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FAQs

Getting started

What is The Fabric Shop?

The Fabric Shop is an Australian-owned fabric business built on twenty years inside the textile trade. We print on demand, by the metre, with no minimum order.

There are three ways to buy. PrintLab holds designs from our Design Partners, printed on the base cloth you choose. The Yard holds stocked fabrics and notions, ready to ship. Custom Upload prints your own artwork, from one metre.

Because we print to order, nothing sits in a warehouse waiting to be written off. You order what you need, we make it, and that is the whole of it.

Order a swatch first. See it, feel it, then order metres.

Why buy from us?

Three reasons makers choose us:

  • Only quality fabric. Twenty years supplying brands across Europe and Asia taught us what quality looks like, and it's the only kind we sell. Same fabric, same mills, every metre checked before it ships, now by the metre, to you.
  • Three ways to buy. One shop. Designer prints, stocked fabrics and notions, and custom uploads, all by the metre, all on the same quality bases. One shop, whatever you're creating.
  • You make. We look after the rest. We partner with designers worth following, choose fabric that lifts your work, and we're here whenever you need us. The making is yours; the rest is ours.

Where are you based?

Our head office is in Melbourne, Australia. Printing and dispatch happen from our operations in Shanghai, China, where every order is checked before it ships.

Every order is a cross-border shipment, including orders delivered within Australia. Shipping and duties are shown at checkout, so you know your full cost before you order.

Do you have a physical shop?

No, we're an online platform. The closest thing to a physical shop is our Base Fabrics Pack: a boxed library of every base fabric we print on, each as a printed swatch: the weight, drape, hand, and print of the whole range, delivered to your worktable.

How do I get in touch?

Four inboxes. Choose whichever fits your question best. We read every one.

Is there a minimum order?

One metre. That's the smallest cut, whether you're ordering from PrintLab, The Yard, or uploading your own artwork. From there, PrintLab and Custom Upload run in half-metre steps; Yard fabric is cut in whole metres; notions go by the unit. No minimum order value. No setup fees on standard orders.

If you'd like to test a fabric or check a print before committing to a full metre, a swatch is there for exactly that.

The three ways to buy

What's the difference between PrintLab, The Yard, and Custom Upload?

Three buying paths, one shop:

  • PrintLab. Our catalogue of original surface prints by the designers in our Design Partner Programme. Pick a design, pick a base fabric, we print to your length.
  • The Yard. Stocked fabric: base fabrics, knits, and notions, sold by the metre or by the piece, ready to cut. No printing involved.
  • Custom Upload. Your own artwork printed on the base fabric of your choice. Live preview before you commit.

Can I combine designs and stocked fabrics in one order?

Yes. A combined order (Yard items plus PrintLab or Custom Upload) ships as one parcel once the printed items are ready. The dispatch window for the whole order is the PrintLab window: 7 to 10 business days.

If you need the Yard items sooner, place them as a separate order. That runs on the 3 to 5 business day window for stocked goods.

What's a Design Partner

A surface pattern designer who has joined our programme to sell their original prints through PrintLab. We choose our Design Partners carefully, and they choose us.

Every print on PrintLab comes from a Design Partner, and every metre printed pays them a royalty.

Can I see a sample before ordering a full metre?

Yes, and we recommend it. Two paths:

  • Base Fabrics Pack. A printed swatch of every base fabric we print on, boxed as one reference, for choosing your base by weight, drape, hand-feel, and how print sits on it.
  • Sample Swatch. A printed sample of any design (or your custom upload) on the base of your choice, for checking how colour, scale, and detail land on that specific fabric.

PrintLab — designer prints

Who are the designers behind PrintLab?

A curated group of surface pattern designers from around the world. We work with each one directly. We choose them and they choose us.

You can explore their work three ways: visit their studios (each Design Partner has a studio of their own), browse their curated collections, or see all designs across PrintLab.


If you design surface prints and would like to sell through PrintLab, the Design Partner page has the detail and the form to register your interest.

Can I change the scale or colour of a designer's print?

Scale. Yes, scale is adjustable within a range on the product page. Resize the repeat with the scale tool, and the live preview updates as you go.

