There were a couple comments this week asking for suggestions for how to better match colors when shopping for fabric online, so today I’ve put together some suggestions for ways to have greater success getting fabrics together for a particular project when you can’t see them all at the same time first.  I don’t think I really processed that one of the hardest parts of shopping online for fabric, especially for quilters, is to get the colors to coordinate well, and if you’re already working within a budget, avoiding misfires gets even more important.  These suggestions ought to give you some guidelines that will help you get your selections right the first time!

Image of Honey Child by Jennifer Paganelli for Sis Boom Fabrics via A Sewing Journal

1. You can choose fabrics from within a coordinating collection to ensure that the colors match. The vast majority of quilt-weight cottons out right now, which can be used for anything from apparel to crafts to quilts to bags and home decor, are created within a collection.  All the fabrics in a particular collection are designed and colored to coordinate with one another.  Even when there are multiple colorways, or color groups, in a collection–for example, eight different prints and each print is available in three colors equals three colorways/24 prints total–the individual prints are designed to work with one another.  Remember that a print doesn’t have to match another print in order to work with it.  By shopping within a particular collection, you can easily ensure that all your fabrics will play nicely with one another–in fact, that’s the whole purpose of creating coordinating collections in the first place!  (While I have heard criticism that using one collection exclusively for a particular project is “cheating,” I maintain that if you like the fabrics and you enjoy them together, then they work, so go for it.)
2. You can choose fabrics that are designed to coordinate, but not from the same collection. Some designers have begun producing solids that are designed to coordinate with their printed collections–these can be quilt cottons, voile, velveteens, or home dec fabrics.  Westminster/Free Spirit is largely leading the way with this, so Anna Maria and Amy Butler and Joel Dewberry and Jay McCarroll’s lines all have solid coordinates that are specifically colored so that they will work with the prints.  Much less work on your part!  The downside, of course, is that not every collection or designer or manufacturer has such colors.
3. Many manufacturers are now working to make collections from various designers coordinate with one another. If you purchase a fabric from a Fall 2010 collection put out by Robert Kaufman, for example, the colors in that collection are designed to coordinate with other Fall 2010 collections–and some Spring 2011, or even Fall 2011, collections, too.  It makes it nice for designers and consumers alike to know that particular shades will translate across multiple fabric groupings so that we can pick-and-choose those prints that we like best and combine them with the confidence that the inks used to print them are really the same color–they don’t just look like they’re maybe sorta the same color on our screens, but then in natural light it turns out they’re totally different colors altogether.  Save your selvages when you remove them from your fabric so that you can search for other fabrics by the same manufacturer (they have websites of their own where they showcase collections, and most online retailers sort by manufacturer or name the manufacturer in the details listing for each fabric).Image via Bridges on the Body.
4. Use a standard reference color to communicate with the shop owner from whom you’re ordering. Screens are notorious for displaying colors inconsistently from one viewer to the next.  I know some folks advocate norming your display to ensure that you’re seeing the same colors that would show in natural light, but not all of us feel confident that we can do that accurately.  In theory, you could use Pantone colors to compare, but aside from the fact that most online shops don’t give you Pantone referents for fabrics, it’s not really a universal language outside of professional designers.  What I find much more effective is to compare the color you’re seeking to a common reference tool, and use that to guide you as you make your selections.  I’d suggest one of the following (and maybe both): a Kona solids color card, and Guterman threads.  Kona has a huge range of solid cottons, and one of them is just the color you’re looking for.  Say you’ve got a pile of fabrics and you’re looking for a backing.  You check your Kona reference card, find a color you like, and search for prints in that color.  You can use that color name as a reference when you communicate online with shop owners by asking them if they have anything that matches that color in stock that they’d recommend, or by selecting fabrics from their shop front and then contacting them to visually confirm that the print matches the Kona you’ve selected.  Same thing goes for Guterman threads: we carry them at Whipstitch, and I know that if I want a fabric that matches thread color 712, I can ask the ladies to help me choose prints that are close in color. (The reverse is true, too: I can ask them to choose me thread to match my project, too.)Image via Blue is Bleu on Flickr.
5. Not sure what colors to choose?  Try a color-match generator to guide you. There are some cool gadgets online that can help you if you’re less worried about whether a color is a perfect match than if it will coordinate with your project: say you have a pile of fabrics you love for a quilt, but you’re not totally confident that they will work well together.  Use a color generator to suggest combinations you might not have thought of, or to verify the harmony of the ones you’ve already selected.  You can even shoot a photo of your fabrics to create a palette of the major colors that appear within them–even if they’re from a zillion different collections!  I know!  Try the Color Scheme Designer, the Color Palette Generator, or the free online color palette.
6. When shopping for isolated fabrics rather than coordinates, read descriptions carefully and ask for help. In order to best choose fabrics online, take care to really read what the shop is telling you.  Often, descriptions are written with plenty of information to help you determine whether the red you’re seeing is a candy-apple red or a deep, burgundy red.  Always, always ask for help–chances are, if you find a shop owner who isn’t willing to answer your questions about which fabrics coordinate with one another, you have found a shop owner who isn’t going to follow through in other areas of customer service, so search and find a shop or shops that you feel good about doing business with over and over again!Image via The Fabric Fairy
7. If all else fails, request a swatch! For some folks, this is the very first line of defense.  For others, it’s the last thing they want to do.  But if you feel as though you really can’t make a good decision without actually holding the fabric in your hand, then order a small swatch and verify for yourself.  If you can’t get a swatch, or your favorite shop doesn’t sell them, then a fat quarter is a great alternative if you are planning to order many yards–if it doesn’t match, you can always use it for another project, but you wont’ be stuck with yards and yards you’ll never have use for.

