Kona Fabrics and Robert Kaufman Fabrics
01-11-2010, 05:04 PM
#12
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: FL
Posts: 7,084
Originally Posted by OdessaQuilts
It wouldn't be so distressing if these lines weren't so gosh-darned expensive! Am I right? When I'm paying $12.00+ per yard for Kaufmann and the quality slips, but the price doesn't, then I just have to stop buying it. But I make sure that the shop owners know why I'm not spending my $$ with them for that reason.
01-11-2010, 06:02 PM
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: At my LQS
Posts: 2,326
All this confusion about fabric quality.
All manufacturers produce many bolts of fabric during their design process. They are testing the colors and prints to get everything just right. These goods are called griege goods. Once the manufacturer is satisfied with the print and colors he then produces his 1st quality goods.
The greige goods have a lower thread count (just like bed sheets) and the dyes are not as stable. The "cotton" they use during this testing process is made of short cotton fibers instead of the long staple fibers used in their final production of 1st quality goods.These inferior goods are then sold to discount stores...WalMart, Hancock's, etc.
Your local quilt store buys 1st quality fabric (atleast I have never heard of one buying greige goods). The same holds true for many online sources, such as EQuilter, Keepsake Quilting, Hancocks-Paducah.
I too was confused when I started sewing again after being away from it for years. I like a bargain like everyone else but have found that "you get what you pay for" is true after all.
I made some cute embroidered neck scarves for my daughter's dog Snickers. Wanting to be economical I bought fabric at WalMart. I prewashed it (as I do everthing) and couldn't believe what came out of the dryer. Once the sizing was removed I was left with thin (see-through) misshappen fabric that stretched every which way. Never agin!!!
On another thread, group members were commiserating about how non-quilters expect to buy a hand-crafted quilt for the price of a bed-in-a-bag from WalMart. We shouldn't be guilty of the same thing by expecting quality quilting cotton at bargain prices.
All manufacturers produce many bolts of fabric during their design process. They are testing the colors and prints to get everything just right. These goods are called griege goods. Once the manufacturer is satisfied with the print and colors he then produces his 1st quality goods.
The greige goods have a lower thread count (just like bed sheets) and the dyes are not as stable. The "cotton" they use during this testing process is made of short cotton fibers instead of the long staple fibers used in their final production of 1st quality goods.These inferior goods are then sold to discount stores...WalMart, Hancock's, etc.
Your local quilt store buys 1st quality fabric (atleast I have never heard of one buying greige goods). The same holds true for many online sources, such as EQuilter, Keepsake Quilting, Hancocks-Paducah.
I too was confused when I started sewing again after being away from it for years. I like a bargain like everyone else but have found that "you get what you pay for" is true after all.
I made some cute embroidered neck scarves for my daughter's dog Snickers. Wanting to be economical I bought fabric at WalMart. I prewashed it (as I do everthing) and couldn't believe what came out of the dryer. Once the sizing was removed I was left with thin (see-through) misshappen fabric that stretched every which way. Never agin!!!
On another thread, group members were commiserating about how non-quilters expect to buy a hand-crafted quilt for the price of a bed-in-a-bag from WalMart. We shouldn't be guilty of the same thing by expecting quality quilting cotton at bargain prices.
01-11-2010, 06:05 PM
#15
Banned
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Cumberland Island, GA
Posts: 110
Originally Posted by JanetM
All this confusion about fabric quality.
All manufacturers produce many bolts of fabric during their design process. They are testing the colors and prints to get everything just right. These goods are called griege goods. Once the manufacturer is satisfied with the print and colors he then produces his 1st quality goods.
The greige goods have a lower thread count (just like bed sheets) and the dyes are not as stable. The "cotton" they use during this testing process is made of short cotton fibers instead of the long staple fibers used in their final production of 1st quality goods.These inferior goods are then sold to discount stores...WalMart, Hancock's, etc.
Your local quilt store buys 1st quality fabric (atleast I have never heard of one buying greige goods). The same holds true for many online sources, such as EQuilter, Keepsake Quilting, Hancocks-Paducah.
I too was confused when I started sewing again after being away from it for years. I like a bargain like everyone else but have found that "you get what you pay for" is true after all.
I made some cute embroidered neck scarves for my daughter's dog Snickers. Wanting to be economical I bought fabric at WalMart. I prewashed it (as I do everthing) and couldn't believe what came out of the dryer. Once the sizing was removed I was left with thin (see-through) misshappen fabric that stretched every which way. Never agin!!!
On another thread, group members were commiserating about how non-quilters expect to buy a hand-crafted quilt for the price of a bed-in-a-bag from WalMart. We shouldn't be guilty of the same thing by expecting quality quilting cotton at bargain prices.
All manufacturers produce many bolts of fabric during their design process. They are testing the colors and prints to get everything just right. These goods are called griege goods. Once the manufacturer is satisfied with the print and colors he then produces his 1st quality goods.
