Fabric Printing Review: realfabric.com

Our review of realfabric.com may be our final fabric printing review before the Pixeladies retire, so we’re especially glad we found this company. After myfabricdesigns.com went out of business, we were really sad. It used reactive dyes, which we loved. Why? Because you get a rich, deep black. And for us, it’s all about the black. A good black makes colors pop, and the resulting print looks less muddy. So how does realfabric.com measure up? Quite well, we think.

Cotton

The label pictured above was printed using a plain weave cotton. You can see the background fabric a little bit through the label, something to consider if you are going to put your fabric directly on another printed fabric. The cotton feels fine, but it’s the nice rich blacks that we really like.

Chiffon

Our students often ask about fabric suitable for scarves. Does it drape well? Does it print through to the back? This rayon chiffon is very see through. The weave is very obvious in the black sections.

The back shows how much the front design is visible on the back. The color saturation is not exactly the same on both sides (you can tell which side is the reverse), but it comes rather close. There are a variety of fabrics that drape well with good saturation. Too many to showcase here!

Poly Satin

The poly satin is very shiny and drapes very well. It’s that kind of fabric that can really show off one of your own designs, maybe sewn into a dress or skirt.

Swatch Book

Realfabric’s swatch book is really the best! Companies tend to provide 3″ x 3″ swatches of one print on all their fabrics on offer. Realfabric sends you a large booklet. Each swatch is about 7″ wide with a variety of color dots, text in different sizes, and lines or circles on black. We find the text, both black on white and white on black, particularly helpful. You can see in the photo below how the fiber content, description, and care instructions are listed on the back of each swatch. Yes, this is a great swatch book! At $8, it’s a must-have item.

Summary

We were very happy with our label and the other fabric sample we ordered in cotton. The fabric arrived in a reasonable amount of time, something to think about if you’re working on deadline. Yes, we would be interested in trying several of the other fabrics as well. The jersey looks pretty good, and since we both sew clothes (well, Deb does, and Kris does, if Deb helps), the jersey has potential. The important thing to do is to buy the swatch book, regardless of the company you are considering using. Click here for our fabric printing page. You’ll find more blog posts, articles, and videos dedicated to fabric printing.