Frequently Asked Questions

You can pay with all common payment methods such as Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, AMEX, iDeal, Klarna, Bancontact, Sofort and many more.

Go here to the complete overview of all payment methods.

All orders are packed and shipped by us within 2 business days. In many cases already within 1 business day. If your order cannot be processed due to, for example, a stock problem, we will always contact you via Whatsapp or Email.

After you have placed an order, it can often still be cancelled if it has not yet been shipped by us. It is best to send us a message directly via Whatsapp with the cancellation request and the order number. After an order has already been shipped by us, cancellation is no longer possible, but you can then register it as a return after receiving the order. (Please check the return conditions first)

Yes, we have a separate wholesale web shop for this purpose.

This is accessible to anyone that meets the wholesale order conditions.

You can find more information about the wholesale webshop on this page.

Our shop system always sends an e-mail containing the order confirmation. You often receive this within minutes after making the payment. Sometimes this e-mail ends up in your Spam folder. If you still have not received an order confirmation after 30 minutes, there is probably a typo in the e-mail address. Please contact our customer service.

All the products that we ship from our own warehouse, are shipped from the Netherlands (EU country). 

Are you located inside the EU?
This means that if you are located in the EU, you will not pay any additional taxes or custom duties when receiving the package.

Are you located outside the EU?
If you are located outside the EU, it depends on your local policies and custom thresholds if you have to pay custom duties or not. For example in the USA, the threshold is pretty high, so in most cases you do not have to pay additional taxes or customs. For the UK there is a threshold af approximately 130 GBP per order, below that order amount there will be no additional custom duties most of the time. These are just examples and may not apply to your specific situation, please consult the customs website of your country to find out the exact rules and tarrifs for importing goods.

Please find all our current shipping rates on this page.
Also the webshop will show you the current rates and estimated transit times during the checkout process of your order.

You can find the estimated transit times on our shipping information page. But the most current transit times will always be displayed during checkout, where you choose your shipping option. Please note that these transit times are averages. These can not be guaranteed.
If you have any specific questions about the transit time to your destination, or if you have a deadline to meet, feel free to contact us first.

Yes. It normally takes 1 to 2 business days to process an order. This is because we process orders from old to new, and cutting fabrics, for example, takes some extra time. If your order is urgent, please feel free to send us a message via E-mail or Whatsapp. We will then do our best to ship your order the same day with priority. Depending on the chosen shipping option, your order will arrive faster. For urgent orders, you can also use express shipping with DHL Express. Please inform us about the deadline.

Yes, picking up orders placed online is possible at our warehouse in Edam, The Netherlands. ( Coming to store or try on products in our warehouse without an order is only possible by appointment by whatsapp, phone or email).

After your order is shipped, you will receive an email from our webshop system with the track & trace code. This email contains a link to track your order.

For regular shipments, this link will mostly go to the general Asendia tracking page. This means that your package will most of the time be delivered with your local post service. So if you receive a tracking code from us from asendia / shiptheory, where the tracking code starts with the letters "LF" or "LS", ( For example LF049921234FR ) then this tracking code is also traceable on the tracking website of your local post service.

Here are some tracking links for common destination countries:

(Here you can also see if, for example, your order was delivered to your neighbors, delivered to a post office or left in a special place).

United Kingdom - Royal Mail - Tracking on: www.royalmail.com

United States - USPS - Tracking on: www.usps.com

Canada - Canada Post - Tracking on: www.canadapost-postescanada.ca

Australia - Australia Post - Tracking on: auspost.com.au

Western Europe:

Germany - Deutsche Post - Tracking on: www.dhl.com

Ireland - An Post - Tracking on: www.anpost.com

Denmark - PostNord - Tracking on: www.postnord.dk

Switzerland - Post.ch - Tracking on: www.post.ch

Belgium - Bpost - Tracking on: www.bpost.be

Netherlands - PostNL - From this you will normally receive several emails from PostNL with updates on the progress and scheduled delivery date of your shipment.

Italy - Posteitaliane - Tracking on: www.poste.it

Sweden - PostNord - Tracking on: www.postnord.se

Finland - Posti - Tracking on: www.posti.fi

France - La Poste - Tracking on: www.laposte.fr

Austria - PostAG - Tracking on: www.post.at

Always check the track & trace of your shipment first. Here you can often find details about the shipment. For example, sometimes a package is delayed, delivered to the neighbors, or delivered to the post office. 

Is the shipment still on its way, but does it seem to have been 'stuck' on the track & trace for several days?

Please contact our customer service, we are happy to check with you.

Is the shipment status: delivered, but you have not received anything?