Colour. Most designs come in several colourways, shown on the product page. Choose the one you'd like before you order. If you have something more specific in mind, please reach out to the Design Partner directly with your request or email us on hello@thefabricshop.com

Can the same design be printed on different fabrics?

Yes. Every design can be printed on any of our Print-ready base fabrics. The same range is offered across all designs. You choose the base on the product page, based on what you're making, and the live preview updates to show how the design lands on it.

Each fabric's details (composition, care, and what it's best for) are on its product page to help you choose.

Does the designer get paid when I buy their print?

Yes. Every metre printed pays the Design Partner a royalty. The platform exists to open the trade to makers worldwide, and to make sure the Design Partners who power it get paid on every metre that prints.

Can I use a printed design commercially?

Yes. When you buy fabric printed with a Design Partner's print, the fabric is yours. Use it in finished pieces you sell: garments, cushions, lampshades, accessories. There is no limit on what you make and sell from fabric you have bought.

What you cannot do is reproduce the artwork itself: digital copies, scanning, screen-printing the design elsewhere, or licensing it on. The fabric is yours to use. The artwork rights stay with the Design Partner.

Your own custom uploads are different. The artwork is yours, so what you make and sell with it is entirely up to you.

If you are producing at volume, reach out through Wholesale enquiries and we will look after pricing and consistency across the run.

Custom upload — your own artwork.

What file types do you accept?

JPG, PNG, or TIFF, in RGB. We convert to the print profile on our side. Choose PNG if your design uses transparency, since transparent areas read as the base fabric showing through.

Maximum file size on the configurator: 30MB. If your file is larger, you can email it. See further down this category.

What resolution should I use?

Upload your file at 300 DPI, sized to how you'd like it printed. In the configurator you can then adjust the scale, sizing the repeat up or down, and the effective resolution shifts with it.

We print anywhere from 150 DPI (the most you can scale a 300 DPI file up before fine detail begins to soften) to 500 DPI (scaled down, for very fine detail). If your project needs something outside that range, send us a note at hello@thefabricshop.com and we'll help.

How does the repeat work?

Four repeat options on the configurator:

  • Simple repeat. Your tile placed edge-to-edge in rows and columns. The most common option for surface prints.
  • Half-drop. Each row offset by half the tile width, useful for breaking up regular grids.
  • Mirror. Each tile flipped against the next so its edges always meet: a way to turn artwork that wasn't built to repeat into a continuous run across the metre.
  • Centred (no repeat). A single placement, sized to your chosen length. Useful for panel prints, banners, or designs intended not to tile.

Upload a single tile and the product-page scale tool sets the repeat size from it: drag to resize, or enter the exact repeat width you want. The live preview shows the result on your chosen base before you commit to a metre.

Will you fix or adjust my file before printing?

What you see in the configurator preview is what goes to the printer. We don't retouch, recompose, or quietly clean up artwork behind the scenes: the file you approve is the file we print, at the scale you set. So it's worth a last look at full size before you upload: check it's sharp, check the edges, and check there's nothing in it you didn't mean to print: a shadow from a phone photo, a stray mark from a scan. If something looks clearly wrong we'll flag it before we print, but the final check is yours to make.

Why might a repeat show a faint seam?

A visible seam almost always comes back to the artwork's own edges: the right side has to flow into the left, and the top into the bottom, with nothing in between. The usual cause is a faint outline left around the tile, which is easy to miss and most common on art exported from vector tools; it prints as a thin line wherever the tile meets itself. The fix is to view your tile's edges at full zoom before uploading and confirm the pattern runs straight through them. If an outline has crept in, it can usually be trimmed at the very edge without affecting the repeat, or send it over and we'll check it with you.

Will my design look exactly like what's on screen?

It will look close, not identical. Screens emit light, fabric absorbs it, and that translation always shifts the result a little. Monitor calibration, room lighting, and the absorbency of the base all play a part, and the same design reads more vividly on polyester than on natural fibres.

The most saturated colours are where this shows most. Intense neons and electric brights reach beyond what any fabric ink can produce, so they settle to the nearest tone the ink can hold. Most palettes are unaffected. It is only the extremes that shift, and the shift is subtle: a red will not come back orange.

