Every roll has a few metres that should not be used. How to spot a fabric defect before cutting, what to do when one appears halfway through a garment, and who pays in each case.
Faults Are Normal. Finding Them Late Is Not.
A roll of cloth is not uniform. Mills work to a tolerance, and a certain number of flaws per hundred metres is accepted by the trade rather than treated as a failure. A missed thread, a thick slub, a patch where the dye took differently — these are expected.
So the question in a tailoring shop is never whether the cloth has faults. It is whether you find them while the cloth is still flat on the table, or after it is a half-made blouse.
The difference between those two moments is the whole cost. A fault found before cutting moves the pattern piece four inches and costs nothing. The same fault found after cutting costs the piece, and if there is no cloth left to recut it, it costs the order.
The Faults You Will Actually Meet
Weaving faults
A missing warp or weft thread leaving a fine line down or across the cloth; a slub where the yarn thickened; a float where a thread passed over too many others. Most are small and most are invisible until the cloth is held up to light.
Dye and colour faults
A streak where the dye ran unevenly, a patch a shade off, or barré — faint horizontal bands across the width. The last is the cruellest, because it is nearly invisible on the roll and obvious on a finished garment under a different light.
Printing faults
A print out of register, a repeat that skips, a smudge where the screen lifted. On a patterned cloth these matter more than a weaving fault because the eye follows the pattern and lands on the break.
Handling damage
A crease that will not press out, a water mark, a fold line faded by sitting in a shop window, an oil mark from a machine. The faded fold line is the one shops miss, because it looks like a crease until it is cut and does not go.
Holes and snags
Obvious, and almost always at the start or end of a roll where it was handled. Check both ends before anything else.
Checking Before You Cut
Five minutes, and it is the five minutes that decides whether the rest of this post ever applies to you.
Unroll the whole length on the cutting table rather than cutting from the roll. Most shops cut from the roll to save table space, and a fault two metres in is discovered by the scissors.
Hold it against the light. A window or a lamp behind the cloth shows missing threads, thin patches and holes that are invisible flat on a dark table. Walk the length of it once.
Look at it from a distance as well as close up. Barré and shade variation do not show at arm’s length; they show from across the room, which is also how the customer will see the finished garment.
Mark what you find with chalk or a pin before you start laying out, then arrange the pattern pieces around the marks. Small faults can often be hidden in a seam allowance, under a facing, inside a placket or at the back of a sleeve — but only if you know where they are before the pieces are placed.
When It Appears Halfway Through
Sometimes it is missed, or it only becomes visible once the cloth is pressed. What you do next depends on where it is, and the decision should be made deliberately rather than by whoever notices.
In a seam allowance or hidden area
Carry on. A flaw inside a seam, under a facing or in the hem allowance will never be seen or felt. Note it on the job card so nobody else raises it later.
Small, and on a part that can be re-cut
If there is cloth left, re-cut that one piece. A sleeve or a facing is a few minutes. Do this before raising it with anybody, because it is no longer a problem.
Visible, and no cloth left
Stop and tell the customer, today. Do not finish the garment hoping she will not notice — she will, and finishing it first removes every option she might have chosen. Offer the alternatives: a contrast panel over it, a design change that moves the piece, or sourcing more of the same cloth.
A fault running through the whole length
Shade variation or barré across the roll is not a flaw in a piece, it is a flaw in the cloth. Stop. Nothing cut from it will be right, and continuing only increases what is wasted.
Who Pays
This is where a fault turns into a dispute, and the answer depends entirely on who supplied the cloth and when it was found.
If the cloth was <b>yours</b>, the fault is yours. Re-cut it, absorb it, and take it up with your supplier — which is a conversation you can only have if you kept the bill and can show the fault in unused cloth from the same lot.
If the cloth was <b>hers</b> and the fault was there when it arrived, it is hers — but only if you can show it was there when it arrived. That is what the condition line on the order slip is for, and it is the difference between a reasonable conversation and an argument you lose.
If the cloth was hers and the damage happened in your shop — an oil mark from a machine, a scorch from an iron — it is yours, and the right thing is to say so immediately and offer to replace the cloth. Shops that argue about this lose a customer over a few hundred rupees.
The cheapest version of all three is the same habit: open the cloth on the counter when the order is taken, in front of her, and write down what you both saw.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check cloth for defects before cutting?
Unroll the whole length on the table rather than cutting from the roll, hold it against a light to find missing threads and thin patches, and look at it from across the room to catch shade variation. Mark what you find with chalk before laying out.
What should I do if I find a fabric defect after cutting?
If it is in a seam allowance or hidden area, carry on and note it. If a single piece can be re-cut from remaining cloth, do that. If it is visible and there is no cloth left, stop and tell the customer today — finishing the garment first removes every option she might have chosen.
Who pays when customer-supplied cloth has a fault?
She does, if the fault was there when it arrived and you recorded the condition on the order slip. You do, if the damage happened in your shop. Writing the condition down at the counter is what makes the difference.
What is barré, and why does it matter?
Faint horizontal bands across the width of the cloth, caused by variation in the yarn or dye. It is nearly invisible on the roll and obvious on a finished garment at a distance, which is why cloth should be looked at from across the room as well as close up.
Where Juvee Helps
Knowing which lot a length came from, what it cost and what is left of it is what turns a fault into a supplier conversation instead of a loss. Juvee keeps the purchase and what remains against each cloth — see fabric inventory. The Basic plan is free with no time limit, and paid plans start at ₹10,190 a year including GST; every plan is on the pricing page. For shrinkage, which is the one fault that appears after the customer takes the garment home, read does the cloth shrink.