There is an amazing difference in quality of flannels. By far the nicest, softest, thickest flannel I have ever worked with is Moda flannel, followed very closely by the flannel out of Maywood Studios and Northcott flannels. No pilling and minimal shrinkage (considering it is flannel which tends to shrink a lot) from these brands. I won't hesitate to buy flannel on line from these 3. I have gotten some others on line that were perfectly acceptable as well but didn't have near the hand that Moda, Maywood and Northcott have. And I have had varying degrees of pilling with other brands. So I try to stick with these 3.