Buying stretch fabrics over the Internet is not easy. You really never know what you’re going to get until it arrives. The colour you see on your monitor is rarely identical because of both how your monitor displays colour and how they photograhed the sample (don’t let them blame only you for this problem). Widths vary from country to country and even between manufacturers … and they can vary as much as 10cm (4″) from the size displayed. Then you have the stretch issue. The standard way to describe stretch is 2-way (selvage to selvage only) or 4-way (selvage to selvage and 90 degrees to the selvage). If you dont see a little symbol actually showing the stretch directions be sure to ask before you buy. Lastly there is a weight issue. Now unless you have technical specifications saying exactly what the weight per square meterage/yardage is then you can bet it’s going to be a lot lighter than you thought it would be … and more often than not I’ve found most samples to be 10-20% lighter than the retailer specified.
Personally, I recommend always visually inspecting the fabric before you buy it, whether that means you visit the retailer in person or you first request a sample/swatch. Remember that swatches do not show the full print repeat or the width of the roll, but it’s much better than nothing.
One buying hint is always buy a little more than you think you’ll need. If you make a mistake, forget something or change the pattern then you’ll be very frustrated waiting for the next delivery to arrive. Also I’d encourage buying two or three different fabrics at the same time to reduce the proportional cost of packaging and delivery.
The list below represents some of the better fabric suppliers, but by no means equates to my endorsement.
Australia
Eclipse Textiles: Wholesale only, this company stocks Carvico lycra which in my opinion is the finest quality swimwear fabric in the world today. They also supply a host of dance fabrics and a really good swimwear lining. Give them a call as they might sell retail for larger quanities … very nice sales staff … I do endorse these people and I’m not being paid to say that … they’re the best in the country!
Veronica Textiles: Retail and wholesale, this company does print runs of your own design and also stocks a range of their own prints that you can buy or change the colours of. They also have a mailing list that lets you know the current sale items from time to time.
StretchTex: Wholesale only, this company stocks a moderate range and some more sportswear inclined fabrics.
Spotlight: I’m putting up this website as an example of ‘cheap and nasty’ lycra. They’ll probably take exception to my comments, but I find the fabrics are of significantly lower quality with respect to weight, chlorine resistance (almost none), colour fastness (almost none) and wear resistance (just don’t sit down). While they are relatively cheap for retail … they are still no cheaper than ordering over the net elsewhere. If all you can do is buy retail then you’ll find these guys everywhere in Australia and a good way to spend as little as possible when you are learning how to handle stretch.
United Kingdom
No recommendations yet. Please send me yours!
United States
Spandex World: Retail with online order facility. This company has a pretty large range but you need to be careful about 2 vs 4 way stretch and weight. Very often weight isn’t acurately listed or is listed as ‘light’ rather than a specified number which sets off alarm bells for me. I’ve not ordered from them myself but they come with an awful lot of recommendations so they deserve to be listed.
Europe
ELingeriA: An online fabric and notion supplier in both English and German. Thanks to Laura for the link. I liked the ‘coupon’ pieces of fabric … neat idea I haven’t seen before. I haven’t personally ordered from this site.
Asia
No recommendations yet. Please send me yours!
Hi,
I have a good store for shopping for fabrics in Athens Greece: Elli: Agion Panton 58 Kallithea (the bus 030 passes from syntagma to Pirea though that street)It is my mecca for fabrics, Im a student an don’t have the money to be spending much on fabrics. A satin that is 30eu in !thens center shops is 6 euros here!
Glitter and Dance have a shop in the UK as well as Australia. Both have online shops and are worth while to have a look. glitteranddanceuk.co.uk or glitteranddance.com.au they have a huge range of spandex and lycra. Hope this helps!!
Gosh what’s wrong with me today – can’t type. (No don’t answer that). It’s “sewcurvycorsetry.com” – not “corsety”!!!! Sorry about that!!!!
I posted something about places in the UK and made a typo. Its not “sewcury” it’s “sewcurvy” or “sewcurvycorsety.com”. There is also a lady who has an online shop called “Mint Lingerie” who sells underwear stuff – I don’t know that she does dancewear and swimwear stuff – but to my knowledge she is the only person who sells a bra pattern designed in the UK (her own pattern) – other places seem to sell the American bra patterns.
Hi,
The places for underwear/stretch fabrics that I know of in the UK (I’m only a home sewer, not a professional) are sewingchest.co.uk (has a very wide range) and englishcouture.co.uk. Fabulous fabric (I don’t remember the exact name of the site) sell bra and corsetry stuff plus general fabrics and have a real shop as well as on online one in Ashby de la Zouche. Vena Cava sell mainly corsetry stuff and some bra stuff and patterns. There is a newish site sewcury.com that is mainly for corsetry but is also diversifying into bra findings (though it’s early days as yet). Fabricland (I think it is fabricland.co.uk – be careful because there is a site with a similar name in the United States)sells all sorts of fabrics including swimwear and dancewear. Nevtex also sell stretch fabrics. I don’t remember the exact site names of all of them but if people google them and narrow their search to websites from the UK they should be able to find them. Regards.
In Melbourne there is Trimmings ‘n Remnants in Pascoe Vale south – they have a whole lycra room with some excellent quality and variety…also the Fabric Store sometimes has some designer lycra – they are in Brunswick st fitzroy in Melb and are also in sydney. I have also bought online from ebay US – up to 10 metres at a time and have had good results – but you do take a punt on that.
I love this site. Stumbled on it and have found lots of information. I have sewn for years and am looking for a new start, so I am trying my hand at sewing items and selling them. i like this site as it has so much different stuff.
Hi,
I recently found your site and could not believe the wealth of information. I want to thank you for authoring this site for those who want to learn. Bravo.
I have a question about fabrics. Forgive me if you have answered this elsewhere, but I could not find a fabrics section. What is Stretch ITY? Since I have never done a suit, I was looking in the Clearance section for practice fabrics. It seems that there is a lot of Stretch ITY on Clearance. Is there a reason for that?
Thanks,
Holly
Hi anh, if you give Eclipse Textiles a call/email, they have a list of all the trade shows in Australia for this year (of course you need to be in the rag trade to be able to attend). I did have a copy of the pdf but for the life of me I can’t find it … Eclipse sent it to me .
Hey stuart,
I’m currently making swimwear at the moment and would love to attend these trade shows you are talking about. Please send me any links or info regarding these events.
I’m finding it difficult to find swimwear accessories, and you’re right buying from overseas, the moq is too much for me.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Maggie, most of the hardware I used to find via trade shows as styles and suppliers changed very quickly. It’s almost essential to attend a few of these each year to know whats available, what your opposition might be using, and what the general trends are likely to be. Unfortunately most suppliers via the net are now from China so you may be looking at language barriers and very large quantities … another reason to use trade shows because at least the language barrier is over come to start with.
There will be smaller habbie shops here and there depending on where you live that will have things you can use. You might also try bead and costume jewellry shops.
Can you suggest any company’s that sell swimwear hardware? I only seem to find plastic rings or closures. I would like something fancier. Thanks
Another one to check out is an online shop in Australia called glitter and dance, they have a great range of lycras, offer a sampling service and send overseas (www.glitteranddance.com.au)
Also Greenfields in Ann St Surry Hills, Sydney is Retail/ Wholesale. Its where a lot of fashion students and designers go to in Sydney and it has quite a few types of fabrics and haberdashery.