Matching colors when you don’t have access to the fabric can be tough.  Using some simple guidelines and knowing a bit more about the options that are out there in online FabricLand can help!  Let me know in the comments if you’re seeing other ways to get great fabrics online–I’d love to hear them!

I’m delighted today to be guest posting for Rae over at Made By Rae as part of her Spring Top Sewalong. I have really, really been enjoying seeing all the entries pop up on Flickr, so when Rae invited me to come up with some tips on how to shop for fabric online, I searched through the submissions for some examples of fabric in action to illustrate–hope you enjoy!

For a lot of us, there isn’t a nearby place to go in person and see some of the really fantastic fabrics that are available and that we drool over as we browse blogs and Flickr.  We fall in love with a print on Anna Maria’s site or from Jay McCarroll’s latest collection, and we want to touch it and feel it and look at it in different lights–and if you don’t have a local independent fabric shop where you can do that, it can be frustrating.  You can shop online, but I hear from customers over and over that they’re very hesitant to shop for fabric online because they think it can be a gamble, and when you’re not really assured of what you’re getting, it’s intimidating to spend your cash and cross your fingers.

Buying online can be a great way to get access to fabric you don’t have locally, and it’s always fun to explore the wide world of prints and fibers and textures from the comfort of the Internets.  There are some really basic things you can know that make shopping for fabric online easier, and will lead you to choose the best fabrics for your projects.

