Let's talk about the term "railroading" and how it can be a little confusing. I've attached a nice description and some photos from Stout Textile's website, but I will also try to further explain. Not understanding the term can sometimes cause some confusion and misfortunate issues with the final product of the shades (if you had expected the stripes to run a different direction).

"Railroading" refers to the way a fabric is printed on the bolt. A bolt is usually 54" wide x how ever many yards you got. So if you got 2 yards, the fabric will be 54" wide x 72" long. Selvage is the finished ends of the fabric (side to side). Sometimes the selvage has a bit of a jagged edge so you can see it's the sides. It also often has the name of the company and fabric printed on it and arrows to show which is up and down.

If you get a striped fabric, it is especially important to notice if the fabric comes railroaded off the bolt. Railroaded means the stripes will run HORIZONTALLY, selvage to selvage. Even if a company shows a photo of the fabric running vertically, it can still be railroaded. Usually they show a photo of it vertically when it's a window treatment or on a sample even. But it should say in the description if it runs horizontally or railroaded.

The reason for railroading is because a lot of people use the fabric for upholstery and want the stripes running front to back on the cushion or sofa. So there is no seam in the cushion, the fabric runs horizontal stripes so it can go the width of the chair.
If you choose a railroaded stripe for shades or curtains, and you want it VERTICAL stripes, there WILL be a seam in the fabric, likely, bc if the shade is longer than about 45" (we need wiggle room for the hems and top board), it will need to be pieced together. So for instance, the width is only 54" off the bolt. We're turning the fabric so the width then becomes the length of the shade or curtain. So there will be a horizontal seam to make it longer.

A few of my shade photos show an example of this. A good example is the fabric, "Surf Stripe" from Serena & Lily. It's shown vertical stripes in a few photos and even on their website, but it runs horizontally. If you look at the description off their website, it says "railroaded." So it does say that it will come horizontal stripes off the bolt. Sometimes on shades, you do not see the seam bc it's hidden under a fold. If your shades are mostly for looks and you don't plan to lower them often, this seam will barely be an issue and barely be noticeable. We do try to match the pattern nicely, so even if you lower, you should not notice it much.

Flipping the fabric to be vertical stripes (if fabric runs railroaded or horizontally), requires more fabric often bc we need to piece it together.

We often try to confirm if you want the stripes vertically or horizontally when we get a fabric, however, we get a TON of fabric delivered here and make a ton of shades, so it's super important for customers to really make sure they're purchasing the fabric just like they want it off the bolt. If there's a special request to change the fabric appearance off the bolt (flip fabric or anything custom that is not the way we receive it off the bolt) we will need to know this before starting production of the sewing.

If ever a rare situation where we maybe need more fabric to complete the item, we'd ask the buyer to please kindly send us more fabric. If the extra yardage request is due to a mistake on our part of staining, cutting incorrectly, or any other issue that was our fault, we will cover the costs of the extra fabric. If the fabric needed is due to wrong calculated yardage (rarely happens) or the vendor sending defective fabric or the incorrect fabric, the customer is responsible for purchasing the yardage and supplying the extra fabric needed to complete the project.

Thanks for reading!! So please remember, whichever way we receive the fabric off the bolt (selvage to selvage) is the way we are making the item (unless it is communicated to us that you'd like it to be different).