A Guide to Paris Fabric Stores

Paris is the fashion capital of the world. Simply watch Parisians wearing the latest in fashion trends (oversized clothing is currently chic) and you get a sense of this style cred. I also recommend exploring the fabric stores that provide the materials, tools and inspiration for making Paris fashion so striking. Great fabric stores are not just the popular ones in the 18th below Montmartre but are found throughout the city’s neighborhoods. Typically smaller in size than those in the 18th, they offer a wide selection of couture and fun fabrics and notions for anyone who loves to sew, knit, embroider or just wants to be inspired by a selection of beautiful fabrics in Paris. All within a very manageable store size.

Sewing is currently finding a new audience, including younger generations who want to create their own clothes due to an interest in sustainability and handmade fashion. Sewing is also personal for all generations, allowing the creation of fashion unique to one’s own style, taste and pocketbook. Importantly, it’s a time-honored craft that expresses creativity and individuality with the end product being a source of pride.

Fabric stores are found in areas that are fun to explore including the Marais and the 2nd arrondissement. Sometimes they also are unexpectedly located next to prominent sites, including the Saint-Eustache church near the Bourse de Commerce. Let’s start there.

La Droguerie 

9-11 rue du Jour, 75001 

La Droguerie is a great introduction to Paris’ neighborhood fabric stores. Located next to Saint-Eustache church, it’s store sign of colored squares is a hint of the colorful materials and haberdashery or notions found inside. It has been a French family business since 1975 and has stores throughout France and two in Japan. The store is full of color that reflects the sign from the first step inside where one is greeted by a wall of hanging linen threads in a variety of colors and boxes of pre-cut rolls of material. French fabric stores often sell fabric (tissus) precut (called a coupon). The three meters is typically plenty for most outfits and another coupon can be purchased if more is needed.

La Droguerie’s fabrics are designed in their workshops, follow the trends of the fashion seasons and are unique. They offer a wide variety of ribbons (rubans), buttons (boutons), pins (épingles), patches (patchs) and the basics like thread (fils), zippers (fermetures) and sewing equipment. Sewing patterns (patrons de couture) feature styles for beginners to advanced and sewing kits that make great gifts.  

They also offer knitting yarns by weight or kits to create sweaters, vests, baby clothes and bags. Yarns are soft wool, plant-based or blended materials and are in an array of colors. Need a tool? Straight, circular or cable needles, marker rings and project bags are all available.

There is also a diverse selection of buttons in a range of materials, sizes, colors and shapes including a collection of vintage buttons.  Decorations like tassels (pompon), a wall of jars full of colorful beads in many sizes, patches featuring animals, bows and rows of ribbon in colors and patterns add to the fun. 

Want to create a piece of jewelry? There are colorful and creative beads, pearls, chains and charms to create bracelets, necklaces, earrings and pins. There are also jewelry kits that are perfect as presents or for yourself.

La Droguerie is a great reminder of how Paris can bring out anyone’s imaginative, bold, creative side and desire to create with your hands.

Tissu Market  

18-20 rue du Sentier, 75002 

Onward to the 2nd arrondissement where Tissus Market offers haut couture fabrics that are beautiful, elegant, inspire creativity and are not that expensive. The store is full of rolls of a wide variety of fabrics including silk (soie), satin, cashmere (cachemire), lace (dentelle), cotton (coton), tulle, sequined (paillettes), viscose, polyester, wool (laine), linen (lin), flannel (flanelle) and even fake fur (fausse fourrure). The colors, textures and designs are amazing and one could spend hours discovering beautiful, elegant fabrics. There is some haberdashery but it is mostly a tissus store.

Several rooms make up the store and areas are organized by tissus type. There is an area for “tissus mariage”, silky satin (satin de soie), silk twill (twill de soie), intricate lace and a wide variety of others. The store assistants are helpful and full of suggestions to make your sewing project a success.  As the sign says outside the building, “Entrer trouver créer” – enter and find creativity. 

Ultramod 

3-4 rue Choiseul, 75002 

Founded in 1832, Ultramod focuses on mercerie, known as haberdashery or notions. It is located at the exit of the passage Choiseul in the courtyard. The products are accessories for couture including a treasure trove of buttons, thread and ribbons that add an elegant finish to not only clothes but home décor for curtains, cushions and other furniture. Rows of ribbon spools in a rainbow of color and lines of buttons greet customers, while further in the store spools of threads, yarn, lace, feathers, other types of décor inspire. It’s a small store but a giant in color and types of decor that make statements.

Lil Weasel 

1, 4 & 5 Passage du Grand Cerf, 75002 

Who knew that inspiration would come from a cute weasel wearing a string of pearls sewing on an old-style pedal sewing machine or embroidering using a long needle wearing a wide collar dress? The three stores in the Passage du Grand Cerf focus on knitting (tricot), sewing (couture) and embroidery (broderie) and each delight with a wide variety of colorful and elegant tools and materials.

In the sewing store, I found sewing tools with a bee design that had flowers on their wings. As a bee fan, I had to buy a pin cushion (coussin à épingles). Long rows and walls are lined with bolts of all types of fabrics, including the currently popular leopard spot in a variety of colors. Rows of threads match any of the types of materials, along with ribbons, zippers and sewing machine needles.

The embroidery store has a wide collection of yarn, along with patterns, buttons and tools. Yarn skeins are mostly in cotton and alpaca wool in a rainbow of colors. There are also knit flowers to purchase along with kits, including a cross-stitch kit of La Joconde, the Mona Lisa.

The knitting store has an amazing selection of wool and cotton skeins and puffy balls that make touching them irresistible. The colorful collection is lined along walls, in baskets on the floor and boxes on tables and is almost overwhelming. This store was quite busy and even had a curious young girl who was enjoying the feel of the fuzzy wool yarn as her mother shopped.

Lil Weasel ships everywhere in the world, so if you choose more than can be tucked away in your suitcase, they will ship it for you.

La Mercerie Parisienne 

8 rue des Francs Bourgeois, 75003 

Hidden in a 3rd arrondissement courtyard, La Mercerie Parisienne is a sewing store that has it all. A selection of ribbons and buttons greet you at the entrance followed by skeins and balls of fluffy wool yarn. The store expands to a selection of fabrics in cotton and satins sold in coupons or by the meter. There are lots of trimmings, sewing and knitting patterns, threads, labels and knitting and sewing tools. It is a great store full of the basics with a great variety of colors and styles for inspiration.

Petit Pan 

76, rue François Miron, 75004

This 4th arrondissement store caters to sewing projects for kids. It is full of bright, colorful material (by the meter or coupons), buttons and ready-made hats, tops, bags and pillows that work for new moms, babies and young kids. Pink and blue are strong colors in the store but so are yellow and orange. Most buttons have flowers, colorful dots and designs. This is a store with materials and toys to entertain kids, including flowers and bugs that hang over cribs. Petit Pan stores are also located in the 12th and 18th arrondissements.

Centre Pfaff 

5 rue de Rivoli, 75004

If you are serious about sewing in Paris and need a sewing machine, the Centre Pfaff is the place to go. The machines are state of the art and utilize electronics to make sewing and control easy and efficient. Many of today’s visitors to Paris are staying longer or are buying apartments. If sewing is your passion, keep it up in Paris with a Pfaff sewing machine.

These are only a few of the sewing stores in Paris neighborhoods. Wherever you are staying, there is probably a store near you. Explore the neighborhoods beyond the restaurants and historic sites and take home something that extends your Paris experience and makes it personal by creating an outfit with couture tissus decorated with fashion haberdashery – all with a French style and touch.