As an online fabric store, we receive questions every week asking for updates on your orders. The world of online shopping can be a bit of a mystery; you click, you wait, and you unbox something a few days or a few weeks later. But what happens in that waiting time?
Whether we have the privilege of being the first online fabric store you’ve ever purchased from, or you’re a serial shopper in the online world, we’re here to demystify one of our most popular questions: Where is my order, and how long will it take to arrive? Follow along as we go through the journey your orders take, from our front door to yours.
Before you ever see them, our curated fabrics come to us in transport trucks, through the mail in big boxes, or occasionally in the back of Tereska’s van! As a team full of sewists, we can’t help but to ooh and ahh over the new fabrics as they’re being unpacked. We can’t take them all home, but we would certainly love to!
Each roll is carefully unpacked and labeled with its colour, name, and quantity. Our team cuts sample yardage and swatches directly from the rolls, which go directly to our talented photographer who takes those jaw-dropping photos you see when you enter our website.
That’s not all! Each fabric goes through a meticulous examination, during which our team collects information about the fabric, from pantone numbers and stretch factors, to fibre content and fabric weight, so we can provide you with the most accurate information possible. We select matching threads, and any relevant notions that pair perfectly with the fabric at hand. You can find these details on each fabric listing on our website.
This is where you come in! When our fabrics go live, you fill your cart with your favourites. Maybe you know exactly what you want and have a pattern in mind already. Or perhaps, like us, you spend time debating between specific shades, prints, and textures as you dream of all the garments or accessories you could make with them.
Once you complete your checkout, you receive your order confirmation and your order appears in our system behind the scenes. In our studio, we begin to cut orders after 36 hours to give you a chance to change your mind, check your yardage quantities, and consider adding notions! Our friendly customer service team members will help you with any changes or updates in this period of time.
If no changes are made to your order, it becomes part of a batch of orders placed around the same time. During sales, our order volume increases the number of fabric in each batch, and it takes a little longer for us to fulfill orders. Those batches are printed out for cutting, and our fulfillment team gets to work! Fabric bolts are unrolled on our cutting tables and each cut is examined for flaws before being folded with impressive precision. If a cut is over 15 yards, we work as a team to get it folded for you!
Each cut of fabric is labeled with one of our detailed fabric tags (which you can download for your own stash here!), and placed on our fulfillment shelves, where they await packing. We love seeing all the orders stacked together, ready to go off and become something fabulous!
When every fabric in the batch has been cut, our packers pick your orders from the shelves and wrap them up with their notions or patterns in tissue paper, boxes, and envelopes. We affix your addresses and stack the boxes near our door, where they await shipment.
Canadian orders ship out daily, while our US and International packages leave our studio several times a week with a courier, who drives them across the border into the US. These packages are picked up by your chosen mail carrier (USPS or FedEx) and scanned into the postal system, where they travel until they arrive at your door.
What happens next? From what you’ve told us over the last few years, some of your fabrics are examined by pets, become amazing garments, or add luxury to your stash. We adore seeing pictures from you all!
