Shopping at Osgood Textiles for drapery and upholstery fabric

Cindy and I met up at Osgood’s Fabrics last week. It’s a megastore located in West Springfield, Mass., that has so much fabric that it will make your head spin… all at terrific prices. Cindy (pictured above) was researching fabric for pinch pleats. I was the one who was interested in this hippie patchwork, though. It was $14/yard. Yes, there are lots more pics from this tour.

Osgoods’ specialty is fabric for home interiors, and it goes on and on and on — so much so that if you go with a friend, you better both bring cell phones so that you can find each other if you get separated.

Cindy was looking for a mid-century modern graphic or floral pattern in basically this colorway.

It was hard not to like these big bold graphic designs, though, too. I would tend to call this a contemporary (today) interpretation of modern. The colors — fantastic.

This fabric had a terrific retro-inspired hand (feel), kind of like vintage rhino-cloth.

Again, a contemporary take on mid-mod.

Cindy found a local seamstress to make her pinch pleats. If it goes well, I think I will use the same seamstress to make me some pinch pleat sheers out of this fabric, but in ecru/natural. I am going to layer the sheers under my existing pinch pleats. I love that layered look.

My vintage pinch pleats have a design not too dissimilar to this. Although, my colorway is all beiges, ecrus and very light browns. These kind of tone-on-tone pastoral toiles were and are appropriate for Retro Renovation living rooms, dining rooms or bedrooms — and convey a more formal look. I also found this same fabric, which is called Bosporus by 5th Avenue Design for Covington, at Fashion Fabrics Club online, which also has a big brick-and-mortar presence in Denver. Osgoods will do mail-order, too.

Ooooh, this would be great for an Early American basement. Actually, the fabric I made into pinch pleat for my cherry-paneled man-cave is very similar in overall feel.

Switching gears altogether, this polished cotton chintz — with its Asian toile on stripes — would look lovely in a formal living room, dining room or bedroom. That said, I think you need to be careful how you use red and gold, or else the room starts looking like the Washington Redskins.

Yowza, look at this. I know a lot of readers would like this fabric. It was stained, though. Cindy, should we go back, wheel and deal for it, clean it, then sew it into shower curtains to sell on etsy.com?

Cheap and cheerful decorating idea: Take webbing like this (which we presumed was intended for some sort of outdoor use) and craft it into pull shades. The fabric was such that, if you trimmed the edges, it wouldn’t unravel.

This would make for a pretty shower curtain in a pink bathroom. I’m nuts for novelty prints in pastel bathrooms.

Seriously, folks, if you have BIG needs for fabric, plan a vacation to Springfield/Hartford so that you can go shopping at Osgoods. Hartford has an airport servicing the region… the Basketball Hall of Fame is nearby… and Cindy and I might even come down to meet you.

Finally, I’m sure you’re curious what Cindy chose. But, I think we’ll leave that for a surprise reveal. Stay tuned.

Links: Osgood Textile.