For colour-critical work, order a Sample Swatch of your design on your chosen fabric before committing to metres. See it. Feel it. Then order metres.

Can I match an exact colour?

Closely, with a route for when it has to be precise. Screen and fabric never line up perfectly: a screen emits light, fabric reflects it, and every base takes ink a little differently. For most work, a swatch of your design on your chosen base confirms how the colours sit.

When a colour has to be exact, such as a brand colour or a specific Pantone, we offer Pantone matching as part of our custom design service: send us the references and we'll match them on your chosen base when we set up your file.

Will my brightest colours print as vividly as on screen?

The most saturated colours on a screen (intense neons and electric brights especially) reach beyond what any fabric ink can produce. A screen builds those colours with light; printing builds them with pigment, which has a narrower range at the very top end. So the brightest tones settle to the nearest colour the ink can hold, and can read a little softer or deeper than they do lit up on a monitor.

Most palettes aren't affected: it's only the extremes that shift. If vivid colour is central to your design, a swatch on your chosen base is the clearest way to see how those tones land before you order metres.

How do large areas of solid colour print?

Our inks bond into the surface of the fabric rather than soaking all the way through the way a dye bath would. So a large block of flat colour behaves a little differently from a piece-dyed fabric: the face carries the full colour, the reverse reads lighter, and across a big unbroken area you may see gentle, natural variation rather than a perfectly uniform fill.

That's the character of printing onto a woven base, not a flaw. If your design rests on one critical flat colour, a swatch shows you how the block holds before you commit to a length.

How small can text and fine lines go?

A woven surface has a texture that paper doesn't, and the finer the detail, the more that texture comes into play. Small type and hairline strokes are where it shows most: very thin or script lettering can thicken or break up, particularly on textured bases. As a rough guide, type holds best above about 12pt, and the flattest, tightest weaves carry fine work most cleanly. If lettering or fine detail is the heart of your design, a swatch confirms how it reads at its real size.

What if my design has white in it?

White in a design is the base fabric showing through: we don't print white ink. On a white or natural base, this is exactly what you want: the unprinted fabric reads as white.

On a coloured base, anything you've drawn as white will read as that base colour, not white. If you need true white on a coloured ground, that's a fabric/colour pairing that won't translate: choose a white base or rework the design.

Does the print show through to the back?

Partly. How much depends on the fabric. The print sits on the face of the fabric; some of it penetrates to the reverse, more on lighter, looser weaves and less on heavier, tighter ones. The reverse usually reads as a paler version of the front, not a clean mirror.

If your project needs a true two-sided result (the design crisp on both faces), or anything else out of the ordinary, reach out at hello@thefabricshop.com and we'll see what we can do. For anything where the back matters, a swatch is the quickest way to see how far the print carries on the base you're considering.

I have a complex file — can I email it instead?

Yes. If your file is over the 30MB configurator limit, or your brief needs Pantone matching or anything out of the ordinary, start by email rather than on the site: send your file (or a link to it) and a few lines on what you're making to customdesigns@thefabricshop.com.

We will check the file and come back to you on setup within two business days, then set your order up with you: same base fabric range, same pricing. There is no surcharge for using the email path. Pantone matching and other bespoke setup are quoted separately.

Note on timing. Production windows run from order confirmation once setup is agreed, not from your first email.

Can I upload anything I want?

Anything you own, or have the full rights to reproduce on fabric. The short list of what's not allowed:

  • Characters from films, TV, books, games, or other media, even heavily modified
  • Brand names, logos, trademarks, or branded patterns, even your favourite brand's
  • Sports teams, leagues, or official tournament marks
  • Another artist's work without their permission: tracing, redrawing, or substantial reference all count
  • Photographs of real, identifiable people without their consent

What matters is that the design is yours to print, whatever tools you used to make it.

If in doubt, leave it out. The full position is in our PrintLab Design Submission Agreement.

What do you do with my design files?

We use your file for one thing: printing your order. It is shared only with the partner who prints it, and removed from their systems once your order is complete.

On our side, we hold your file only as long as your order needs it, through production and any remake or fault claim, and delete it within 30 days of fulfilment, or earlier if you ask. We do not keep a reorder library, so keep your master file. To reorder, you will upload it again.

