fabric.com What happened?

A few months ago I was granted a business partnership with fabric.com and was grateful for the opportunity to shop and save.  It seems while one hand graciously welcomed me, another appears to be taking away what made fabric.com my premiere online fabric store.

I believe that more than a year has passed since I placed an order with them.  They still have an awesome web presence and I have been nothing short of amazed with my orders from them.

The problem is that they rarely offer anything less than a yard.  The minimum is quite often 2 or more yards to meet the requirement to purchase.  This is not a problem for those making human garments and able to warehouse bundles of fabric.

For me, a smaller craft house, yards and yards is not practical or economical. Even though I often receive adjusted orders and 'out of stock' listings on my invoices from FFC Fashion Fabric Club, they cater to my business because they allow me to purchase less than a yard.  The website is not boasting color, but I am able to sample in small pieces, make a list of what is favorable for re-order, and find loads of sales.

As much as fabric.com was the premiere spot, it has lost its favor with me.

Even JoAnn's has been on my 'heart' list of late.  Although they also have a sketchy minimum purchase caveat, at least they are local and allow you to shop and ship free to the store!

Fashion Fabric Club - 2nd October Haul

If you remember from here: Fashion Fabrics Club fabric haul that I did an online shopping haul last week, at one of my favorite bulk fabric stores also known as Denver Fabrics. 

That haul yielded a pretty decent return on the investment. This 2nd October Haul was tenfold!  Everything that I ordered was in stock! YAY!!! With online shopping this is not unusual to have something back ordered or discontinued. But with (FFC), you do not know your unaccompanied item exists until your order arrives. I have witnessed many shoppers complain about being charged a lot for shipping only to see their order fall less than the shipping. OUCH!  I hope that never happens, because the day that happens, it is OVER!!!

Needless to say, this haul ruled!  I did order multiple options, but the fabric is so fabulously priced and you can order as low as an 1/8 of a yard. Not many can say that for sure. Most fabric sites want you to order a yard minimum, some require more than that. 

Fashion Fabrics Club is a great place to try small quantities to test the dexterity. When you design, nothing is really wasted.

Fabric shopping never ends, but it is an upswing when you can find what you need at great price. You can pass these great savings along to your customers and complete the circle of savings!

Stay tuned, to see the works of these hauls!

Fashion Fabrics Club, fabric haul

Last week I placed an order at Fashion Fabrics Club, also known as Denver Fabrics.  Often when you order fabric online, you do not get a good impression of the look and feel of the fabric.  You have to trust the listing and the merchant.

Because FFC allows you to order below a yard on most of their fabrics, it is an incentive to try as much as you can for their great prices.  Once your order arrives, take a discrete inventory of what you found worth buying more.

As a craft person, nothing really goes to waste.  You do have to log your stashes so that you remember what you have, what to reorder, and what is basically a miss!

Code: 
green=hit, something I would definitely order more of in the future.
yellow=neutral, not sure must see it on model
red=not likely, not at all what I expected, poor online description
U/A=unavailable, sold out, was not included in the shipment

There were definitely way more hits than misses.  I am pleased with this shipment.  There were so many greats in this order, I think it is best to review the neutrals, just so I pay special attention to these fabrics and give them a fair shot at rising to green!

48912 Dark Ivory Slub.  I was definitely looking for something in the ivory family, but unfortunately one of FFC's major faux pas is its color coding.  They could use some help in that department with visual imaging.  The fabric has a look of wheat which is a bonus.  But it is ribbed.  We will see! 

63393 Soft Blue Check Shirting.  A little thin, but we shall see.  I am sort of 'light green' on this one.  

and the fail...

62807 Heather Charcoal Jersey Knit.  Looking at the picture, I did not expect ash/charcoal...the kind of way charcoal looks after it is has burned...A huge fan of gray, year around, I know my gray and this one did not live up to the expectation at all.  This one was such a disappointment, I may just abort the notion of finding it in another attempted search.

If I decide to give FFC a chance to redeem themselves on 'heather charcoal', I might go with 63823 Heather Charcoal Cotton Jersey Knit.  The name is close, but the color is very different.  

There is my review of this haul.  

Fashion Fabrics Club

Looking for oil cloth, I went to my favorite fabric spot for specialty fabrics, fabric.com and was a little disappointed in the search.  I did find a few but the selection left me unfulfilled.  The ones I really wanted required that I buy 3, 4 yards minimum.

No way!  I continued to search, and thus happened upon Fashion Fabrics Club and found a huge selection of oil cloth.  I wanted a variety of colors without investing in a full yard, or investing too much.  They also go by the name Denver Fabric Company.

I decided to give them a chance.  Here is my review!  

Prices.

A lot of sales.  I get plenty of emails about their sales.  The price for oil cloth was fairly cheap.  

Site navigation.

The site is hard to navigate.  Every time I went from cart review, then back to shopping, the search default took me back to the homepage. I query "oil cloth" and scissors displayed.  The site is constant having run time errors.

Cashing out.

I do not like the cash out system because they do not offer PayPal.  Being a new customer, I was a little reluctant to follow through, but I gave in.  This time. Please add PayPal.

Shipping.

Free shipping with a $70 purchase...ack!  I did not even come close to reaching that arena.  There is a 7-14 day processing/shipping time.  After eight days, I flagged customer service wondering where the heck was my shipping confirmation. They gave me some song and dance that I should check my spam folder...blah blah. That was Monday.  I thought FedEx was the only courier.  The package finally delivered to the post office and like a snail, it finally arrived today.

Oil Cloth Haul, 6 pieces!  Goal: Wellies and Slickers!

Verdict.

I would consider shopping on their site again.  I now know that things move slow.  As long as they deliver and there is no drama with my order, like missing items, we can do business.  Why not?  My go-to is JoAnn Fabric, and their warehouse sucks!  There is always a missing or lost item.  But because of JoAnn's customer service is so gracious, I continue to shop online.  The break-up is always dependent on customer service.