SELLING fabric on eBay/quilts/sewing/vintage/chenille REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE!
patriotic fabric
I sell a lot of fabric on eBay. Right now though I only have one auction and 2 listings in my store with fabric. Why? Because it usually sells very quickly! If you have been to a fabric store lately, the prices are quite high. Usually it is sold by the yard. On eBay, there are may ways to sell fabric. You can list it by the yard or in strips or jelly rolls or panels or squares–sometimes called fat quarters.
WHAT IS A FAT QUARTER?
A fat quarter is an 18 x 22 inch piece. Most fabric is about 44 inches wide. If you buy a quarter yard you get a piece that is 9 x 44. If you buy a fat quarter, the yard is cut into 4 pieces of 18 x 44 each. For a quilter, this offers more versatility for use of the piece. So if you have a lot of pieces of fabric lying around that you are not using, you could cut them into fat quarters and sell them as pre cut pieces. I plan on doing this soon but haven’t done it yet because I have a lot of pieces that I can sell by the yard.
vintage fabric
WHAT FABRIC SELLS WELL ON EBAY?
If you use a program like hammertap (see sidebar) you can gather a lot of information on what is selling on eBay. Some of the higher priced fabrics are specialty ones like silk, jacquard, upholstery and bulk lots. If you have any of this, make sure you use those keywords in your title. The word LOT is a much searched word as well so if you have more than 2 pieces, use the word LOT in your title. It is better than the word BULK. Just do a completed search and sort it for “highest price” and you can find other keywords to use. (or use the HAMMERTAP program!)
vintage chenille bedspread
HOW DO I FIND FABRIC TO SELL?
Of course, if you want to sell fabric you have to either find something unusual or find something at an awesome price! I do find a lot of my fabric at the local estate auctions. I can buy a box for 1$ there. However, another good source is yard sales and thrift shops. I have a Goodwill store that sells clothing by the piece at 75 cents in their outlet store. I often will buy a piece of clothing that has some beautiful fabric and cut it up into pieces. (fat quarters) Sometimes you get some nice buttons and other trim this way too! The larger the size, the more fabric you get out of it. I made a number of crazy quilt pillows this way in the past.
Sheets and old blankets are great fabric too! I sell a lot of chenille bedspreads that have holes and stains because people use the fabric for teddy bears and other craft projects. Use the word CUTTER in the title if you have any fabric like this with holes or stains.
- scrap fabric pillows
Fabric is all around you just waiting to be reused and recycled. Keep your eyes open and you can turn some free stuff into cash!
CLICK on any of my photos or click HERE to view my eBay listings.
Tags: fabric
June 14th, 2010 at 5:23 am
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July 12th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Good brief and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Thanks you for your information.
January 7th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Your blog is really a great informative peice of info. I am trying to sell a LOT of fabric and I literally mean a lot! It will help me when I am trying to sell this on ebay. Thank you!
March 3rd, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Thanks so much for writing this! My great-grandmother died two years ago and left behind quite a bit of vintage fabric, mostly 60′s and 70′s with some 40′s and 50′s thrown in. It’s more than we would use and I’ve been trying to think what to do with it.
A question for you, though – all the fabric is in never-used condition, but it’s slightly dusty from sitting in a drawer – should I wash it, or sell it as is?
March 4th, 2011 at 8:00 am
I would tend to say sell it as is but if it is in any way dirty rather than “dusty” I might wash it.
January 18th, 2012 at 10:57 am
what is a good size (lot) to put on ebay? is it better to put it in as a bid or set price? i am wanting my fabric to go to a new home.
January 28th, 2012 at 10:22 pm
I think the weight is more important than the size. Get as much as you can into a flat rate envelope or flat rate box. Then you know what the postage is going to cost before you set your price.