The greige goods have a lower thread count (just like bed sheets) and the dyes are not as stable. The "cotton" they use during this testing process is made of short cotton fibers instead of the long staple fibers used in their final production of 1st quality goods.These inferior goods are then sold to discount stores...WalMart, Hancock's, etc.
Your local quilt store buys 1st quality fabric (atleast I have never heard of one buying greige goods). The same holds true for many online sources, such as EQuilter, Keepsake Quilting, Hancocks-Paducah.
I too was confused when I started sewing again after being away from it for years. I like a bargain like everyone else but have found that "you get what you pay for" is true after all.
I made some cute embroidered neck scarves for my daughter's dog Snickers. Wanting to be economical I bought fabric at WalMart. I prewashed it (as I do everthing) and couldn't believe what came out of the dryer. Once the sizing was removed I was left with thin (see-through) misshappen fabric that stretched every which way. Never agin!!!
On another thread, group members were commiserating about how non-quilters expect to buy a hand-crafted quilt for the price of a bed-in-a-bag from WalMart. We shouldn't be guilty of the same thing by expecting quality quilting cotton at bargain prices.
01-11-2010, 06:19 PM
#16
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: North of Boston, MA, USA
Posts: 3,524
once in a class I was teaching I wanted to show the difference of quality in fabric. I took a FQ from one of the chain stores, folded it in half and cut strips, refolding with each strip, NOT ONCE could I get a straight cut.
01-11-2010, 06:22 PM
#17
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,688
Originally Posted by ljsunflower
Kona solids & Kona Bay are too different things. Right? I always thought they were anyway.
01-11-2010, 06:37 PM
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 1,981
I bought kona Bay large floral Peony print and Kona solids, I only use Kona black, they both feel like silk and Kaufman prints all have been good quality. I just got all three this weekend at our LQS end of year sale. They are very soft, no problem with any of the three.
01-11-2010, 07:21 PM
#19
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Florida
Posts: 873
You might want to try Connecting Threads. I'm new to quilting, but have been sewing for many years. Was hesitant to order online, because I counldn't 'feel' it. The CT fabric is made in America, and as shavery mentioned it feels like silk. It has a lovely hand to it and is reasonably priced.
Mary Ellen
Mary Ellen
01-12-2010, 07:00 AM
#20
Super Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Orchard Park, NY (near Buffalo, which is near Niagara Falls)
Posts: 3,884
Originally Posted by JanetM
All manufacturers produce many bolts of fabric during their design process. They are testing the colors and prints to get everything just right. These goods are called griege goods. Once the manufacturer is satisfied with the print and colors he then produces his 1st quality goods.
The greige goods have a lower thread count (just like bed sheets) and the dyes are not as stable. The "cotton" they use during this testing process is made of short cotton fibers instead of the long staple fibers used in their final production of 1st quality goods.These inferior goods are then sold to discount stores...WalMart, Hancock's, etc.
Your local quilt store buys 1st quality fabric (atleast I have never heard of one buying greige goods). The same holds true for many online sources, such as EQuilter, Keepsake Quilting, Hancocks-Paducah.
The greige goods have a lower thread count (just like bed sheets) and the dyes are not as stable. The "cotton" they use during this testing process is made of short cotton fibers instead of the long staple fibers used in their final production of 1st quality goods.These inferior goods are then sold to discount stores...WalMart, Hancock's, etc.
Your local quilt store buys 1st quality fabric (atleast I have never heard of one buying greige goods). The same holds true for many online sources, such as EQuilter, Keepsake Quilting, Hancocks-Paducah.
(pronounced 'gray') - An unfinished fabric, just removed from a knitting machine or a loom. Loom state of cloth that has not received dry and wet finishing.
An unfinished fabric, just removed from a knitting machine or a loom. Also called grey goods.
Fabric in the raw state, before dyeing or finishing processes.
Grey fabric- Raw fabric, before it is bleached and processed.
So... greige goods is just unfinished fabric (which is what I thought). There will be many different qualities of greige goods, with different thread counts, more or less slubs in the weave, different fiber contents etc.
The manufacturers do "strike-offs", which is a test printing of their design. If the quality of the strike-off is acceptable, then they go ahead with the full production run. I don't know *all* of what the manufacturers are checking with the strike-off, but I assume it just has to do with the quality of the printing (colors, screens) and does not have anything to do with the finishing, which is a completely separate step.
I don't know what happens to the goods produced by strike-offs, other than they sometimes wind up in the hands of the fabric companies' sales reps as small samples. Sometimes they go to pattern designers, to make "real" quilt samples for use in selling the patterns. (I used "real" to note the difference between an actual physical quilt, and a "picture" of a quilt made using design software.)
It can happen that a supposed "good" production run turns out to have flaws in it, maybe a repeating unprinted spot in the fabric, or maybe the wrong greige goods were loaded into the printing machine. I really don't know what happens to those! Sometimes, unfortunately, it's the LQS at the end of the line that finds and reports the problem. (I've had to do that a few times.)
I hope this information is of some help!
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