked-about items:

Equipment:

• Sewing Machines

• Industrial Machines

• Looms

• Sergers

Needle Craft Supplies

Weaving Supplies

Rug making supplies:

• strips of fabric

• tufting tools and materials

Notions

Premade Kits

Fabric:

• Yardage and pieces with cuts

• Upholstery- including samples

• Curtains

• Quilt Tops - and other unfinished projects

• Leather

• All the scrappy bits

Household Linens:

• Tablecloths

• Gently used sheets

Yarn:

• Partially used skeins

• Respun

• Partial projects

• Roving

Things That May be better suited Elsewhere

Built-in Machines

Used Pillows

Clothing

Duvets/bulky beading

A note about soiled textiles…

You have our permission (and, if you are in the state of Massachusetts, the government's) to just throw them away. We know—the landfill, the various textile mountains, the environment—we feel gross about it, too. However, we don’t know anyone working with these textiles and leaving them to linger in our space (and probably yours, too!) gets in the way of working with the textiles we can redistribute. We are about doing what Works to make Real progress.

Quality Control

Swanson’s Fabrics is a fabric thrift store that aims to offer affordable fiber art supplies and keep useable materials out of landfills. That means a couple of things.

1. Like any other thrift store, we can not guarantee anything about any item's history or exact makeup.

   (Though our team has developed an EXCELLENT hand, and we regularly do burn testing when in doubt)

2. We don’t shy away from minor stains and holes—we ALWAYS note any damaged fabric in the product description and don’t count the damage in the fabric measurement.

Notes about smells and how we handle them

• Old fabric that has sat for a while- No surprise, but old fabric, like books and clothes, often smells old. When we encounter fabric that smells this way, we try to give it some time on a clothesline; the sun is an excellent, free, natural deodorizer.

• Mildew- our process for fabric that smells of mildew is the same; however, when that isn’t cutting it, we reserve these fabrics for folks who can interact with them in person to decide if the fabric is worth their rehabilitation efforts.

• Smoke / Pets—If fabric comes to us smelling of smoke or pets, sadly, we have to discard it.

We hate to throw things away and do our best not to; however, we do not have a washing machine (and doubt we could afford the laundry bill if we did), so when we can’t find anyone up for the job of rehabbing a fabric, some are discarded.

PSA: You should wash any new textiles that enter your home, whether you shop with us or someone else. From a hygiene perspective, you can’t know the life of the material between its creation and its contact with you. In addition, functionally, fabric acts differently once washed, and who wants to spend time making a custom garment only to run it through the wash and find it no longer lays correctly?

So you want to donate to us…now what?

The Details

• Are you local?

  Great! Come in during business hours and unload! If you need help unloading, let us know. We are happy to help!

• Too much to drive?

  We are happy to offer pick-up of donations that will fill the bed of a truck or more. * Scheduling is subject to staff availability - so the earlier you reach out, the better!

• Not Local?

  We happily accept mail-in donations at 320 Avenue A Turners Falls, MA 01376. However, we cannot reimburse the shipping cost and suggest you consider donating to a more local creative reuse center.

  Here are some of our favorites:

  Lucky Deluxe Fabrics - California

  Gemma Fabrics - Pennsylvania

  Making Space Thrift - Utah

  and more.

• Want Extra Credit?

  We gratefully accept donations however they come. And we completely understand that sometimes a hastily filled trash bag is the only way to actually get the job done.

  That said, we are regularly asked if we prefer the fabric presented in any particular way. And if we are honest, we are nearly reduced to joyous tears anytime someone sends us measured and tagged fabric. It makes the processing SO much easier, and you will get a big old gold star in our grade book if you give us fabric this way.

First, Thank you.

Seriously, your generosity is saving the planet, creating jobs, and empowering a new generation of creators, and we deeply, truly, and meaningfully thank you.