Fabric.com review for Canada

UPS dropped off my fabric from Fabric.com this afternoon!  Have you ever bought fabric online before?  I was really nervous about it!  But at the same time, I was also super excited to have all of the fabric options that are available online, and I couldn’t wait to receive my order from Fabric.com!

For anyone considering ordering fabric online, or questioning how it works for shipping outside of the states, this Fabric.com review for Canada describes my experience.

Fabric.com review for Canada

How does Fabric.com ship their fabric?  Well, I ordered 6 yards of Premier Prints Amsterdam Corn Yellow and 6 yards of Roc-Lon Blackout Drapery Lining Ivory, and the photo below shows what the package looked like.  It was shipped via UPS, with a tracking number so I could see the status and location of my order.  My order total was $102, but there was no duty required when UPS dropped it off.  Be sure to check Retail Me Not for coupons.  I used a 15% off coupon code for my order and I’ve read that they often have coupon codes like that available.

I’m not sure if it’s a UPS mistake or a Fabric.com mistake, but at one point, it said my postal code was incorrect, and it took an extra day for UPS to fix it.  It was still shipped in a timely manner, and everything arrived in one piece, so I can’t complain too much, but it did stress me out a little seeing the “wrong address” message on UPS.

How long did it take to ship?  Well, I placed my order exactly 1 week ago today.  So it took exactly 7 days from the time I made my order to the time it showed up at my door.  I got an email saying Fabric.com had shipped my order 3 days after I made the purchase.

Don’t expect the Amazon method of “purchase today and it arrives tomorrow”.  I can respect that not all online vendors have that ability, especially when shipping from the states, so hopefully you are okay with that too.

So what did it look like when it came out of the box?  I was pretty excited to open it up and pull it out!  I was impressed with how nicely everything was wrapped.  The drapery lining was wrapped nicely around a cardboard tube with the Premier Prints fabric was wrapped around the drapery lining.   It looks like it got a little crumpled at the ends during shipping, but I’m sure the wrinkles will come out as I make the curtains.   

They used shrink wrap to hold everything in place – which was way nicer, easier and cleaner than elastics.

So there is the length of the tube of fabric and drapery lining:

And when I unfolded the damask fabric, the drapery lining was wrapped on its own inside of it:

Everything looked great!  The colour is a little different than what I was expecting (a little more orange than I thought), but I still think it’s a gorgeous fabric.

One of my biggest problems was that I am not familiar with fabric names.  I ordered twill but I had no idea what twill actually is!  It said it was lightweight on the website, so I was a little worried it would arrive with the weight of quilting cotton, but it’s way heavier than that.  It’s the exact type of fabric I would want for curtains!

So, this is a photo of what twill looks like for anyone wondering:

And this is a photo of the blackout drapery lining.  When I ordered ivory, I was worried it would be really cream, but it’s quite subtle:

All in all, I am thrilled with my purchase, even though the colour is slightly different from what I expected.  Ordering fabric site unseen is definitely a bit of a gamble and you have to be prepared for that.  But the price was awesome.  The shipping charges to Canada were reasonable.  And the time it took to arrive was reasonable.  Now all I have to do is wait for the sewing machine shop to repair my sewing machine and I’ll be good to go!

I couldn’t resist… here’s a sneak peak of the curtains for Kate’s room.  I just clipped them on with drapery clips but it gives a good idea of what they’ll look like:

I can’t wait to finish them!

If you missed the links above you can check out this post for details on the fabric and drapery lining.

So what do you think?  Are you up for a little online fabric shopping?