Tips For Buying Fabric Online (Video)
Cityline
I’m a huge online shopper. It’s so convenient and wonderful in so many ways! Saves time, I can hunt for a deal, my purchases come to my door. What’s not to love?!
But what about buying fabric online? When you’re used to touching fabrics and draping them over your body (I’m not the only one that does this in the fabric store, right?), can you really trust a website?
Check out my Cityline segment below where I shared tips for online fabric shopping. And bookmark these sites:
– Walmart.ca sells pre-cut fabric for easy shopping
– TonicLiving.com is a Toronto-based site with great home decor fabrics
– Fabric.com and MoodFabrics.com are international sites with a wide variety of fashion fabrics (but you may get dinged with customs and duty charges if you’re shipping to Canada, so check with them first)
– Spoonflower.com lets you design and order your own personalized fabric by uploading your own pattern or image
Watch here…
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Cityline Host, Tracy Moore:
Shopping for fabrics online can be a little unnerving, so Denise Wild helps you navigate the websites now. Take a look.
Denise:
Whenever I buy fabric, I love to touch and feel it, but I’ve just started buying fabric online. It’s a great time-saver and I have some tips for you.
The first thing you want to do is look for a website that’s reputable. Now find one– if it has a physical location, that’s great, or if it’s been in business for a long time, then you’ll know that you can count on them. And definitely ask your friends, because word-of-mouth is always a great way to go.
Then make sure you know what type of fabric you’re buying. Whether it’s leather, whether it’s denim, or whether it’s a satin, you have to know what that fabric is called when you’re purchasing it or when you’re looking for it online.
You don’t want to get distracted by gorgeous prints like this. So this floral or this snake skin – if you purchase this because they look beautiful, you think, ‘oh this will look awesome on my couch as throw cushions,’ but they’re not quite appropriate. This might be a fabric for a skirt. So it’s a little bit stretchy, it’s too thin, it doesn’t have that durability. So you really want to read that product description to get as much information as you possibly can.
Next you want to be careful when you’re buying. So some websites will have pre-cuts and then you can just click and buy. They’re really easy. They’re already cut and ready to go. Otherwise you’re cutting the amount of fabric – you’re ordering the amount based on the garment that you’re making or based on whatever project you’re sewing.
So you want to be careful. Read that website’s policies and return policy. Sometimes they won’t let you return, so it’s really buyer beware.
Another option that some websites have is you can get pre-cuts or samples. They’ll send you small swatches like this so you can test them for colorfastness, you can compare this with the paint on your wall, or you can just feel it and really get to know what you’re buying.
Finally, when you’re ready to make that purchase, you’ve clicked and everything is in your shopping cart, be careful; you want to look at that top status bar and you want to see an ‘S’ which tells you the website is secure or you want to see a closed lock. Once you see those signals, you’re good to go.
Tracy:
Great tips, Denise. It’s time to go to break. More coming up; you stay with us.
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