Answers to Common Questions

If you’re not familiar with Oakshott, here are a few hints and tips to help you navigate our site more easily. If you don't find the answer to your question here, please get in touch.  

Browse in your own currency

You can use our selector to see product prices in one of seven currencies. The currency you choose will be stored for the next time you visit. Please note however that orders will be processed in GBP. 

Browse in your currency

Tax/duty/VAT

Our product prices are shown both with and without VAT (product tax). VAT is NOT charged on shipments outside the UK. However local taxes may apply.

For UK shipments, VAT is applied automatically at the current rate (20%).

VAT statement

When will my order be delivered?

We aim to despatch orders received within 1-3 working days of receipt and we ship daily worldwide. Normal services are shown on the Delivery & Returns page and on every product page. Customers are often surprised at how quickly their order is delivered!

What is the cost of shipping?

Our charges for packaging and shipping depend on the destination. They're shown on the Delivery & Returns page and on every product page.

What are ‘shot’ cottons?

Each colourway is achieved by selecting a base colour warp and marrying it with a complementary or contrasting weft thread. This produces our trademark ‘shot’ effect, when the colour appears to shimmer and change depending on how the light falls. They appear to have depth and movement.

Many of our collections - Lakes, Lipari, Ruby Reds, Scandinavia and Sorbet - combine a single warp shade with a rainbow of weft threads. This ensures that the colours mix, match and tone happily together, so you need have no worries about colour combining.

How should I care for the fabrics - before, during and after sewing?

We use the best quality reactive dyes which provide the best fastness to light, rubbing and especially to washing. This however cannot be guaranteed and as many quilts are future heritage projects, we recommend dry cleaning.

Our fabrics are soft finished with steam after production and most quilters do not prewash them. If prewashing is preferred, then only by hand in clean water at 30C, please.

Our fabrics are pure finished ie they don’t contain binders / wax / starch etc. The handle will therefore change very little when the fabric is washed. They may however fray slightly more than ‘finished’ fabrics and to minimise this, we recommend overlocking cut edges prior to washing.

Do not machine wash and do not tumble dry. Dark and light colours should be washed separately. Avoid optical whiteners and chlorine based cleaning products. Gently towel dry and iron whilst damp. Allow for a shrinkage of 3-5%

What cut sizes do you offer?

Our fabrics are cut from a 54” / 137 cm bolt width - that’s up to 23% wider than 'standard’. It also means that our cut lengths and pre-cut packs may be considerably larger than you'd expect!

Our pre-cuts come in Fat 8ths, Fat Quarter, Half Metre Block or 1 Metre packs. 5” Charm Squares are available for individual collections. Check out our Size Guide for more.

How can I compare the shades of one colour, across all the collections?

Our 'filter by colour' facility makes this easy.

Filter by colour

  1. Click 'Shop' in the top bar.
  2. Click the downward arrow beside 'Colour' and check the colour of your choice. Here we filtered on Green to see the Greens from all our collections.
Search by colour

Where can I see and touch Oakshott fabrics?

We have a small number of retail partners who bring Oakshott closer to you via physical shops, online stores and regional events. For advice on colour choice, fabric quantity and more, we trust their expertise and so can you.

See our Stockists page.