When you visit our store you
will find a lot of fabric! Yes, we love
fabric and try to keep a wide selection for our customers. Our hope is that you find the perfect fabric
for your quilting, garment and home décor projects!
Sometimes the fabric is “perfect”
because of the color. You may have
purchased twenty-five yards of a beautiful damask fabric for new curtains
because it was just the right shade of yellow, but when you returned several
months later to purchase more fabric to slipcover a chair it didn't match. How can this be? It is the same fabric!
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| An example of cuttings of the same fabric from three different dye lots |
What happened is the new bolt
and the old bolt were from different dye lots. A good explanation of dye lots
can be found in the book Textiles:
Fabrics, Application and Historic Style by Karla J. Nielson.
“One batch of dye solution is referred to as a job lot
or dye lot, and the dyed or printed textiles within that dye lot are exactly
the same. When subsequent batches are
mixed according to the master or standard formula, they may be slightly
different. This means that a set
piece-goods bolt may be just off from the standard, and a precise match may be
impossible”.
For this reason it is always best
practice to purchase all the fabric you will need at once. Never assume you will be able to buy more of
the same fabric later. If you do return
to our store, looking for additional yardage of the same fabric, bring a
cutting of the original fabric to compare.
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| The dye lots of this chevron fabric are slightly different, one is darker than the other |
This applies to all types of
fabric from quilting to upholstery – dye lots can vary slightly or a great
deal. The good news is that this is not
a common problem, but one that should be considered as you plan your next
sewing project.
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