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FAQ Fabric

How is one yard measured?: One yard is 36" of fabric. Decorator fabrics are usually 54" to 58" wide. Quilting and craft fabrics are 44-45" wide. Sheer fabrics can be 108-118" wide.
You often hear the words fabric mill, fabric converter and fabric jobber. What do they mean?: Fabric Mill: This is a factory where they take a raw product like cotton or silk and make a finished product or use man made synthetic fibers to produce a finished product. These finished products of fabric may be completely finished with the design and colorations in the fabric or the product may be an unpreped fabric such as greige.

Fabric Converter: This is a company who will take an unpreped fabric (i. e. greige) and complete the finishing process by printing their own designs which they may market or who also prints fabrics for others.

Fabric Jobber: : This a company who sells fabrics specially chosen from mills and converters as well as having their own designs printed or woven from a mill or converter and then books them into collections that are sold at wholesale to retailers. A Fabric Jobber also includes companies who specialize in selling closeouts, specials and odd or job lot fabrics to retailers at wholesale prices.
Can all fabrics be flame retardant?: Most fabrics can be but there are exceptions. Nylon, acetate and acrylic tend to resist treatment, as well as materials coated with Teflon or other chemicals.
How many yards of fleece are needed for a tie blanket?: 1.5 to 3 yards (1.3-2.7 meters) of each fleece. 1.5 yards makes a decent size throw, 2.5-3 yards makes a nice twin size blanket.
What is Railroaded Fabric?: The term railroading is in reference to the layout of a fabric on a piece of furniture in relation to the way it is woven at the fabric mill. Looking at the image below, the regular or left sofa has the fabric pattern running up the roll and that is the normal way fabric is milled. The pattern or in the case of a velvet, the grain, would run up/down. The sofa on the right has fabric that is milled "railroaded", this means that the fabric is woven so that the pattern or grain is situated so that the top would be from one side of the fabric to the other side.
How to Measure a Fabric Repeat/What is Vertical and Horizontal Repeat: The vertical and horizontal repeats of a fabric are how many times the pattern of a fabric repeats in 1 yard. If you do not know what your repeats are you can measure them by rolling out a yard of the fabric (if you have that much) and measuring from the top point of the pattern to the bottom point of the pattern for your vertical and from the left most point to the right most point for your horizontal. Knowing your repeats insures that you purchase the correct amount of yardage for your project.