5 Questions to Ask Your Fabric Supplier Before You Commit to a Run
This week we walked through one decision that quietly decides whether a fabric order makes money: weight. Not the color, not the photo. Weight and construction are exactly the things a supplier's listing rarely spells out — and the things that bite you at the sample stage.
We looked at it across five fabrics. A jacquard where the pattern is woven in, not printed. A corduroy whose wale you can read on screen. A cotton you sew at two opposite ends of the machine. A lace where weight decides the price. A satin where the heavy one needs a woven floral, not a printed one.
The takeaway for a small brand is not another fabric guide. It is a five-question supplier brief you should send before any sample order.
1. What is the actual weight, and does it match the end use?
Ask for the weight — grams per square meter or ounces per yard — and match it to the job. In our velvet range, a $7.90 soft-sheen stretch drapes for a slip dress, while a $30.42 dense royal velvet holds structure for a coat or a cushion front. Same family, opposite assignments. A supplier who only talks color is not answering the question that matters.
2. Is the pattern woven or printed?
A jacquard's motif is woven in on the loom, not printed on top. Ordering from a photo of a pattern is the most expensive way to buy fabric, because you cannot see the construction. Trade sources this season keep saying the same thing: weight reads as quality, and a true jacquard needs its own loom set-up per design. Ask the question directly — "woven or printed?" — before you spec the cloth.
See what woven-in pattern looks like
3. What is the backing, and does nap need managing?
Velvet comes as a knit-backed 4-way stretch or a woven backing, and they behave nothing alike on the cutting table. A knit backing moves with the body and forgives a slightly off grain. A woven backing telegraphs every cutting error down the seam. Cut two panels in opposite nap directions and the sheen will not match under a store light. Ask what the backing is, and whether nap direction forces a re-cut.
4. What is the width, and what is the repeat?
Before you price the yardage, ask for the width and any pattern repeat. A small difference in width changes how many yards a coat shell actually eats. A supplier who quotes a beautiful price per yard but dodges the width is shifting the real cost onto your cutting room.
5. What are the MOQ, the sample path, and the lead time?
This is the one most small brands skip, and it is the one that protects you. Can you buy one yard first as a sample, then commit to the bulk order? Ask for the wholesale opening and the sample lead time before you spec the cloth — a supplier who will not name both is shifting risk onto your cutting room. We sell by the yard, so you can test a construction this season instead of committing to one and hoping.
The brief, compressed
Weight. Woven or printed. Backing and nap. Width and repeat. MOQ, sample, lead time. Five questions, one page. A supplier who answers all five is one you can grow with; one who only shows you a swatch is one you should sample cautiously.
Send this brief before your next sample order — the weight call is the expensive one to get wrong.