1. Avoid polyester. This might seem like an irritating snooty rule, but it’s always my #1, most especially when shopping for fabric that I can’t feel and touch.  The problem with polyester is the enormous range in quality–you might find something in a shop that has a poly content and it feels OK, but there are so many lower-quality poly fabrics out there, and if you can’t test them by touching them first, it’s generally a good bet to avoid them, just in case.  You want your fabrics to feel good both as you wear them and as you work with them, and natural fibers like cotton, linen, silk and bamboo are much more consistent in that regard.  No one likes getting a nasty surprise when you open the box you’ve been waiting on and fantasizing about only to find that the fabric is icky and feels like plastic.  Yuk.
2. Choose fabric that has the appropriate weight for your project. Weight, in fabric, refers to the substantial-ness of the fabric.  Specifically, it refers to the number of ounces per square yard, which translates to how much thickness and recovery the fabric has.    A quilting print, for example, doesn’t have the resilience to be used for a pencil skirt–it will bag at the backside and fail to retain its shape when it is worn.  Better to use a denim or a heavier twill so that your skirt will stay chic and fitted.  Most fabrics are referred to as “top-weight” (also “dress-weight” and “quilt-weight”) or “bottom-weight.”  Most quilting-weight prints–like Anna Maria Horner’s or Amy Butler’s--weigh about 4.5 ounces per square yard.  Most bottom-weight fabrics, like twill or denim, weight between 8 oz/sq yd (a lighter-weight fabric that can be used to make skirts, jackets or heavy shirts) to 16 oz/sq yd (closer to the pants we’re accustomed to buying off-the-rack).  When selecting fabrics online, look for those terms to tip you off to how much recovery and thickness the fabric has.
3. Remember: there is a difference between weight and drape. While a fabric’s weight refers to the thickness and recovery of the fibers, drape is different, and refers to the way the fabric hangs and clings to the shape beneath it.  Usually, the term used to describe a fabric’s drape is hand, as in: “This twill fabric has a very stiff hand.”  The drape of a fabric has a dramatic effect on how the finished garment looks and feels on the body, and some fabrics are better suited to certain shapes than others.  For example, look at this top in two different fabrics:The upper fabric, a quilt-weight cotton, hangs differently than the lower fabric, which appears to be a lightweight cotton chambray.  Notice that the upper fabric, which has less drape, fits better because of the darts in the back, which give this slightly stiffer fabric more shaping. The lower fabric, which has more drape and movement, doesn’t need that extra shaping, since its softness allows it to fall closer to the body anyway.  Now, heavier doesn’t mean less drape–a heavy fabric can be quite drapey, depending on how it’s made; generally, though, lighter fabrics are less stiff than heavier ones.
4. Know the names of different fabrics so you’ll have a mental picture of what to expect. There are a lot of different fabrics being produced these days, from voile to velveteen, and it’s hard to know how they’ll act once you get them home.  Having an idea of how each fabric behaves–its weight and drape, specifically–will help you decide how to manage your fabric-buying dollars a little better.  Your best bet for a truly comprehensive guide to fabrics is a good case-by-case book–try Fabric Savvy or More Fabric Savvy for starters; you can use it as an on-hand reference to decipher the product descriptions of various fabrics when you encounter them in online storefronts.  Below, I’ve listed some of the most common types of fabric that you might run into–please note that while all of these examples are cotton, they could just as easily be linen or bamboo or any number of other fibers, so it isn’t really the fiber content that determines weight or drape.Plain-weave cotton describes most solid and printed quilt-weight cottons out today.   Plain weave fabrics can be any weight, and their hand is largely dependent on the fiber used to weave them, but the majority of quilt-weight cottons on the market are lighter weight with a semi-soft hand.  They do not tend to drape well and tend to “cone,” meaning they create peaks when they fall from folds and pleats.  You can make lovely clothing from a quilt-weight cotton, but it won’t necessarily be flowy or clingy.  Voile is a lighter-weight, semi-sheer fabric that has a softer hand and a lighter weight, along with a smooth, almost shiny surface.  Voiles are lovely fashion fabrics, and stitch up like butter.  They are suitable for tops and dresses, flowy skirts and for pillows or drapes.  They don’t have the weight to tolerate being stitched into a pencil skirt, and while you can use them for slip covers or home dec, be aware that their thinner fibers won’t tolerate lots of wear over time.       Twill is a heavier, thickish fabric that most of us think of as chino fabric or home dec weight.  The term “twill” refers to the way the fabric is woven and how the threads relate to one another.  Because of its thickness and weave, twill fabrics tend to have a stiff hand and to “cone” when draped, making them more suitable for pants, skirts and home dec.  In the top above, the twill makes the top stand out a bit from the body and creates a different silhouette than a lighter or more drapey fabric would have.Jersey is a knit fabric, rather than a woven like the others I’ve listed.  Jersey fabrics are prized for being clingy and having great drape regardless of the weight–you can have a very sheer jersey that has just as much drape as a heavy jersey.  Because of its knit structure, jersey is stretchy, which allows for all kinds of design options that wovens won’t allow because of their hand.  Jersey is different from interlock, which is slightly stiffer and thicker, but the two can often be used interchangeably.
5. If you like to work with designer quilt-weight cottons, become familiar with the various manufacturers. You’ll find that many of the fabric manufacturers (like Moda, Westminter/Free Spirit, Michael Miller, or Robert Kaufman) tend to be fairly consistent in the substrate they use to print their fabrics.  That is to say, the base fiber they print their fabrics on is usually similar in weight and drape from one collection to the next.  This is even more true when you look closely at one particular designer’s work: Heather Ross’ prints, when she was designing for Free Spirit, were this famously soft, drapey and slightly shiny base cloth that was pretty dreamy to work with–and that was consistent across the collections she designed.  Patty Young, when she put out her first collection of knits with Michael Miller, spent hours working with the sample base fabrics they gave her to select the substrate that eventually was used to print her interlock knits–and she continues to use the same one.  While this isn’t foolproof, knowing what a designer has used in the past, or what weight and drape you can usually expect from a particular company, can help you predict what to expect when you order another of their fabrics online without the benefit of holding it in your hand first.

Shopping online for fabric can lead you to a whole world of new possibilities.  The tips above are intended to help ease some hesitation you might be feeling when purchasing fabrics you haven’t held in your hand first.  I do want to say, though, that sometimes it’s great to gamble and grab some fabric and see what happens!  Maybe you follow all these guidelines and when your fabric arrives, it’s still not quite what you expected–there are so many projects waiting to be sewn, and perhaps getting the “wrong” fabric might encourage you to make something you’d been putting off (like something for you!).  Take some chances and know that there is no wrong fabric–just better fabrics for a task.  The more you sew, the easier you’ll find it to figure all those things out.  Here’s hoping this gives you a starting point to finding some amazing fabrics online!

For further reading, check out the Principles of Fabric Selection series on the Oliver + S blog.

All images via the Spring Top Week 2010 and Spring Top Sewalong 2011 Flickr groups, except topmost image, via Quilter’s Buzz, and the twill top, via The Pleated Poppy.