How it works and what it costs
We hold no stock. We find fabric from trade suppliers, sample it, check it against your piece, and have the supplier ship it to you. Here is each step and each price.
Tell us the piece
Photos and rough measurements, or your cut list if you have one. How it will be used: a family sofa, a guest-room chair, a restaurant booth, a window. The look you want. Any spec a client requires, such as an abrasion level, a cleaning code, outdoor use or CAL TB 117-2013. Email, text or call.
We pull memos
Up to eight memo samples from trade wholesalers and mills. Each memo comes with its spec sheet: width, repeat, match, railroaded or not, content, abrasion result and method, cleaning code, flammability and end use. Posted USPS Priority. $25, credited back on your first yardage order.
You choose, we check the yardage
We check your cut list, or build one with you, against the fabric's width, repeat and match, so a 27-inch half-drop repeat or an 84-inch inside back doesn't catch you later. Then we quote one per-yard price, the shipping, and the lead time.
Cutting for approval
Before anything is cut, we ask the supplier for a cutting from the roll your order will come from, so you approve the colour of that dye lot rather than a memo from an older one. Where the supplier allows, we hold the lot while your client signs off.
The fabric ships to you
From the supplier to your address or your workroom, labelled with the job name, the yardage and the dye lot, with the spec sheet in the parcel. One order, one lot. Cut goods can't be returned, which is what steps 2 and 4 are for.
Prices
Memo set
- Up to eight memos matched to your brief
- A spec sheet with each memo
- USPS Priority to any US address
- A further round of up to eight: $15
Fabric
- Quoted as one per-yard price before you commit
- Minimum fee $45 an order
- Shipping from the supplier at the carrier's rate, no handling charge
- Florida sales tax where it applies
- Paid in full before we place the order
Included
- Yardage check against your cut list
- Cutting for approval from the roll, where the supplier offers it
- Dye-lot hold while the client signs off, where the supplier allows it
- Shipping to a workroom rather than to you
Minimums, lead times, returns
- Minimum order: usually one yard, set by the supplier. Sale and closeout goods often carry three- to five-yard minimums, and some mills won't cut under two yards. We tell you before you pay.
- Lead time: stocked goods at the wholesalers we use leave their warehouse within a day or two of the order. Mill goods and special orders take weeks. The quote states which.
- Returns: none on cut fabric, from any supplier, so none from us. Memos and cuttings for approval exist so that you never pay for yardage you haven't seen.
- Flaws: if fabric arrives with a mill flaw, photograph it before cutting and tell us the same week. We take it up with the supplier on your behalf; what they replace or credit is what we can pass on.
- Payment: memo sets are free. Fabric is paid against our invoice, in full, before we place the order with the supplier, because they charge us at the time of the order.
How this compares
Retail fabric sites charge for samples: Fabric Guru sells them at $3 each with $8.95 shipping below $149, DecoratorsBest charges a $5 sample fee, and both require a minimum of one yard and refuse returns on cut fabric. Trade-only houses such as Greenhouse Fabrics send memos free, but only to upholsterers and designers with an account, and refer the public to a dealer. DCOTA, the design centre in Dania Beach, runs a buying programme for people without a designer that works the way we do: trade price plus an administrative fee.
What you get from us that you don't get from a sample button: someone who reads the spec against your piece, pulls from several houses at once, chases the cutting for approval and the lot hold, and ships to the workroom with the job on the label.
Sources, read 30 October 2026: fabricguru.com (samples $3, shipping $8.95, free over $149); decoratorsbest.com FAQ ($5 sample fee, one-yard minimum, no returns on cut fabric, 25% restocking on uncut returns); greenhousefabrics.com FAQ (dealer accounts for designers and upholsterers, free memo samples up to 15 a request, half-yard minimum); dcota.com (insider consulting and buying programme). Famcor Fabrics lists three-yard minimums on several fabrics and tiered trade pricing.
What we don't do
Hold stock
No warehouse, no showroom. Fabric ships from the supplier, which is why the fee is small and the range is wide.
Upholstery or sewing
We source the cloth. Workrooms do the work. We'll pass on names in South Florida if you ask.
Promise how long it lasts
The abrasion number is the mill's lab result, not a lifespan. We'll tell you what the spec means and what the trade guideline is; the piece, the use and the cleaning decide the rest.