First Online Fabric Purchase Thoughts & Impressions

I was hesitant to order fabric online after the discussions we'd had in my quilting classes. On the pro side, there's a bigger variety of colours and prints available online than any one shop could ever hope to carry. On the con side, there is no way to know from an image what thickness or quality of fabric you're going to get.

Considering the high quality fabrics I've gotten from Earthly Goods so far, it seemed like a gamble to order from an unknown source, but the only way to find out was to actually get some fabric. I considered ordering from Pink Chalk Fabrics and Fabricworm, but in the end I chose the Fat Quarter Shop because they carried most of the prints I'd been drooling over for at least six months.

Ordering fabric from a US store usually means that the shipping fees will be quite high, so I ordered quite a bit at once. This should be enough for one full size quilt and a few smaller items. My package arrived today after a week of waiting impatiently. This is how the fabric was packaged inside the box:

The first package held 1/2 yard of 8 fabrics:

White Birdcages - J'Adore Stella collection by Dear Stella Fabrics
Sea Bears in Line - Get Together by David Walker
White Linen Tortoises - Little Apples by Aneela Hoey
Blue Allover Hydrants - Off to the Rescue by Becky Taunton
Red Allover Hydrants - Off to the Rescue by Becky Taunton
Annie's Big Dot - Annie's Farm Stand by Holly Holderman
Black Grande Gighnam - Annie's Farm Stand by Holly Holderman
White ToadstoolHouses - Woodland by Natalie Lymer

The second package contained my larger yardage cuts of these 3 fabrics:

Black Dressforms -  Black and White by Michael Miller Fabrics
Blue City Dogs - Brown Stone by Timeless Treasures Fabrics
Black City Dogs - Brown Stone by Timeless Treasures Fabrics

The last package was my Brown Stone fat quarter bundle, containing more of both City Dogs fabrics, as well as 6 other complimentary fat quarters. 

So first off, I am definitely impressed with how the prints I chose from a small picture actually look in full size. I was worried that the colours wouldn't be well represented on the screen, but they are pretty much exactly what I thought they would be. The size and scale of a few of the prints is different from what I expected though. I thought the birdcages would be larger and farther apart, and the houndstooth in my fat quarter bundle is smaller than I imagined. This isn't a big deal, they look awesome.

Where I do have a bit of an issue is the thickness of the fabrics. These are not at all the same grade quilting fabrics as what my local quilt shop carries, they are more like what you would get at Fabricland. The cotton fabrics I normally buy are much thicker. You can get an idea of how thin these are by looking at the Turtles and Toadstool Houses above - in both you can clearly see the design from several layers below showing through the white fabric.

I probably wouldn't use these fabrics in the same quilt as my regular Earthly Goods fabrics because they are so different in weight and they would shrink and wear differently. I did think of this possibility when I placed my order though, so there's enough here for me to make entire projects without having to mix.

I plan to pre-wash everything before sewing, and will be making a full size quilt with most of these fabrics. How well they hold up during washing and quilting will really be what determines the quality of my new fabric haul. Once I've figured that out, I will review them further.