I received one yesterday and the envelope was torn open on the back, luckly the fabric was ok.

well I guess the answer to this is to double wrap. Say put the fabric in a plastic bag then the manila then tape the envelope cross like and then put the address label on. That "should" keep it from gettng messed up.

Yes, I have. I sent curtains and valances to a friend of mine several months ago. I put it in a ziplock bag with a card inside a manila envelope. It arrived tattered and destroyed after several weeks. The only way it was identifiable was because he regonized the fabric. From then on I've been extra careful to make sure it's packed very well. I use a LOT of tape, lol.

I have found with manilla envelopes that arrive to me, cause I purchase a lot more then sell. They arrive soaked, torn and abused at good 80% of the time. I have had them arrive in those little sleeves, saying how much the post office cares, but they lost my item. But, here is the torn envelope.

Oops posted twice.

Tyvek envelopes are the best ... but that is priority mail only if use from post office. A regular priority envelope arrived at my house torn open ... thankfully sender wrapped fabric in a zip lock. Agree with all of the above about trying to make priority containers look like standard boxes. No. No. No. I definitely appreciate contents being in a zip lock bag, and the extra addresses.

No problems here. I too put the fabric in either a plastic bag or use the mailer bag that is lined with plastic... I get those from WalMart.

I see no problem with using the Priority Mail boxes that I've received in the mail for storing other things.

It just isn't right to try to pretend the priority mail box is something else when trying to mail something in it.

it's funny you mentioned that about storage - one of the woman's magazines, I think it was Family Circle, published something saying how you can use the "Free" boxes from the PO to store things like your kids' artwork and school papers. They got a lot of flak for it.
Pre-used boxes, I can see, but they were suggesting you get them in bulk from the PO and set up your own storage system.

I don't have any problems and do it all the time, not only with fabrics, but books and magazines. So far, as long as I take care on how I pack the item, it gets there without problems.