We never sell, license, or reuse your artwork. It never appears in our marketing without your written consent, it never becomes part of the PrintLab catalogue, and it is never used to train AI models.

The Yard — stocked fabrics

What's the difference between cut-to-length and packaged goods?

The Yard sells two kinds of things:

  • Cut-to-Length. Fabric: sold by the metre, cut from the roll to the length you order. Once we cut it, it's specific to you.
  • Packaged / whole-unit. Notions and haberdashery: zippers, buttons, reels of elastic, and similar pre-packaged items. Sold as a whole unit, not cut to size.

The distinction matters because different return rights apply: cut-to-length goods are made to your specification, packaged goods aren't.

Can I order less than a metre?

For Cut-to-Length fabric, one metre is the minimum. Below that, your best option is a swatch (around 25cm × 25cm) ordered through the product page, useful for testing weight, hand, or print colour.

For Packaged goods, you order whole units: one zipper, one reel, one card of buttons.

How do I choose the right fabric?

Every fabric product page carries what you need to choose: composition, width, hand-feel, stretch, care, what it's best for, and weight in GSM (grams per square metre, the metric weight of the fabric). As a rough guide:

  • Lightweight (roughly under 150 GSM): drapey and fine. Scarves, linings, soft blouses, sheer layers.
  • Midweight (roughly 150 to 250 GSM): the everyday range. Dresses, shirting, quilting, soft furnishings.
  • Heavyweight (roughly 250 GSM and up): structured and hard-wearing. Upholstery, bags, jackets, cushions.

Weight is a guide, not the whole story: weave and fibre shape how a fabric drapes and how a print sits on it. No single fabric suits every design. The surest way to choose is to hold them: order the Base Fabrics Pack and read the weight, drape, hand, and print of the whole range before you commit to metres.

Some of our stocked range is stock-only: solid colours, certain knits, and notions. The fabrics you can print on are marked on their product page as Print-ready, and come pre-selected when you start a design from PrintLab or Custom Upload.

Do you stock organic or recycled fabrics?

Each fabric's composition, origin, and any organic or recycled content are on the product page, alongside the weight, width, hand-feel, and ideal-use notes.

We don't make blanket sustainability claims about the platform. What we'll say honestly is this: on-demand printing means we don't hold inventory of finished prints, so we don't write off unsold stock. That's a structural argument, not a virtue claim.

Are your fabrics certified (OEKO-TEX, GOTS)?

OEKO-TEX and GOTS certifications are in progress on select bases. We don't show certification badges until they're earned: only the fabrics that hold the certification will be marked, and only when the paperwork is in our hands.

If you need certified bases for a specific brief, contact us. We can tell you what's certified, what's in process, and the expected timeline.

Samples & swatches

What's the difference between a Sample Pack and a printed swatch?

Two different jobs:

  • Base Fabrics Pack. The complete range of our base fabrics, printed and boxed: every base we print on, each carrying a printed swatch, so you can read weight, drape, hand-feel, and how print sits on every one of them, side by side. Order it once and it earns a place on your shelf: the reference you'll reach for at the start of every project.
  • Sample Swatch. A printed sample of one specific design (PrintLab or Custom Upload) on a base of your choice. For confirming colour, scale, and detail on that fabric before you commit to metres.

How much does a swatch cost?

Swatches are a small fixed cost, intentionally accessible. Pricing for Sample Swatches and the Base Fabrics Pack is shown at the point of order on the Samples page.

What you save by ordering one is the cost of getting the fabric or colour wrong on a full metre.

How long does a swatch take to arrive?

Production runs on the same windows as full orders:

  • Base Fabrics Pack. 3 to 5 business days (stocked goods).
  • Sample Swatch. 7 to 10 business days (cuts and prints alongside any full-metre PrintLab orders).

Can I return a swatch?

Swatches are final sale: they're there to let you check the fabric and the print before you commit, so a change-of-mind return on one isn't something we offer.

Your statutory rights in case of a fault still apply: if a swatch arrives faulty, email claims@thefabricshop.com within 14 days of confirmed delivery.

Shipping & customs

How long does production take?

