Sewing is a timeless tradition.
Sewing enthusiasts use their essential skills for making clothes, blankets, quilts, home decor, and other crafts. While the need for sewing in society has remained constant, improvements in technology have changed the industry over time. These sewing trends inform what projects customers want to make, what materials they buy, and how they shop.
As the owner of a fabric store, you need to pay attention to these trends, so you can effectively compete. Understanding sewing trends helps you make decisions about inventory, your business model, and how you can best serve your customers.
In this blog, we’ll discuss seven sewing trends to be aware of in 2025 and beyond. By embracing these trends and incorporating them into your business, you can ensure your fabric store stays relevant in a changing industry.
Let’s get started.
Shoppers have become more environmentally-conscious over time. Today, many consumers look for products with a lower environmental impact, and they prefer businesses that prioritize sustainability.
In the sewing industry, eco-friendly habits involve recycling fabric for new purposes and using organic and natural fabrics that are more energy-efficient and create less waste during production.
Relatively sustainable fabrics that are gaining popularity include:
Cork is an eco-friendly material that’s trending for making bags. By stocking these and other environmentally-friendly items, you do your part for the planet and appeal to customers who make sustainability a priority.
Related Read: Textile Inventory Management 101: The What, Why, and How
Do-it-yourself (DIY) projects have seen increased interest in recent years. Rather than just purchasing a finished item, people are buying materials and making it themselves.
In many instances, this approach saves money, and when consumers use recycled and sustainable materials, it’s also more eco-friendly. People also enjoy creating products by hand to feel a sense of accomplishment having built something themselves.
Sewing projects fit perfectly into the DIY movement, including quilts, pillowcases, curtains, and clothes. Stock up on the necessary materials for DIY projects. It’s important to have plenty of patterns, tools, threads, and fabrics for your customers.
Hosting workshops and tutorials is another way to capitalize on the DIY trend. You can host an in-person event at your fabric store and teach attendees how to use materials available there to create crafts, home decor, or clothing. By stocking the materials and teaching the skills customers are looking for, you empower them to fulfill their DIY dreams.
Related Read: The 7 Best Ways To Create a Hugely Successful Craft Class
Digital fabric printing technology is becoming more common and expanding in its capabilities. This has made it possible for some fabric stores to offer custom designs to customers. They can choose a certain pattern, image, or photo to print on fabric in order to make a certain project. Implementing this technology in your store helps you compete with other fabric destinations that offer this feature.
Modern fabric customers appreciate the flexibility of shopping in person or online, including with a mobile device. To capture all of the customer demand you can, you need to set up an online fabric store.
As you design your online fabric store or work with someone else to design it, make sure it’s easy to use both on a desktop and on mobile. Use a digital inventory management system to guarantee your catalog is synced between your physical and online stores. Modern point of sale (POS) systems are equipped with these features.
To create a convenient customer experience, you can offer an additional option for a customer to buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS). Be sure to promote both your in-person and online stores. You can use social media, emails, and text messages to make customers aware of new products, sales, events, and other important store announcements.
Related Read: 6 Social Media Marketing Ideas To Promote Your Quilt Shop
Some customers buy fabric to make their own clothing, and for those who do, a new trend is to make oversized clothing. This can include hoodies, trousers, cardigans, dresses, blazers, and quilted outerwear. These items emphasize comfort and freedom of movement.
These are common fabrics used to make oversized clothing:
You can respond to this trend by stocking fabric like these. As you do, look for comfort and quality. You can also create displays of oversized clothing to inspire customers to buy these fabrics. If you want to generate even more interest, host a tutorial to show customers how to make an oversized outfit and provide patterns for them to use.
Related Read: 10 Fabric Store Display Ideas To Inspire You
While some trends deal with how you sell sewing and fabric items, others are about the products themselves. There’s been a recent trend toward earth tones — like green, yellow, brown, and beige — along with floral and leaf patterns. These colors reflect a connection with nature and an eye toward sustainability. Try stocking fabrics in these colors and styles and displaying them prominently in your store to catch customers’ attention.
In addition to earth tones, there’s a trend toward bolder fabric designs, which may feature bright colors or striking patterns. These fabrics make clothing or home decor items stand out. To determine demand for bold designs, expand your selection to a variety of colors and patterns to see which products become the most popular.
Customers may be unsure of what they can do with brightly-colored fabrics. Inspire them by creating displays with examples of how these designs can be used for quilt and sewing projects like quilts, bags, and clothes.
Like any industry, the sewing industry has changed over time. When new products, materials, or business models emerge, savvy customers look for these options. For your fabric store to compete, you need to capitalize on these sewing trends. Digital systems, including POS software, help you discover new trends and give you the tools to incorporate them into your business.
Like Sew is an all-in-one POS solution designed specifically for fabric stores. This cloud-based system gives you access to extensive fabric vendor catalogs, helping you spot new products and trends.
Like Sew also has modules for events that allow you to organize, promote, and host classes and workshops. These events generate awareness and interest among your audience. With a full suite of both general and fabric-specific features, you have everything you need to run your business.
To see what Like Sew can do for your fabric store, schedule a live demo today!