Greetings from Brooklyn General Store!
Brooklyn General Store resides tucked away on a sweet block West of the Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill neighborhoods. At the north end of Red Hook, this commercial block on Union Street used to be a thriving shopping block for all types of foods and goods. Brooklyn General’s home within the Old Frank’s Department Store is a throw back to that era, with its preserved floor to ceiling shelves, rolling ladders and classic old wooden floors. The vintage interior is not reproduced, just uncovered, cleaned and painted. If the original shelving isn’t enough to hold all the goods, vintage rolling shoe racks, stacks of old blueberry boxes, vintage pie safes, vintage hardware displays and shelving built from reclaimed wood house the rest.
Brooklyn General Store was created in an effort to provide the highest quality materials to a community of devoted artists and craftspeople and to promote making things by hand through inspiration and education. Not only is it a place to feast your eyes and hands on glorious colors and patterns and textures but it is a place that respects and honors a time when a trip to the country store was a way of life. It is a place where a visit for a yard of fabric turns in to a hour sharing and teaching with other people in our creative Brooklyn community. It is a haven where you can leave behind the city swirl and relish in a quiet place filled with inspiration and support for any project you can dream of.
Following its mission to promote all things handmade, Brooklyn General offers a wide variety of classes in knitting, sewing, quilting, furniture upholstery, felting, spinning, rug hooking and embroidery. Classes are limited in size in order for students to have ample individual attention. Studio time with our fantastic new BERNINA classroom machines is also available. BrooklynGeneral.com was created to share our carefully picked goods with all the creative souls outside of Brooklyn, NY.
Get a feel for the shop here.
Get a feel for The Union Bag here.
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SouleMama: Since the last time you were featured on SouleMama, in what ways has your business grown or changed? Is there anything new you'd like to tell us about?
Catherine: As the owner of Brooklyn General Store, I am continuously on the hunt for textiles, yarns and beautiful and useful products and tools...preferably made by someone's hands. For 15 years I have been looking for my idea of the perfect project bag to no avail. For several years, I have been tossing around the idea of creating this dream bag...a bag that would be strong, utilitarian, hold several knitting or other projects and be sourced and made in the United States. This year, the dream has come to fruition and I have created a bag that I proudly call The Union Bag. The name stems from many things...the shop is located on Union Street, one of my favorite songs is "Union Maid" by Woody Guthrie and I love old photos of the Union Railroad with their bright blue Rail cars. The bags are made with Railroad Denim and lined in natural Linen/cotton with a smattering of pockets inside and one on the outside. The bag bottom, buckles, handles and straps are made with latigo leather.
This weekend, Brooklyn General Store is generously offering the following gift to TWO lucky SouleMama readers:
$50 gift certificate
In addition, Brooklyn General Store would like to offer SouleMama readers 10% off all website orders for the duration of this weekend (July 23 and 24). Use code soulemama2016 at checkout!
To enter today's giveaway, leave a comment below (one entry per person, please). Comments will close by 9 am EST on Sunday. Winners will be chosen by Random Number Generator and announced in this post shortly after. Comments closed. The winners are...
I love this giveaway! Thanks!
Posted by: Karoline
Thanks for the chance. This Union Bag looks outstanding--I love everything that Brooklyn General stocks!
Posted by: Andrea