Three production windows, depending on what you've ordered:

  • The Yard only (stocked items): 3 to 5 business days. Cutting, packing, dispatch.
  • PrintLab or Custom Upload: 7 to 10 business days. Printing, steaming, washing, finishing, dispatch.
  • Combined order (Yard + PrintLab): 7 to 10 business days. Shipped as one parcel once the printed items are ready.

Times are estimates from your Order Confirmation Email. During high-volume periods (sale events, end-of-year), dispatch may take longer. We'll email you if there's a material delay.

How long does shipping take?

Transit times vary by destination, season, and the service you choose at checkout. As a working estimate, allow 10 to 18 business days from dispatch for international shipping. Exact transit estimates for your address are shown at checkout.

Total delivery time is production + transit, so a PrintLab order to a typical international address might be 17 to 28 business days end to end. Stocked Yard orders are faster: roughly 13 to 23 business days.

Where do you ship from?

All orders ship from our operations in Shanghai, where every order is checked before it ships. Every order is a cross-border shipment, including orders delivered within Australia, so every order may pass through customs processing in the destination country.

The same arrangement is described in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Where do you ship to?

Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States, and Canada, all selectable at checkout. If your country is not shown, contact us and we will let you know whether we can ship to you.

How much does shipping cost?

Shipping is calculated at checkout, based on the weight and dimensions of your order, your delivery address, and the service you choose. Every available option and its cost is shown before you confirm payment.

Once dispatched, you will receive a Shipping Confirmation Email with your tracking number and link.

Will I have to pay customs duties or import tax?

Every order ships DDP, Delivered Duty Paid, wherever you are. Import duty and shipping are calculated and paid at checkout, so your parcel is never held at customs waiting for a duty payment.

Sales tax works differently by country. Where we are registered to collect it, it is already included in the price you see. In two of our markets a local sales tax is charged separately on arrival, and the list below tells you which.

Australia. GST at 10 percent is included in the product price. Your checkout total is final.

New Zealand. GST at 15 percent is included in the product price. Your checkout total is final.

United Kingdom. VAT at 20 percent is included in the product price. Your checkout total is final.

European Union. VAT at your country's rate is included in the product price. Your checkout total is final.

United States. Duty and shipping are settled at checkout, so there is no duty bill on arrival. We do not collect US sales tax. Depending on your state, a local sales tax may be assessed separately on delivery.

Canada. Duty and shipping are settled at checkout, so there is no duty bill on arrival. We do not collect Canadian GST, HST, or PST. These may be assessed separately on delivery by your carrier or customs authority.

Elsewhere. Duty and shipping are shown at checkout wherever we can calculate them for your destination. Depending on your country, a local tax may apply on arrival.

What if I refuse delivery or can't pay the duties?

Because duties and import taxes are settled at checkout, there's usually nothing to pay when your parcel arrives. But if you refuse delivery, or a charge assessed on arrival (such as a local sales tax) goes unpaid, the parcel may be held by customs, returned to us, destroyed, or abandoned by the carrier. In any of those cases:

  • Charges already paid (duties, import taxes, and handling fees) are not refundable by us
  • Return shipping, destruction, and abandonment costs (if any) are your responsibility
  • If the parcel is successfully returned to us, we'll refund the price of the goods less outbound shipping, return shipping, any duty, tax, handling, and restocking charges

If a charge is unexpectedly high or you have questions about a delivery, contact us before refusing. We may be able to help resolve it.

Can I get my parcel left at the door (Authority to Leave)?

Yes, in most cases. By default, parcels may require a signature on delivery. To request Authority to Leave, add a note to your order at checkout asking for the parcel to be left at your nominated address without a signature. We'll pass this on to the carrier. Please note that carriers can't always honour the request, as some deliveries still require a signature depending on the service and destination.

PLEASE NOTE

If you request Authority to Leave and the carrier records successful delivery to your nominated address, we're not responsible for parcels that are subsequently lost, stolen, or damaged.

Can I track my order?

Yes. Once your order is dispatched you'll get a Shipping Confirmation Email with a tracking number and link. Allow up to 48 hours for tracking to update after dispatch: events in the carrier network (handover, customs clearance, out for delivery) scan at different times across the international lane.

