How to buy fabric you'll actually use

Buying fabric is easy. Buying fabric that actually makes it out of your stash and into your wardrobe takes a little more thought.

This spectacular gold-embossed Italian wool has been in a friend’s stash for years. Still loved and treasured — but finding the right garment for it (while keeping the moths away) is another matter.

A beautiful colour, an irresistible print or a very good sale price can be enough to get fabric through the door. But before you buy, it helps to ask a better question: what could this fabric realistically become?

Let the fabric lead

One of the most useful principles in dressmaking is that the fabric should help determine the garment — not the other way around.

Look beyond colour and print. Consider the fabric's weight, drape, structure and hand — how it feels and behaves when you hold it. A crisp cotton and a fluid viscose might both make a blouse, but they'll produce completely different garments.

Pick the fabric up. Unfold it. Drape it over your hand. Stand back and look at it from a distance. How it behaves can tell you far more than the folded bolt.

Think wardrobe, not fabric stash

It's possible to love a fabric without ever wanting to wear it.

Before buying, think about the clothes you reach for again and again. What colours do you wear? What shapes? What works with the shoes, jackets and separates you already own?

This is where orphan fabrics creep into a stash: beautiful pieces that don't quite belong with anything else. They're lovely in isolation, but there's no obvious garment, no place for them in your wardrobe — and so they stay on the shelf.

Know what you're buying

Fibre content matters, but it doesn't tell you everything.

Two fabrics made from the same fibre can behave very differently depending on their weave, weight and finish. Learn to look at the whole fabric rather than relying on a label such as “cotton”, “linen” or “wool”.

And think ahead to care. If you won't hand wash, dry clean or carefully press a fabric once it's a garment, that's useful information before you buy it.

Buy for a real possibility

You don't necessarily need a pattern in your hand before you buy fabric. But you should have some idea of its possibilities.

Could it be trousers? A jacket? A dress? A shirt?

If you're unsure of the exact design, buy enough to give yourself options. A useful rule for many dress fabrics is twice the garment length plus enough for sleeves. It's frustrating to find the perfect project six months later and discover you're 40 centimetres short.

Don't let the sale make the decision

A bargain is only a bargain if you use it.

Look at the sale fabrics and mid-range purchases that have accumulated in your stash over the years. Chances are, you'd happily trade three, four or five of them for one truly inspiring piece — a beautiful cashmere coating, an exceptional Italian linen or a fabric you can't wait to work with.

That doesn't mean every fabric has to be expensive. It means buying fewer fabrics can sometimes give you the freedom to buy better ones.

Before adding another “pretty good” fabric to the stash, ask yourself whether you'd rather put that money towards something you really love — and really want to make.

That's the beginning of a smarter stash: fewer orphan fabrics, better possibilities, and more of the fabric you buy becoming clothes you actually wear.