Damen Avenue's Newest Shops Come With a Worktable

About 200 rolls of fabric now fill the storefront at 1912 N. Damen Ave. They include wool, cotton, silk, linen and denim, much of it European deadstock that owner Megan Lambert picked out herself on a recent trip to Italy. Deadstock is cloth a mill or designer produced and never used. Block Club Chicago reported that the shop, Folklore Fabrics, was set to open at noon on Friday, Oct. 30.

Two days later and a block and a half north, Lindy & Light opened at 2064 N. Damen. It is an art boutique, gallery and working studio that holds workshops on Tuesday nights. Bucktown's two newest shops on Damen both sell something to take home, and both also sell time at a table inside the store. They opened on a stretch where the shop owners organize the holiday season themselves.

Two openings, two days apart

Folklore Fabrics calls itself a "neighborhood haberdashery." It sells fabric and sewing supplies, and part of the floor is set aside for classes. Lambert told Block Club the shop specializes in "natural fibers as well as European deadstock." She also said it is not a tailoring shop and won't take custom clothing orders. Her plan is to help other people with their own projects.

The class schedule is what makes it more than a store. Lambert is starting a series of classes and workshops that includes one on smocking and one on taking measurements. She also plans private lessons and "open sew" time on sewing machines that are due to be installed later this year. She described the shop to Block Club with the same short horizon she gave the lease. "It's a three-year lease. It's a three-year experiment."

Hours are a little unusual for Damen. Folklore is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and noon to 5 p.m. on weekends. It is closed Monday and Tuesday.

That leaves Tuesday open, and Tuesday evening is when Lindy & Light runs its workshops. Lindy, who owns it, describes herself on the shop's site as an artist and photographer. She sells original art, prints, art supplies, objects and gifts, and she invites customers to "spend a Tuesday evening making something with us." The shop's pre-opening page gave the date as Nov. 1, 2026.

Between the two shops, someone could learn to sew from Wednesday through Sunday and make art on Tuesday, all within a few blocks.

The making block, in walking order

The new arrivals join a stretch that already had places to make things. Indie Row Bucktown's directory already lists ColorVibes Craft Studio at 1944 N. Damen, and The Red Balloon Co. is next door at 1940. Walking north from Folklore, here are the businesses the directory lists between the two new shops:

The cafés along this route have been here for a while. TRUCE opened in 2024, and Pompette opened in October 2022. The newest food stop is a little past the end of the table. Cafe Gimme is an all-day café at 2115 N. Damen, and Block Club reported in late July that it had opened. Its menu runs from coffee and açaí bowls to cocktails and wine. On a Tuesday, someone could have coffee at Gimme and then walk south to a Lindy & Light workshop without leaving Damen.

Shop owners organize the holiday season here

The workshops matter more because of who plans Damen's holidays. Indie Row Bucktown describes itself as a group of independent small-business owners. Its main corridor is Damen from North Avenue to Webster Avenue. Members pay $100 a year, the community work is done by volunteers, and the group looks to the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber for event grants. The people who decide where the carolers stop are the ones behind the counters.

The holiday market shows how that works. The Chamber listed the Indie Row Bucktown Holiday Market for Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, from noon to 5 p.m., with Santa, carolers and a hot chocolate walk. The group's events page describes the market in more detail. Carolers sponsored by the Bucktown Community Organization start at The Red Balloon at 12:30 p.m. and head north. They stop at ColorVibes, TOMOKOHI, VIRTU, BFF Bikes, The Royal Grocer, Door 24, iD and Red Eye Eyewear before finishing at ReJenerate Aesthetic Studio at 2131 N. Damen. The page puts Santa inside ReJenerate and face painting at Ries Wellness, and it lists eleven shops on a hot chocolate walk from 3 to 5 p.m. The same page describes a stamp card. Shoppers who collect six stamps with purchases at participating businesses are entered in a drawing for a curated set of gifts. Pavilion Antiques takes food donations, and Ries Wellness takes toys for Toys for Tots.

That format runs on foot traffic moving from shop to shop. A fabric store and an art studio with regular class nights give people reasons to come back to the same blocks between holiday events. Indie Row posts its schedule on its events page.

The dates already on the calendar

The neighborhood-wide holiday calendar is set by the Wicker Park & Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. These dates are posted:

1. Wednesday, Nov. 25: The Chamber's Holiday Digital Shopping Map goes live for Thanksgiving shopping weekend. It will be posted on the Chamber's website and social media, and a QR code for it will appear on the printed Winter Wonderland map.
2. Saturday, Nov. 28, and Sunday, Nov. 29: WPB Small Business Saturday covers both days across Wicker Park and Bucktown, promoted through the digital map.
3. Saturday, Dec. 5, noon to 6 p.m.: WPB Winter Wonderland & Tree Lighting is free. Metzger Court at 1260 N. Milwaukee will have photos with Santa, fireside s'mores and letters to Santa, and the tree lighting is at 1425 N. Damen in Wicker Park. The Chamber lists Indie Row Bucktown as an organizer, along with SSA #33, the Wicker Park Advisory Board and the Chicago Park District.
4. Thursday, Dec. 31: The digital shopping map stays up through the end of the year.

The tree lighting is about a mile south of Folklore Fabrics on the same street, Damen. For people starting in Bucktown, the walk down Damen passes the new shops on the way.

Next on Armitage: wood-fired pasta in early 2027

The next big opening is just off Damen. Trattoria Lo So is taking the former Jack & Ginger's space at 2044 W. Armitage Ave. It comes from Sarah Grueneberg, the co-owner, and Bailey Sullivan, the executive chef, both of Monteverde in the West Loop. The Sun-Times reported on Oct. 7 that it is aiming to open in early 2027. The menu is built around bronze-die dried pasta from Mancini Pastificio Agricolo in Italy's Marche region. The one-story building had room for a wood-burning oven and a charcoal grill. Grueneberg and Sullivan have joked that it will be "like the cool aunt that Monteverde wished that they had." Both new Damen shops are open now, so their class schedules will be running well before the trattoria opens.

If you own a home or condo within walking distance of Damen and want to know how blocks like this affect what buyers pay for nearby buildings, Hudson Parker can help. Request a Building-Specific Market Plan, and a senior broker will go through your building's recent sales alongside the streets around it.