If you don't receive the email within the dispatch window, check your junk folder, confirm the email on your account is correct, then contact hello@thefabricshop.com with your order number if you still can't find it.

What if my parcel is delayed, or lost?

If your parcel is more than 5 business days past the upper end of the transit estimate shown at checkout and tracking hasn't moved, email hello@thefabricshop.com with your order number. We'll raise an enquiry with the carrier on your behalf.

Returns, refunds & faults

What does "inspect before you cut" mean?

When your fabric arrives, check it before you do anything else. Open it, look at the print, the colour, the weight, the hand-feel, and the length. This is our golden rule, and it comes before pre-washing.

Once fabric has been cut, sewn, or altered, we are no longer able to take it back, so it is worth a careful look first.

If a fault only becomes apparent later, on wash or in use, that is a latent defect and it is covered. See the fault claims answer below.

What if my fabric arrives faulty?

Email claims@thefabricshop.com within 14 days of confirmed delivery (as recorded by the carrier’s tracking) with:

  • Your order number
  • Photos of the fault: a full view of the fabric, a close-up of the fault with a ruler or coin for scale, and a shot of the shipping label if the packaging is also damaged
  • A description of the fault
  • Your preferred resolution (reprint, replacement, or refund)

We'll assess your claim within 5 business days and respond with the outcome. For verified faults, we may authorise you to dispose of the faulty item on photographic evidence (avoiding the cost of international return shipping), or we may ask you to return it to an address we provide, with a prepaid label where available, or your reasonable return-shipping cost reimbursed. A refund for a verified fault includes the proportionate share of shipping, duties, and taxes we collected at checkout.

I changed my mind — can I return my order?

For fabric (printed, custom, or stocked): no, wherever you are. Printed and custom fabric is made only for your order; stocked fabric is cut from the roll to the length you chose. Neither can return to resaleable stock once it's shipped. For fabric, a swatch beforehand is the surest way to choose.

Packaged / whole-unit goods: yes, wherever you are. Zippers, buttons, reels of elastic, packaged notions: one policy, every market. Email hello@thefabricshop.com within 14 days of delivery, then send the goods back within 14 days of your notice, in their original packaging and labels where possible. You cover the return shipping, or use a return label we supply and we deduct its cost from your refund.

Your refund covers the price of the goods plus standard outbound delivery (up to our least expensive standard option), paid within 14 days of the goods reaching us, less a deduction only where handling has gone beyond what you'd do in a store and diminished the goods' value.

For consumers in the EU and UK, this is also your statutory 14-day right of withdrawal: the same mechanics, guaranteed by law. Swatches and samples are final sale: they're there to help you decide before you commit. Anything faulty is a separate matter and always covered (see above). None of this limits your statutory rights.

The colour doesn't match what I saw on my screen — is that a fault?

Slight colour shift from screen to fabric is part of how textile printing works. Monitors emit light; fabric absorbs it. Monitor calibration, room lighting, ink, fibre composition, and the fabric's own absorbency all play a part. Colour variation within the range of normal screen-to-fabric translation isn't a fault.

This is why we recommend a Sample Swatch first. By placing a full-size order without first ordering a swatch, you acknowledge the risk of colour and scale variation, though this doesn't limit any rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) or equivalent consumer protection legislation in your jurisdiction.

There's a small print variation — is that a fault?

Slight batch-to-batch variation in colour, print sharpness, and fabric hand-feel can occur between production runs, even on reprints of the same design. Different fabric bases also absorb ink differently. Variation arising from these factors is inherent to textile printing and not considered a manufacturing fault.

For commercial production runs where consistency is critical, order all your yardage in a single production run and purchase a sample swatch first. If you're seeing variation that strikes you as outside the normal range, send us photos and we'll review: some variations are faults, some aren't, and we'd rather look than guess.

Will a reorder match my first order exactly?

Closely, though rarely to the exact pixel. Small shifts between print runs and between fabric batches are normal for any textile, a little more on natural fibres than synthetics, as noted just above. If two pieces have to match (a garment cut from more than one length, a matched set), order the full quantity in one run, or run a swatch alongside your reorder and check it before cutting.

