Originally Posted by QKO

You bring up an interesting point - one that a lot of quilters don't know about, so I'll mention it here.

The product number printed on the selvedge is the PRINT identifier. Many if not most prints come in multiple colors.

So in order to correctly match a fabric, you need both the PRINT identifier AND the COLOR code. The color code is rarely, if ever printed on the selvedge.

Color codes vary between makers, but they often, if not almost always, follow the Print identifier, after a dash or something, on online website product descriptions. So, for instance, a fabric with the print number 12345 might be printed in three colors, say codes -01 -02 and -03. In this case, the full product number would be 12345-01, etc. with 01, 02, 03 being different colors.

Some manufacturers just put a color name after the fabric number. Lakehouse does this a lot. So the fabric you wanted might have been LH3035-White and what you got was LH3035-Champagne, or something like that.

So, when you are trying to match fabric, always try to get both the print number and the color code. If you do, you'll probably get what you're looking for.

And if in doubt, ask for a sample! :-)