Custom Order Fabric ZipStrip

CUSTOM FABRIC ZIPSTRIP®
Ordering Procedure

If you want Fabric ZipStrip in some fabric or color that is not available as a standard item, you will need to place a custom order. We are currently able to produce custom orders in:

Sunbrella®
Weathertyte®
Ferrari Soltis® 92
Mainstreet®
Dickson® Woven Acrylic

For custom orders, you will provide the fabric. You can either send it to Steel Stitch directly or have it drop-shipped from your fabric supplier.

Steps to Placing Custom Orders

Determine how much fabric we will need or call us and let us help you figure the fabric. Until recently, we provided a calculator on our web site that calculated the fabric required. Because the calculator seemed to confuse most people, we have replaced it with written instructions. (see "How Much Fabric", below)
Order your custom Fabric ZipStrip from your Tri Vantage Distribution Branch.
Ship the fabric to us (either from your fabric supplier or from you):
    Steel Stitch Corp.
    2575-C Cobb Int'l Blvd.
    Kennesaw, GA 30152
Tri Vantage sends us a P.O. for the Fabric ZipStrip which states the quantity of Fabric ZipStrip, who it's for, and what color fabric you are sending.

Most orders ship within 2 to 3 days of when we receive your fabric and Tri Vantage's P.O.

How Much Fabric?

If you want to know how to figure the fabric yourself, it helps to understand how we make the custom orders.

To make custom Fabric ZipStrip we must first slit the fabric along its length into precise 1-3/8-in. wide strips. This process requires a 2-in. wide section of fabric for every 1-3/8-in. strip. The reason that 2-in.of material width is used in slitting 1-3/8-in. strips is to allow some side to side movement of the material as it tracks through the slitter.

The other thing you'll need to account for in figuring the fabric is that when we slit we lose the first foot off the end of each slit piece.

Example: We start with a 60-in. x 20 ft. piece of fabric. This fabric can be slit into thirty 1-3/8-in. strips, 20-ft. in length each. We can calculate this by dividing 60-in. by the 2-in. width needed (including waste). Each strip will be 19 ft. long after losing a foot off the end of the piece. We end up with (30) 1-3/8-in. x 19-foot pieces of fabric that we can then sew onto the ZipStrip. When the thirty strips are sewn end to end we have produced 570 feet of Fabric ZipStrip.

Fabric ZipStrip Seam Seams

Note that the fabric is sewn end to end. When we get to the end of one piece and start the next we have a "lap" seam. Figure 1 shows a typical lap seam. So in the above example there will be a seam every 19 ft.

Obviously, the way to minimize these seams is to start with longer pieces of fabric. If you need a fairly large quantity of Fabric ZipStrip, this won't be difficult to do. Say you need 800-ft. of a given color/material. The material comes in 46-in. widths. You want us to use the full 46-in. width to make the Fabric ZipStrip.

First we figure out how many 1-3/8-in. wide strips we can get from a 46-in. wide piece of fabric: 46-in. ÷ 2-in. (includes slitting waste) = 23

Then we figure how long the strips would need to be to yield the total quantity of Fabric ZipStrip required: 800-ft. ÷ 23 = 34.78 ft. (34-ft.10-in.)

Last, we add 1 ft. to this length (remember the ft. waste in slitting) to arrive at the total length of 46-in. wide fabric required: 34.78-ft. + 1-ft. = 35.78 feet.

So, a 35-ft.10-in. piece of 46-in. wide fabric will make 800 ft. of Fabric ZipStrip with seams every 34-ft.10-in.

As you can see, if you want several hundred feet of Fabric ZipStrip we can use the whole fabric width and the seams will be pretty far apart. On the other hand, if you need a small quantity of a given color/type fabric, to utilize the full fabric width would mean having seams very closely spaced.

For example, if you wanted 50 ft. of Fabric ZipStrip utilizing the full 46-in. wide fabric, the fabric would need to be 3.17-ft. long and the seams would occur every 2.17-ft.. The way to avoid this is to cut a strip off the side (or length) of the fabric. This strip can be any width 2-in. or greater. This cut does not have to be terribly precise. +/- 1/4-in. is sufficient. It does not have to be hot cut. Scissors cut is fine.

Fabric ZipStrip Seam Include Fabric ZipStrip
in Your Fabric Plan

You are used to figuring fabric for jobs to minimize waste. Figuring out how to get a strip off the side of the roll can be part of your overall fabric plan for the job. Often a strip that is a few inches wide is cut off the side of the bolt anyway . . . and becomes scrap.

Example: Say you are making a 3-ft. drop x 4-ft. projection shed style awning and covering it with Weathertyte®. The rafter length is 60-in.. In order to "railroad" the fabric across the top of the awning, you'll need fabric this 60-in. plus 3-in. for pulling and stapling. Since Weathertyte is 70-in. wide, you'll have 7-in. off the side of the Weathertyte that can be used for Fabric ZipStrip - Figure 2. If this 7-in. piece was 20-ft. long we could slit it into three 1-3/8-in. strips, 19-feet long each.

Of course things don't always work out this conveniently. By making the Fabric ZipStrip fabric part of the overall fabric usage plan, however, one can usually find a way to get the material off the side of the roll, thus making it longer and reducing the frequency of seams.