Welcome to the fabric & finery Online Store.

Lovely delivery just now...re-stock of our ever popular 100% Wools and Wool mixes, all premium quality!

Our customers love these for anything from Wool Coats, Satchels, Chair seat covers, Cushions and Cushion Backs, pouches, snoods, mixed media art - so many different uses!

They will be priced and out on the shelves by tomorrow lunch time.

Remember, we are open for public RETAIL on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays 10am to 5pm. The other days/ times in the week are occupied by our extensive range of sewing classes & clubs and by the onsite manufacture of premium quality made to measure soft furnishings.

See you soon for a browse! By the weekend these wools will also be available online, as meterage or 60cm fat quarters so you have just enough for the one project without having to buy a full metre.

Many thanks, Irina & team ...

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Good morning All!

Please remember, if you needed anything fabric, yarn or ribbons/buttons/thread related this week, that we are

NOW OPEN on WEDNESDAYS
and CLOSED on Thursdays!

I totally appreciate that this will take a little while to filter through but hopefully its for the better in the end. We can only but try.

We are open 10-5 today Wednesday and then again FRIDAYS and SATURDAYS 10-5. Hopefully all easier to remember than the mix of opening times before. Please throw the little cards out though that we gave you to remember the previous opening times.

Google, website and facebook are all updated with the new times, should you wish to double check before travelling.

Have a good day all and Happy Creating!

Many thanks as always,

Irina & team ...

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Dear All,

I think we need to talk maths and business for a couple of minutes today.

Feel free to share this post far and wide. Don`t shout or swear at brick & mortar businesses please, they hang in there for YOU.

PLEASE phone ahead or check google/website/social media on the day before you travel to ANY of us, we might have had to make amendments in order to survive a little longer.

We are not bulk buying large chains, Shein or Temu. Also not a wholesalers selling to the public directly via facebook groups, fake name websites, etc, without shame and sadly without UK trading standards doing anything about it.

BUT we can offer you the RARE LUXURY of "discuss, ask, touch and feel before you buy".

In 2026 brick & mortar retail for anything other than fresh food or beauty treatments is battling other challenges, it is no longer what it was in the past, what we grew up with. We MUST understand that, learn and adapt.

Minimum wage is £12.50, soon £13.50 per hour. REAL cost incl. employer social contributions, Holiday accrual and pension payments is about £26/hour now and will hit the £30 from April 2026.

So if the shop is open 7 hours from 10am to 5pm with 2 team members, it is 14 x £26 REAL cost = £364 per day.

Margin 30% to compete with online shops, VAT 20%
Credit card fees of min 45p/transaction and upwards in percentage of sales

£364 : 30 x 100 = £1,213.33 plus 20% VAT and say £30 average per day card charges = £1,486. So as you can see we would need AT LEAST £1,500 per day revenue to pay the two girls at minimum wage, PLUS of course further revenue to pay for the lease, the light, the heating.

Unachievable? Loss of nearly £1000 a day on quiet days? Correct. Why do we do it still?? With reducing down to 3 days a week, we hope to group customers so the daily revenue increases, we are still a platform to discuss classes & clubs, receive soft furnishing commissions, be here as a community effort for the elderly, etc.

If this does not work out, then the "luxury of touch and feel" clearly is an unnecessary relic of the past in 2026.

It is YOUR choice. Adapt and use it - or lose it.

Irina Agostinelli / fabric & finery Helensburgh ...

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Thank you all so very much for taking part in our recent opinion poll about the NEW OPENING TIMES FROM NEXT WEEK, it has been very helpful!

We have listened and hope that with our final decision the "in person shop retail" will still be accessible to you all, also the shop opening times are easier to remember now - 10am to 5pm - on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Please do also visit us on our website www.fabricandfinery.co.uk - you can opt for collection of your goods from the shop, just send us a message, we will refund the postage charge on collection.

Thanks to our busy sewing school we will be at the shop until 10pm most nights anyway, so a late collection on your way home from work is absolutely possible and can happily be arranged most days of the week, just liaise with us about it.

Onwards and upwards in 2026, may our amendments ensure that we can stay open for public brick & mortar retail for a little longer!

Thanks again for your loyalty, Irina & team ...

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Which 3 days in a week shall "fabric&finery" be OPEN to the public for retail going forward? ...

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Dear All lovely customers!
Please may we invite you to a VERY IMPORTANT SURVEY.

This weeks marks the one year Anniversary (!) of packing up, with the enormous help of so many of you, and moving from our old shop on 3 West Clyde Street, on Helensburgh`s promenade, to our new premises here at 32 East Princes Street, across the train station, still in Helensburgh.

We did not downsize before time. As you hear it from everywhere around you, staffing has become unaffordable in small business retail. Brick & mortar shops go online only, if they continue at all, and brick & mortar revenue stands in no sustainable correlation to the outgoings.

It is not any different for us, and in April 26 it will get worse again with the beginning of the new tax year and another considerable rise of employment cost. We already make a daily loss from being open to the public now so immediate adaptation is required.

So we have to either make the heart breaking decision to close to the public entirely or try one last time to make our brick & mortar retail sustainable with reducing to BEING OPEN 3 DAYS PER WEEK ONLY.

Now, shall that be Wednesday/Thursday/Friday - OR - Thursday/Friday/Saturday?

It is soooo hard to decide. We meantime found that many people pop by on a Wednesday and find us closed, (more than actually do come on a Monday or Tuesday) but Saturday is often the only day some people can come along.

However, we can only afford staffing for THREE days, not for four.

So please, please HELP us and take part in the POLL to decide which three days are BEST - the OPINION POLL is in the NEXT post!

Thank you so very much, if we all help together, we can hopefully keep the brick & mortar retail going for another wee while, please let us know your thoughts. Thanks again,

Irina & team
at fabric & finery Helensburgh ...

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Happy Valentines Day...show the love to your pals and gals! ...

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Loook what has just arrived!!

A wonderful new selection of fancy stitch markers, all with little carabiner hooks...they actually would make lovely little charms for pouches, pencil cases and make up bags, too!

Daisy flowers, tulips, cats and even a gothic style variety! All at £5.95 for 4, 5 or 6 stitch markers/charms. ...

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When you retrieved another ironing board from the storage to support the three you have in the shop for tomorrows Sunday Quilt Class` project of completing and then layering up their patchwork blocks for table runners - and you decide to finally use a cherished curtain you had stacked away for so long to make a new board cover for the occasion....

The demise of curtain fabric quality over the years is real....alone to touch this fabric again and feel it is a real joy...when Cotton was still really good Cotton...uncomparable to what you can buy today....really sad...

On a positive note, I will post up the Classes` achievements tomorrow so you can see what we are up to on Quilting Sundays...if you wanted to give it a shot as well and learn how to Patchwork and Quilt, the next Sunday Class starts on 8.3.26 and can now be booked on our website www fabricandfinery co uk!
Only 6 places so be quick!

See you in March? Would be great!
Irina & team ...

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Back in stock!

The very popular Moorland Chunky by stylecraft has returned to our shelves and now stocking the lovely `heather` too!

100g
100% acrylic

£4.50 each ...

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Valentines and Easter, here we come!

Hearts and Bunnies galore at "fabric&finery" with more arrivals yet to come....any projects in mind yet?

Happy to help bringing your vision to life.
Irina & team ...

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Tooooo many colours, too little space!!
Brand new 38mm Cheetah webbing, which colours shall we order?

I can find space for 4 colours - I like the fuchsia pink one and perhaps the red one for a wee change? Which ones would YOU buy if we stocked them?

Please post below, cannot wait to see what you will say!! ...

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