If you ever have occasion to visit Lillian Higa’s home, “don’t bring food,” she said.

She will, however, accept vintage Japanese fabric. Some people give it to her, and in other cases she buys it.

Her sewing room overlooking Kapalama with a sweeping view out to the ocean is full of rolls of fabric, stacks of fabric, bags of fabric and racks full of the results of her fabric collecting — blouses, jackets, pants, long dresses and men’s shirts for everyday wear, for business attire and for elegant evenings.

She also makes wallets and various styles of purses, using kimono or obi fabric, some adorned with “haori himo,” or ties used to close the fronts of short, kimono-style jackets. She also uses other types of fabric, often using small pieces that are scraps left from other projects.

After growing up poor, she has a hard time throwing things away, she said. She also “cannot do nothing,” she said. Though 83, she toils every day in the sewing room to prepare for year-round craft fairs.

Prices range from $10 for wallets up to $175 for long dresses made from formal kimonos that have embroidered designs near the bottom. Black jackets embellished with ornate obi fabric are $145. Her distinctive blouses made from bumpy silk “chirimen” (also known as crepe) fabric are $50, and the supply is dwindling as the fabric is “hard to find,” she said. The chirimen fabric is dry-clean only, and because some customers “don’t like that,” she makes cotton yukata-style blouses that sell for $45. They are wash and wear and don’t require much ironing, she said.

She doesn’t mind making “only little bit profit,” she said, explaining that if someone wants to buy something, “cheaper is better.”

Japanese fabric, especially formal kimonos costing in the thousands of dollars, is becoming harder to find from suppliers in Japan. One reason is because many of the people who own them are taking them to centers where the kimonos can be made into dresses or other garments, limiting the supply for crafters like Higa and others in Hawaii and elsewhere.

Her company name, METO, is her mother’s name. Born in Okinawa, Higa’s given name was Mori, but she took Lillian when she became a U.S. citizen in the 1960s.

She first learned the basics of sewing in Okinawa, which included some instruction on how to make patterns. When she came to Hawaii with husband Steve at age 19, she took additional classes to learn how to grade patterns, to make the same pattern in different sizes, and then went to work for Tori Richard for a few years. Since then she has had all sorts of jobs, including working in a friend’s okazu-ya, but sewing has been a constant.

She started out on the craft fair circuit selling sweatshirts that she had cut open down the front and embellished with Japanese fabric and a two-button closure, which “everybody liked,” she said. Higa says she originated the design, and while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, when she saw that others started copying her design, “I quit,” she said, and moved on to making other things.

She counts among her regular customers “a lady who still comes,” she said. The “original customer” has bought items from her from the beginning, from her first craft fair at a school in Waipahu, when she only had a “little bit” of merchandise to offer.

Her last weekly craft fair of the year is coming up next weekend, the Season’s Best Craft & Gift Fair at Blaisdell Center, Dec. 18-20. As usual, one of her two sons will help her lug all of her clothing and accessories, racks and tables to set up her booth.

After that Higa will take a bit of a break. She will travel to Japan and hopes to find some precious fabric to bring back.

Saying “I’m old already,” Higa is considering cutting back her trade show and craft fair appearances this coming Year of the Monkey — the Japanese zodiac sign under which she was born.

She would like to retire, “but what are you going to do?” she asked. “Cannot do nothing.”

“Buy Local” each Aloha Friday is about made-in-Hawaii products and the people who make them. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle