If you're a crafter looking for ideas, a fashion maven looking for a new way to style, or if you're decorating a house, walking through your local fabric shops can be the inspiration you're looking for.

Fabric shops are a sensory feast. From the colorful and varied array of fabric bolts of all types, hues, patterns, and materials, to the various trims, buttons, ribbons, fastenings and other types of dry goods, well stocked fabric shops will delight the eyes and fingers.

Looking through the pattern books will most likely give you ideas for seasonal crafts and sewing projects. The patterns available today also offer a wide variety of projects for the home. Draperies, curtains and other window treatments, table coverings and runners, pillows and pillow shams, wall hangings and more can all be put together from a purchased pattern and the materials available at the fabric shop. Costumers will also find inspiration here, whether creating SCA garb, costumes for a theater group, or for a child's Halloween costume. There are many ideas to be found in the pattern books. You'll also find ideas for outside decorations, such as flags and banners.

If you're a quilter, the calico and cotton racks will offer up an array that will spark your inner designer. Mixing and matching calico patterns and cotton solids will have you mapping out your next project in no time.

Fashion conscious women who are on a budget will find incredible inspiration in local fabric shops. Putting together the style from a pattern and altering it to your liking, then choosing the fabric and color that will suit you best, and trimming it in a distinctive way will allow you custom clothing that would cost many hundreds of dollars more if tailor made.

For those who like to decorate with the season, local fabric shops will offer up an astounding array of cloth and trim in seasonal colors of your choice. Add a craft project pattern and mix it up a bit, and you've got a great seasonal decor for your next dinner party or event.

So take a stroll through your local fabric shop. You'll be glad you did.