For custom uploads, keep your master file safe: we delete files within 30 days of fulfilment and don't keep a reorder library, so you'll upload the same file again to reorder.

Can I change my order after placing it?

Let us know as soon as you can. There's a short window after an order arrives (before your file goes to print and the fabric is cut) when we can usually still change the base, the length, or the delivery address. Email hello@thefabricshop.com with your order number and we'll see what's possible. Once it's on the print line your order is being made to your file, so a change from that point may not be possible.

Can I cancel my order?

It depends on what you've ordered and how far we've got:

  • PrintLab and Custom Upload. Once production has started, we can't cancel: printing is already underway. PrintLab orders enter the production queue shortly after the Order Confirmation Email.
  • The Yard · Cut-to-Length. We can cancel if your request reaches us before the fabric has been cut. Once cutting has commenced, cancellation isn't possible.
  • The Yard · Packaged Goods. We can cancel any time before the order has been packed and dispatched.

Email hello@thefabricshop.com with your order number as soon as you know: the sooner we hear, the more we can do.

Care & aftercare

How do I wash printed fabric?

General guidance (specific instructions on each fabric's product page override these):

  • Wash separately the first time
  • Cool water (30°C or below)
  • Gentle cycle, mild detergent
  • Avoid bleach and optical brighteners
  • Tumble dry low, or line dry
  • Iron on the reverse where you can; medium heat for natural fibres, low for synthetics

Will the fabric shrink? Should I pre-wash?

Natural-fibre fabrics (cotton, linen, rayon) can shrink on their first wash: allow for 5 to 10%. Shrinkage within that range is normal for natural fibres, not a fault. Synthetics like polyester are far more stable. The expected shrinkage for each fabric is noted on its product page.

If your project is size-critical (a fitted garment, a panel cut to measure), pre-wash and dry the fabric the way you'll care for the finished piece before you cut, so any shrinkage happens before your pattern goes down. And when you're ordering a shrink-prone base for something measured, add a little length to allow for it.

Will the print fade?

Our prints sit deep in the fibre, not on top of it. Two methods, depending on the fabric:

  • Reactive printing on natural fibres (cotton, linen, silk, rayon): the colour is absorbed into the fibres themselves rather than sitting on the surface, so the fabric stays soft and holds its colour through washing and light.
  • Dye sublimation on polyester: heat sets the colour into the fibres so it becomes part of the fabric, not a layer on top: very hard-wearing, with little risk of fading, cracking, or peeling.

We match the method to the fabric in each case: it's why our naturals stay soft and never feel coated. A slight softening of colour over many wash cycles is normal for any printed textile, but visible fading is rare with normal care.

Can I iron the printed side?

Yes, on the recommended heat setting for that fabric. If you'd prefer to be cautious, iron on the reverse, or press with a pressing cloth between the iron and the print. For polyester (sublimation) at high heat, always use a cloth.

Trade & wholesale

Do you offer bulk pricing?

Yes. Larger quantities are priced down as you add metres: the discount is built into the order, so you'll see it before you check out. For bigger production runs, ongoing supply, or a quote tailored to your project, reach out through Wholesale enquiries with your fabrics, expected quantity, and timeline, and we'll come back to you.

Can I get a trade account?

Not as a self-serve account just yet. For now, Wholesale enquiries is the way in: tell us how you work and what you need, and we'll look after volume pricing, repeat orders, and production runs with you directly.

Do you do cut and sew, hemming, or finishing?

For standard orders, no: we print, cut to length, and ship by the metre. For wholesale and production orders, yes: cutting, sewing, hemming, and finishing can be arranged. Reach out through Wholesale enquiries with your brief and we'll scope it with you.

Still have a question?

We read every email.

The FAQ covers the questions we hear most. If yours isn't here, the right inbox will get a quick, honest answer from someone who knows the work.

General & orders

hello@thefabricshop.com

Orders, shipping, account, samples, anything not on this list.

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Faulty or damaged goods

claims@thefabricshop.com

Order number + photos. Inspect before you cut.

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Sending a Custom Upload file

customdesigns@thefabricshop.com

For files too large for the configurator. Or your ready motif's.

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Wholesale & trade

trade@thefabricshop.com

Project, expected volume, timeline.

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