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Normally, this time of year, Juneau’s largest craft store would be full of plastic pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts, and, of course, fabric. But instead, the former Joann store in the Nugget Mall sits dark and empty — a spooky reality, say local costume makers.
Months after the chain closed across the nation, the gap in craft supplies is being put to the test at a crucially creative time of year: Halloween.
Elizabeth Bauer makes her five-year-old daughter’s Halloween costume every year, and usually, she wants to be something a bit unusual.
“Last year, she knew for months she wanted to be a white bat,” Bauer said. “So it’s like, you can’t find a white bat costume anywhere.”
Bauer found white furry fabric at Joann, and made wings and a headband with bat ears for her daughter.
But this year, Bauer is scrambling to find the material she needs to make another unusual costume, a hybrid jaguar and parrot from her daughter’s favorite cartoon, “Elena of Avalor.” She needs to make a pink base outfit, leopard spots, wings and a tail. And she has to find all of the materials and finish sewing by Friday.
“But there’s not one store that you can go to and get all of those items that you’re looking for for a craft project,” she said. “You have to piece it together between all these different places.”
Meanwhile, in Maggie Hyde’s costume closet, she held up a blue and green dress with scalloped ribbons of different colors. The shade of the fabric she bought online is not quite right.
“I made it work, but these two shades were supposed to be a lot more different,” Hyde said. “They were not supposed to be the same shade, but on a website, they looked very different to what they look like in person.”
Hyde is a costumer. She participates in Juneau’s annual Wearable Arts show — where creators show off costumes they’ve made themselves — and she designs outfits for renaissance fairs, cosplay photoshoots and, of course, Halloween.
She said it’s a gamble to buy materials online for her creations. And she doesn’t want to support online retailers that don’t treat their employees well and often sell lower quality materials. Shipping costs are often high, if a company even ships to Alaska.
“Now it’s this whole process of shipping, of looking and that just makes it a lot more difficult,” Hyde said. “You kind of have to adapt.”
Juneau Drag Mother Gigi Monroe said she and her fellow drag performers have been doing just that.
“For professionals, we know how to get what we need and figure things out,” she said.
But this year, she had to pivot from a costume idea for Juneau Drag’s Halloween show because she couldn’t find more niche materials anywhere. Monroe said Joann usually had that kind of thing.
And she said the store’s closing also impacts her methods. She would often go to the store with parts of an idea in mind, and figure out the rest based on what fabric she could touch and see in person.
“So there’s a lot of designing that actually happens in the store, and you don’t really always have to go in knowing exactly what you need,” Monroe said.
When they first heard the bad news, Monroe and other performers went to Joann’s closing sales and stockpiled on some heavy-hitter supplies — like rhinestone glue.
Monroe said other stores in town — including Juneau’s two quilting shops — help fill some of the gaps.
And for Juneau’s more casual costumers, there are still options. Kathy Buell is owner of local party store Balloons by Night Moods.
“Halloween is our busiest season for anything that is not balloon-related,” she said.
The store’s shelves are stocked with ready-made costumes that fit infants, kids and as many sizes for adults Buell can find. It also has pieces that can be added to home-grown costumes.
“We have makeup, we have wigs, we have hats,” she said. “Prosthetics that you put on with latex, blood, lots of blood.”
There is still a lot left for holiday procrastinators, she said.
“We still have a lot of stock, because honestly, I’ve already—and it’s not even Halloween yet—I’m already buying for next year,” Buell said.
Still, the hole left by the Joann closure is a hard one to fill. But Monroe said there’s a letter-writing campaign asking national craft chain Michaels to step in.
