I unfortunately do not live near a good fly shop. I am just starting to learn how to tie I need to accumulate all my beginner materials. I ordered some stuff online but I have an itch to practice while I wait for my materials to come. I noticed that my local Michael’s craft store sells things like pheasant and peacock tails and this “chenille” stuff I read about.
Is it worth it to buy this stuff?
YES…any time you can save cash…You should be able to supplement many of the things that you see along the lines of tinsels and chenille…as many other things you sometimes stumble onto better than most shops carry…or greater value than you’ll get for your money at shops…Like Foam sheets at Wally world…twice as much, for a quarter the price…!!!
Also…The gold ribbing, For Gold Ribbed Hares Ear flies is often tinsel in the pattern books…Try getting Brass beading wire at a craft store…It’s much more durable, Doesn’t tarnish…and you get a half a life times supply for very little dough…Just some thoughts…
They probably don’t have chenille in the smaller sizes, but, you can find beads, eyes, feathers, foam, leather (buckskins), yarn, marabou, wire (lg), glues, and the list goes on. I’m sure I missed a bunch.
Don’t forget craft fur for streamers.
Craft stores have peacock herl and peacock swords, sometimes these are better than the stuff in the fly shops. They also have Ostrich Herl, and maybe loose soft hackle feathers (I found some really nice almond pheasant feathers (loose) that made great hackle for soft-hackle wet flies.
Look in the thread section for rayon thread, it is the same material that is used for rayon floss in fly tying, but easier to work with (no fraying). You can find some excellent scissors, as well as storage compartment containers for your materials that you will be accumulating.
Nothing wrong with thread, at the craft stores, it comes in many colors and is just as good for tying flies.
Not to mention the fake fur, that can be used for streamers or snipped into dubbing.
i bought a pheasant pad from JoAnns, and the feathers wont come off!!! i should have gotten the loose package :oops: :roll: i also got some tan and brown pipecleaners. they r good. you can rip the fuzz off and use for dubbing, or wrap them like chennile. i bought a spool of black and a spool of tan thread, both of which are all purpose, and both of which suck! you cant even apply a pound of pressure before they snap!!!
i need to go bak and get some better stuff :x :roll: :?
Tiny bottle corks and balsa for poppers, paints and gloss coatings, doll eyes, punch and embroidery yarn, and Guinea feathers.
rawfish;
Old lead cords and speaker wire can be a source for ribbing or to weight hooks. See if you can get some “Punch Yarn” (see Al Campbell’s Too Easy Fly’s)if you can’t sent me your snail mail address. I’ve got some left.
Some Bungee cords have rubber strands that work well as legs.
Jim
A bit of caution…sometimes the dyes used in craftshop stuff is not waterproof. Might want to not store wet flies with other stuff until you’re sure.
That said, a craft store is the ONE store the bride and I can shop together in. :roll: 
…lee s.
Good, good point Lee S. Alot of this stuff isn’t water proof; it bleeds, it tarnishes and isn’t designed for this kind of use. Also be careful about feather quality and price compared to bulk for fly-tying. That said, you can find interesting stuff to supplement your standard materials.
Hooks, bucktail and feathers is about it for the fly shops, although I got a whole bunch of great bucktail and hackle stuff at the Great Waters last spring. Most of my hooks I order over the net from Cabelas. Everything else comes from craft shops and the big marts. A good friend and tyer’s wife runs a flower nursery/floral shop and gets a bunch of materials from her. Hunters are always giving me pheasant and squirrel tails. Frankly, my biggest expense is the hooks. JGW
I might add that the closest fly shop is 2 1/2 hours from here, so it takes a lot to justify a special trip to keep them alive. Great people. We just happen to live so far from one another.
Walmart Hobby Loby and other stores have items in the sewing dept. Two sizes of Mylar Tubing large and small in siver and gold. Aunt Lydias sparkle yarn a large bolt for 60 cent,fly shop small card for $1.25 can be used in place of chenille. Plastic bead chain in pearl,silver gold black and white for bead chain eyes. Balsa wood in the model section if you want to make balsa popper–rubber flip flop in the shoe dept for foam poppers. Sally Hensen Hard as Nails nail polish in clear, red and black for head cenent. Beads of all colors. Walmart has Aberdeen hooks that are great for poppers. One suggested thread from a craft store,but real fly tying thread cant be beat. Srip the outer material off electric lamp cord wire for a great source of copper ribbing wire.------BILL
I buy the cheap sheets of colored craft foam and use my punch set to make foam discs for poppers. Which by the way, cast as good or better than any popper I’ve used. They almost seem to fly! LOL imagine that! I also got some great olive mallard flank from the craft stores. There are too many ways to save money. Pet hair makes good dubbing!
I think all tyers go through the “craft store” period. On balance, buying in a craft store particularly if one isn’t well schooled in materials and requirements, will usually end up being more waste than good tying materials. I am not saying that all craft store stuff is junk, just that one needs to really know what is good and what isn’t.
Don’t forget Fabric shops they have some goodies to. One being a material called Organza. It is great for spinner wings and posts and such. Not real expensive and a half yard goes a long ways. I have Hot pink, Black, Dun and white all colors I just bought no dying. Give it a try sometime I like it a lot better than poly for these uses. Ron
Michaels is a good source for boa yarn for leeches. Knitting shops are good for other yarn. Mohair or mohair blend yarns are great for woolly buggers etc… Don’t forget that Michaels also sells packs of waterproof, permanent Sharpies. They have one color that I think of as Damselfly Blue… My local Michaels also is a great source for DMC 6-strand cotton floss and it is the only place where I can find the C&C thread mentioned in the book Midge Magic.
I agree with Ronn Lucas. After visiting craft stores you can end up with a bunch of stuff that looked good, but will never be used. I know - been there, done that 
That being said - Another group of places that can yield cheap tying treasures is thrift stores, Especially those run by churches and senior citizen centers. There seems to be quite a variety of yarns and ribbons in these places. I bought enough punch yarn at one such store to last me and 4 other tyers for a lifetime. Retail on the punch would have been close to $130.00. I don’t remember exactly what I paid for the punch yarn, but it was under 20 bucks.
Tim Anderson
There are many things that can be found outside your local fly shop, some are actually good. On the other hand the old adage “you get what you pay for” has never been more true…
If you nymph fish you are going to lose flys that is a fact and now a days a store bought fly can run up to 2.50+/- for a GRHE !!!. soooo shop at Micheals and any other place for materials that are going to be lost on the bottom of the stream/river and save the big bucks for the nice dry fly materials that will just get hung up in trees that you can rescue if you know the standing on one foot and nine and a half foot reach method of fly rescue…