I can get around four yards in "easily" - without having to really wrestle it into the envelope.

Maybe six yards if it's a comparatively light weight fabrics
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I've gotten up to seven yards in the envelope - but that required major distortion of the envelope and a lot of tape to hold the envelope together. I'm not going to do that anymore - it takes a very long time to fold the fabric and smush it get it in.

I've been told that USPS is getting stricter about how much distortion and tape is allowed on the Flat Rate Envelopes.

I've heard of some people being able to fit nine yards of regular cotton quilting type fabric in a regular size FRE - How is it done? I haven't been able to do it.

wow, that is good to know

I have gotten 9 yards in a regular flat rate envelope. I folded the fabric and placed it in a plastic bag and sat on it. I did use tape to put on the outside which my local po at the grocery store requres everyone to do. I also sat on the envelope for a little bit before closing it. You can order the legal sized flat rate envelopes from usps.com and they hold more as they are longer envelopes. I lay my fabric out and fold into thirds length-wise, before folding into squares. When I mail fabric to Canada, I mail 6 yard total in a flat rate envelope due to the package cannot weigh over 4 pounds. Hope this helps.

This information sure helped me....thanks for asking the question.

If you get the padded flat rate envelope you can get more into it because it's more flexible.

i was told the flat rate envelopes could not hold ANY fabric- that the envelopes were for documents' sheets of paper only---my p.o. made me switch the contents of my envelope to a tyvek bag type of packaging....which of course is not (flat-rate)
postage increases along with gas price increases are sure changing the way i do things...and the things i get to do- continuous running swaps- programs i've had to stop signing up for --which is a bumber- but a second job is out of the question right now...

It would be nice/helpful/less confusing if all the Post Offices interpreted the regulations the same way.

So far I haven't had problems with mailing fabric in the FRE - I've brought the envelopes to the window (May 2011) - I'm asked if the contents are "whatever the question is" - I tell them that they are "addictive" - and the clerk laughs and says "oh, it's fabric again"

One of the "new" clerks told me I had too much tape on it - I had reinforced the top corners and the bottom edge - but let it go.

Then I'm asked "Do you want insurance on it?" And I ask them, "Are you planning to lose it or damage it?"

When the FRE first came out, I was told that if one could get the envelope to cover whatever it was, it could be mailed.


I think they've modified that.

I would think they would like to get all the business they can since people are not using postage like they used to....
The PO authorities should get together and print a set of rules that applies to all POs.

I'd like to see the official word on this. Their motto on flat rate products is: If it fits, it ships. They'll have to change the name if they do this. And, they have a service for this already. Paper can go in media mail, I believe.

As for fitting "more" in a FRE...if you lay several layers of fabric together THEN fold, it is more compact. But like you say, it's only a yard or two more to get it all in there and the time the sender must take to accomplish this is a few extra mins per package.

you can cram a lot more fabric into the padded flat rate envelopes than you can into the paper FREs. ;-)