How to Read a Fabric Spec Sheet: A Designer's Guide
Every fabric ships with a spec sheet, and most are read the same way: glanced at for the price, skimmed for the width, then ignored. That is a mistake. The spec sheet is the fabric's résumé — a few dry lines that tell you how it will behave on the job, how much to order, and what it will cost your client.
This guide decodes a real spec sheet, line by line, using a real product: Torrent 72C, a black-and-white geometric French linen by Antoinette Poisson at $296.70 per meter.
Line 1: Weight — what the fabric is built for
Torrent 72C lists 300 g/m² — grams per square meter, the fastest read on what a fabric is built for.
Under 150 is sheers and voiles. Around 200 is medium drapery weight. At 300 you are in upholstery territory: dense, structured, made for daily use. That one number tells you Torrent 72C will hold its shape on an accent chair or a Roman shade — and that it is the wrong fabric for a breezy gathered curtain.
Ask one question of every weight: *does this match the job?* Match the band first; fall in love with the pattern second.
Line 2: Printed width — the number your math runs on
Torrent 72C lists 53.5 inches printed width, plus a 1.38-inch white selvage on each side. The selvage — the tightly woven edge strip — is unprinted and gets cut away. Your usable width is 53.5 inches, not the 56.26 the full bolt measures.
Run every calculation on the *printed* width and round widths up, never down: a 60-inch panel on 53.5 inches of print needs two widths (60 ÷ 53.5 = 1.12), seamed — not one stretched width. Math done on the full width is how projects come up short.
Line 3: Fiber and origin — what "linen" actually promises
Torrent 72C is 100% linen, woven and printed in France. Two claims worth pausing on.
"100% linen" means real flax — not "linen-look," not a poly blend trading on texture. True linen brings a crisp, structured hand and durability that improves with use. A blend behaves like a blend; only the fiber content tells you which you are buying.
"Woven and printed in France" is the provenance line. Torrent's pattern comes from Antoinette Poisson's own archive of historic *papier dominoté* designs, made by the house that drew it. That is your answer when a client asks why this linen costs more than the bolt at the discount outlet.
Line 4: Repeat and pattern match — the quiet budget line
Torrent 72C lists a 16.89-inch pattern repeat with a connected pattern match — the vertical distance after which the motif restarts, and the rule for aligning it across cuts.
"Connected" means the motif flows continuously, so every cut needs one full repeat beyond the finished length: a 48-inch drop becomes a 64.89-inch cut before hems. On small pieces this is where budgets quietly double — a 21-inch pillow front needs 16.89 inches of repeat added on top. Read the repeat against the size of what you are making, and you will see the true cost before you quote it.
Line 5: Sold by the meter — quote in the unit you buy
Torrent 72C is sold by the meter. European mills sell by the meter; American workrooms think in yards. One meter is 1.09 yards — close enough to round carelessly, and careless rounding on a $296.70-per-meter fabric is expensive. Convert at the end, quote in meters in the middle, and never let a 9% unit drift hide in your estimate.
Worked example: quoting a Roman shade
A client wants one Roman shade, 36 inches wide with a 48-inch drop, in Torrent 72C.
Widths: 36 ÷ 53.5 = 0.67 → one width.
Cut length: 48-inch drop + 8 inches for hems and finishing + one full 16.89-inch repeat = 72.89 inches, about 1.85 meters.
Order: sold by the meter, so round up to 2 meters.
Cost: 2 × $296.70 = $593.40.
Five lines on a spec sheet, one clean quote, no surprises at the workroom.
Three mistakes that cost real money
1. Doing the math on the full width. The selvage is cut away. Use the printed width or come up short.
2. Forgetting the repeat on small cuts. A 16.89-inch repeat on a pillow cut can nearly double the yardage. Small pieces with big repeats are the most under-quoted items in the trade.
3. Treating all "linen" as equal. Fiber, weight, and origin are three different promises. A 150 g/m² linen-blend from a jobber and a 300 g/m² pure French linen share a word and almost nothing else.
Frequently asked questions
What does g/m² mean?
Grams per square meter — the weight of one square meter of fabric. Under 150 is sheers, around 200 is drapery, and 300 (like Torrent 72C) is upholstery-grade.
What is printed width?
The patterned area you can actually use — 53.5 inches on Torrent 72C. The 1.38-inch selvage strips on each side are trimmed off. Run all yardage math on the printed width.
What does "connected pattern" mean?
The motif flows continuously from one repeat to the next, so every cut must include a full repeat beyond the finished length to keep the pattern unbroken.
How do I convert meters to yards?
Multiply meters by 1.09 — two meters of Torrent 72C is about 2.19 yards. Convert at the end of your math, not the beginning, so rounding never compounds.
See the spec in person
Spec sheets are precise, but screens lie about color and hand. Memo samples of Torrent 72C are $7 and ship within 2–3 business days — order one, read the real thing in your client's light, and quote with confidence. Browse the French fabrics collection, request a quote for your next project, or join the Trade Program for designer pricing.