Comments on: whiptips: advice on purchasing fabrics online

By: katie

katie — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:57:39 +0000

Thanks all - some good suggestions there, a few I haven’t seen. Damian - I consider fabricmatcher.com to really be a quilter’s site; basically all the fabrics I’ve seen there are the standard printed cottons, and they’re priced by the half-yard instead of the yard. There isn’t even a way to look for fabrics targeted at babies and kids. If I wanted to quilt, it would be great, I’m sure, but I don’t.

Same really with reprodepot and the (many many many) sites that sell cotton prints (and only cotton prints.) Every time I’ve seen one of those cotton prints in person, they’re nowhere near soft enough to use for a baby; rarely would I use them for anything I’d make for me!

Denver Fabrics looks really good - I’ve ordered a bunch of swatches from them thanks to everyone’s recommendations. I’d love to try the euro fabrics but the price difference is enormous - no way I’m going near $18/yard, especially for something that will probably be grown out of in about five minutes :)

Still exploring a lot of the links, and many thanks to all who commented!

katie

By: fabricmatcher.com

fabricmatcher.com — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:29:39 +0000

Well you could give my site a go - you can match fabrics to patterns - quilts and clothes and then purchase the kit online.

Have fun.

Damian :)

By: cheryl

cheryl — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 12:36:40 +0000

My favorite sites for baby fabics are sewzannes.com sewbaby.com and if you like euro fabrics (I do) i am addicted to banberryplace.com and sewuro.com. The difference in euro fabrics is amazing. It’s like sewing on butter. The price reflects it too.

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 17:51:24 +0000

I know you’re not looking for quilting fabric, but thought I would say that Heather Ross’s cotton fabrics are super soft - the softest cotton I’ve come across (I’ve used them for baby clothes). They’re widely available at online shops. One place is here:
http://reprodepot.com/heatherross.html
I’ve also found lots of good jersey knits on Ebay.
Good luck!

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:42:36 +0000

I have gotten a lot of beautiful fabric through various Fabric Coops on Yahoo Groups. My favorite coop is ClothEssentials- search for it on the Yahoo Groups homepage. The woman that runs most of the coops on this group, Mich, is great and trustworthy and she sources beautiful fabric (organic bamboo and cotton velour and interlock, really nice wool jersey and interlock you won’t see anywhere else, hemp and cotton blends, etc.) Prices on organics are *much* less than online fabric stores- only drawback is often you have to wait a while for your fabric to arrive.

By: spyderkl

spyderkl — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:24:39 +0000

I love our local fabric store, Denver Fabrics. Their online store is at http://www.denverfabrics.com. They have sales at least twice a month, which is nice. The last time i was in the actual store, they now have a selection of organic and “eco” fabrics, including some nice soft organic cotton twill.

By: nina

nina — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:42:06 +0000

I work at a lovely fabric store in St. Paul called Treadle Yard Goods. We do mail orders. We specialize in natural fibers for apparel mostly, although we do carry cottons aplenty for our quilters too. we have a selection of organic cottons and a few nice bamboo pices too.

By: Chelle

Chelle — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 01:32:18 +0000

Near Sea Naturals ( http://www.nearseanaturals.com/) has a great selection of organic fabrics…you can reqest samplers as well.

By: olga*orange

olga*orange — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:04:30 +0000

I don’t about organic cottons, and I’ve only bought fabric for baby clothes once, but purlsoho.com, superbuzzy.com, and reprodepot.com all have fabulous, varied selections, and reprodepot might be particularly good for baby fabrics. I’ve been very happy with everything I’ve bought from all three.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:26:57 +0000

Fabricmart (referenced in an earlier comment) is great for a variety of garment fabrics at a reasonable price - you have to keep up with their site and/or swatches, as their collection is very fluid. Another place for great values and variety is fashionfabricsclub.com. Other great sites are denverfabrics.com, and fabric.com. There are a lot of sites that specialize in particular items - gorgeous-things.com has a lot of printed knits, fashionistafabrics.com has cute dress fabrics, textilestudiopatterns.com for a variety of nice knits, linens, etc., emmaonesock.com for trendy knits and unique pieces. Both Wazoodle.com and Lucysfabric.com carry organic knits. Nearseanaturals.com carries only organic fabrics but their prices are higher.

There’s a whole work of baby- and child-focused online fabric stores that I’m not that familiar with - sewzannes.com and sewbaby.com are two I do know of.
(If you’re looking for further recommendations, the forums at patternreview.com and Stitcher’s Guild - http://artisanssquare.com/sg/index.php - are great sources.)