If you’re an avid estate or garage sale picker, you probably have come across some people selling their excess material and fabric remnants. A lot of the fabric might be the run of the mill, easily attainable and inexpensive material that can be found at your average fabric store, but if you look close enough, there could be some hidden gems as well. If you are reselling the material, your potential buyer could be someone repurposing or reupholstering furniture, crafters making clothing or home décor items or even theater or period designers making costumes.
When reselling to other crafters, it’s much better to have too much than too little. Look for longer pieces. It’s much easier to sell uncut yards then smaller pieces. Remember to open up the fabric pieces to take a look for holes, wear from improper storage or even insect damage.
You will find some fabric will be worth more than others. In particular, keep an eye out for wool, linen and silk. If you resell clothes, you probably already have a feel for some textures and higher end fabric. Put that knowledge to good use and search for fabric that you can also resell on one of your platforms. Since the fabric you are looking at will probably not have the material label for you to know what it is made of, you may need to rely on your experience from handling clothing. Or better yet, go to the source and ask someone at the sale. Most will be very helpful as they are trying to get rid of excess inventory anyway.
Knowing where your fabric originated is very helpful in reselling. Made in the US, Portugal, Germany, Italy and England fabrics, just to name a few, are much sought after materials.
Look for vintage patterns and retro designs. Look for bold colors and graphics and don’t shy away from wild designs that have you taking a second look. I’ve found if it caught your eye, it will catch a potential buyer’s eye at your store too!
One of my favorite things about fabric is shipping. Most fabrics fold nicely and you don’t have to worry about breakage en route. So take your time at the next estate or garage sale you find to look through areas you might have skipped in the past. Not everyone has the time or even the options for finding the material you might come across and your online store will bridge the gap to getting them what they were needing.