Austin Creative Reuse, 2005 Wheless Lane, is a local store that resells donated craft materials at a fantastic price. They have a large selection of items, and new stuff is added every day.

They sell fabric, sewing machines, sewing supplies, yarn, knitting needles, jewelry making tools, beads, paper, records, organizing tools and more. They are currently only accepting donations through appointments, which just shows you how much they have. Right before quarantine (March 4, 2020) they had just moved to another, larger space. They only recently reopened for in-store shopping, but they have managed to stay alive the past year through monetary donations and online, curbside, pick-up orders.

They are now allowing people to shop inside, but they have pretty strict rules to maintain COVID safety.

• They are limiting the number of people in the store at a time.
• Contact tracing (before entering the store you have to fill out a google form with your personal info and contact info in case of exposure).
• Requiring all customers and employees to wear a mask at all times while on their property, both in the store and waiting outside to get in.
• Providing hand sanitizer at the door.
• Frequently cleaning high contact surfaces and baskets.
• Plastic shields have been installed at the register to separate customers and employees.

The store also has a service where you can pay $5 for a store employee to walk around the store with them on Zoom and show you whatever items you wish, and then once your 30 minutes are up you can select which items you want and they will charge it to your uploaded credit card.  For patrons who are medically mask exempt, they can use this service free of charge and without the time limit.

It’s Austin so most places are generally LGBTQ+ friendly, and ACR is definitely on the list. They have multiple PRIDE flags on and around the register, and many employees wear PRIDE pins and pronoun pins on their aprons. The employees are very personable and friendly, and most of them are also into crafting and have a lot of personal expertise that adds to their credibility and helpfulness.

The prices are astonishingly good. I personally buy most of my fabric there, and I’m addicted. It is a bit more of a gamble than buying from a store like Joann’s, because you can’t control how much you get, and it is usually rolled up so there might be a flaw you can’t see, but I think it is well worth the risk. Most of the fabric is priced at around $2 a yard, but like I mentioned, the amount it says is what you get. So if a piece of fabric for sale is 6 yards, it will likely be $12.

They also have a fantastic remnant section, and there are often great finds to be discovered there. Everything labeled as a remnant is $0.25 total, but there are a number of fabric pieces in there that are not remnant size. I recently got a lovely length of fabric from that section that was almost 3 yards, and was a full 60 inches wide.

I love a good thrift store, and this one is one of the best. If you are interested in crafting or just looking for some materials this is a great place to go. You can also check out their website for their hours and online ordering!