Why We Sometimes Reject a Fabric Before Making the First Sample

Sometimes the fabric is fine.

We still don't use it.

That can be a difficult thing to explain to a customer, especially when the fabric was selected carefully and looks exactly like what they had in mind.

The colour is right.

The composition is right.

The weight is close.

The hand feel is good.

On paper, there may be no obvious reason to reject it.

But clothing is not made on paper.

A fabric can be perfectly acceptable on its own and still be the wrong choice for a particular garment.

I remember one project where the customer had already chosen the fabric before contacting us.

It was a soft cotton blend.

The surface looked clean.

The weight was within the requested range.

When we opened the roll, nobody had an immediate objection.

That was the problem.

There was nothing obviously wrong with it.

We cut a small piece and held it up.

Then we folded it.

Then unfolded it.

The fabric recovered quickly.

Too quickly.

One of our pattern makers looked at it and said,

"This will fight the design."

That was probably the best description.

The garment the customer wanted had a relaxed, slightly dropped silhouette.

The fabric wanted to return to its original shape.

Those two things were going to work against each other.

We could have made the sample anyway.

It wouldn't have been difficult.

The pattern was ready.

The fabric was available.

The sewing line could have produced the sample within the normal timeframe.

But there was a good chance the customer would receive the finished piece and say,

"Why doesn't it look like the reference?"

The answer would have been the fabric.

Not because the fabric was bad.

Because it was too active for the shape we were trying to create.

People often talk about fabric in terms of weight and composition.

Those are important.

They are also only part of the story.

Two fabrics can both be 100% cotton.

Both can be 300 GSM.

Both can be described as fleece.

They can still behave completely differently once they become a garment.

One may hold a shape.

The other may collapse.

One may stretch and recover.

The other may stay slightly extended.

One may hang heavily from the shoulder.

The other may push the pattern outward.

The garment doesn't care what the fabric is called.

It only responds to how the fabric behaves.

There are a few things we check before approving a fabric for sampling.

The first is simple.

We hold it up.

Not flat on the table.

Up.

A metre or so of fabric tells you quite a lot when gravity is allowed to do its job.

Some fabrics drop immediately.

Some stay almost rigid.

Some twist.

Some reveal a slight skew that isn't obvious when the fabric is lying flat.

That last one can become a problem later.

Especially on garments with a relaxed silhouette.

Then we stretch it.

Not with a machine.

Just by hand.

A little in the width.

A little in the length.

We want to see what happens when the tension is released.

Does it return?

Does it stay extended?

Does one direction recover differently from the other?

Again, none of these observations alone decides whether a fabric is good.

They help us understand what the garment will be working with.

A fabric that stretches easily isn't automatically comfortable.

A fabric with very little stretch isn't automatically rigid.

The recovery matters.

So does the direction of the stretch.

So does the construction of the garment.

A T-shirt, a hoodie and a jacket can all use fabrics with similar properties and still require completely different decisions.

That's why we don't like recommending fabric from a product name alone.

"Heavyweight cotton."

"French terry."

"Brushed fleece."

Those descriptions give us a starting point.

They don't finish the conversation.

The project I mentioned eventually moved to a different fabric.

It was slightly less soft.

That was the first thing the customer noticed.

Nobody was particularly excited about that part.

But once the first sample came back, the difference was obvious.

The body fell into the intended shape.

The shoulder looked relaxed without collapsing.

The hem didn't fight the pattern.

The fabric wasn't doing all the work.

It was allowing the pattern to do its job.

This is something that can be difficult to explain during development.

A fabric can feel better in your hand and produce a worse garment.

That happens.

The softest fabric isn't always the best fabric.

The heaviest fabric isn't always the best fabric.

The fabric with the highest stretch isn't always the most comfortable.

What matters is what happens after the fabric is cut and sewn.

That is when the fabric stops being a roll.

It becomes part of a structure.

We also look at the fabric after washing whenever the project is sensitive to shrinkage or surface change.

Some fabrics change dramatically after the first wash.

The surface becomes softer.

The width changes slightly.

The body loses some of its original firmness.

That may be exactly what the design needs.

Or it may completely change the silhouette.

A sample that looks perfect before washing can become a different garment afterwards.

So if the fabric is likely to change significantly, we would rather discover that before the customer approves the final construction.

Not after bulk production.

There have been times when a customer insisted on using a particular fabric.

That's fine.

It's their product.

Our job isn't to win an argument about fabric.

If the choice has a clear consequence, we explain it.

Sometimes the customer still chooses the original fabric.

Sometimes they decide the trade-off is worth it.

That's a normal part of product development.

The important thing is that the decision is made knowingly.

The biggest mistake is assuming that fabric selection and pattern development are separate steps.

They aren't.

The pattern is designed around certain behaviours.

The fabric changes those behaviours.

Then the pattern may need to change as well.

A relaxed pattern in a stiff fabric won't behave like the same pattern in a soft fabric.

A fitted pattern in a fabric with more stretch may need different ease.

A heavy fabric can change how a hood sits.

A slippery fabric can change how a seam behaves during sewing.

These things are connected from the beginning.

That's why we sometimes reject a fabric before making the first sample.

Not because the fabric is defective.

Not because the supplier did something wrong.

Simply because the fabric and the design are asking for different things.

Finding that out before sampling is much easier than finding it out after the sample has been made.

And much cheaper than discovering it after bulk production has started.