The Cloth Pocket is a ‘bitty lil shop” that carries an ever-refreshed, carefully curated stock of textiles for use in quilting, crafting, & apparel inclined toward the more modern styles.
Located in Austin, Texas, The Cloth Pocket is owned by Nicole LaBry. Nicole comes from a background in apparel design by way of graphic design, so the bold graphics found in a lot of the modern quilting fabrics have always appealed to her. She used to have a local line of kidswear as well. Nicole’s mother, Cindy, is the other half of The Cloth Pocket. Cindy comes from the corporate business world & helps with numbers, profit solutions, show booking & logistics. Knowing something about marketing, a bit about IT, a lot about design, & enough about the sewn product industry was enough of a baseline for Nicole to start this business.
When Austin suddenly lost a number of local fabric stores in succession, Nicole knew it would be prudent to fill the gap. Aware of the pitfalls befallen by her compatriots in the fabric business, Nicole and Cindy realized that there was also no way to make a mom & pop shop profitable anymore. Nicole explained their business model in this way: “It’s just not enough to sustain a brick & mortar- there has to be an online presence as well. We are hoping to get to enough places in the next year to put ourselves on the map. Hopefully, if we can reach our audience in person, they’ll come find us on the web so we can keep getting them all the great fabrics!”
What does Nicole like best about The Cloth Pocket? “I love getting to meet my customers & hear their enthusiasm. I’m not doing anything any other fabric retailer isn’t doing; I’m just putting together things I like. When people come into the shop or our booth & tell me how happy they are to find these sorts of fabrics, it’s just gold. I’ve done my job right! And most of all, the relationships I get to forge are worth so much. We meet people from all over the place going from show to show & it never stops feeling great to be able to offer them something they get excited about. I can see the inspiration in their faces. It’s really something! Of course, it also feels like Christmas every time the UPS man rolls up. We call him Santa at the shop! Getting all the new things out, onto the shelf & posted about… generating the buzz & excitement over a new collection… back to showing it to our customers- it’s fantastic fun!”
What will be in The Cloth Pocket Booth at Road 2016? They will be bringing all of their latest collections from their shop like Art Gallery, Think Cotton + Steel, Alison Glass, Lizzy House, Japanese prints plus an abbreviated array of choices from their vast collection of solids & chambrays. They hope Road guests will be as excited about their wide array of fabrics as they are!
To learn more about The Cloth Pocket, visit them on their website.
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Tags: Austin, Fabric Store, Modern Fabric, Modern Quilting, Texas, The Cloth Pocket