• First check to make sure your address information was entered correctly.
• Check the mailbox again.
• Ask your immediate neighbors if they have received anything.
• With letterbox packages, it sometimes happens that a shipment is already on 'Delivered', but it has not actually been delivered yet. Especially during busy periods. This is because not every mailman has a hand scanner with him. Mailbox parcels are then scanned before or after the delivery route, for example. In most cases the mailbox parcel is then delivered later that day, or in the days after. Is your package still not delivered after a few days? Please contact our customer service.

Many products have a trial period of up to 14 days. This is the period that you can view the product, or try it on briefly (not wear it!). These products are then often returnable within 14 days after delivery. First check the return policy to see if your purchase meets the return conditions. If so, you can fill out the return form at the bottom of that page. After reviewing your request we will send you the return instructions by email. You will receive these return instructions by email within 1-2 business days.

Exchanging products can be done quickly and efficiently by returning the product, and placing a new order for the desired product.

Please first check our return policy to see if the product is eligible for return, there you can directly register the product for return via our return form. You will then receive the return instructions and send this product back to us. Once we have received and approved this product, the purchase amount will be refunded to your account. In the meantime, you can place a new order with the desired product so that we can ship this new order immediately.

We process all returns received by us at least once a week. If there are no particularities with the received return, we immediately issue the refund order. Depending on your chosen payment method, the refund will then be processed and visible in your account within 1-2 business days.

Satin Hair bonnets & Satin Pillow cases
Preferably wash at maximum 30 degrees Celcius with the washing machine or by hand. Machine wash in a bra net, this way the soft satin stays protected from sharp parts and friction in the washing machine. Then hang to dry. Do not tumble dry.

Fabrics & Products made from fabrics
We recommend if possible to hand wash the regular fabrics / clothes, that way the colors will stay the most beautiful. The colors of the fabrics are colorfast and are suitable for machine washing at up to 40 degrees Celsius. Do not tumble dry, and do not use chemicals / bleach!

For Gold and Glitter fabrics: Only cold wash by hand. Hand wash seperately with mild detergent. No machine wash. Do not bleach. Do not dry clean.

Note: All fabrics can shrink up to 5% by machine washing. This is quite normal with cotton fabrics. On average, they shrink about 3% after a first wash at 30 or 40 degrees Celsius. So keep this in mind when projecting.

We do not make custom made clothing. The selection of ready-to-wear clothing in the web store is what we have for sale. We can of course provide you with beautiful fabrics so you can have your custom made clothing made at your own tailor.

Most of the fabrics are made of 100% cotton.

You can always read this in the product description of the specific fabric.

We also have some fabrics that consist of a mix of polyester and cotton, you can easily recognize these by the word "polycotton" or "polycotton" in the product description, or sometimes in the product title.

The width of the fabrics is between 114cm and 120cm. This varies by brand, and is always reflected in the specific product description of the fabric. This is measured from edge to edge.

The length of the fabrics is up to you. We sell all fabrics per whole yard, with a minimum length of 1 Yard ( 91cm ). So for example, if you choose length option "1 Yard" and quantity "2". You will receive one piece of 2 Yards ( 182cm ) in length. This can also be 3 yards, 4 yards, 5 yards or 6 yards. The maximum length of one piece you can choose is 6 yards (548cm).

A size conversion table from yards to cm's can be found here.

A Yard is a British unit of measurement often used with fabrics. African fabrics are also always folded by the yard, and a "complete" African fabric has a length of exactly 6 yards. This is also the reason we offer the fabric by the yard, and not by the meter.

Officially, 1 yard is exactly equal to 91.4cm.

Note: In practice, a slight deviation from this length may occur when we cut the fabrics to size: Fabrics cut to size by us ( fabrics shorter than 6 yards ) can deviate a maximum of a few centimeters from our size chart. This is because we always cut on the fold line of each yard from the factory. It sometimes happens that this fold is slightly shifted.

For a size conversion table from yards to centimeters, click here.

The smallest samples you can order are 1 yard length pieces. ( 91cm). The advantage of a sample in 1 yard, is that you immediately have the possibility to see how the whole design runs on the fabric. On a small piece of e.g. 10 x 10 cm you cannot see that. Therefore, we currently do not offer any other type of sample packages, or smaller pieces.

Most of the fabrics we sell are made of 100% cotton, ( we also have some kente fabrics that are a mix between polyester and cotton ). This information can always be found in the product description of that fabric.
The cotton fabrics have a cotton weight / thickness of between 120 grams per m2 and 190 grams per m2. ( this is different for each brand )
We have many customers who upholster chairs and sofas with it, so it is certainly possible. (You can find pictures of this regularly at our customer reviews and on Instagram)
We just don't have any technical information available on abrasion resistance, as it has not been extensively tested as a furniture fabric. They are not fabrics specifically developed as furniture fabrics, but they can certainly take some, as they are high-quality cotton.

So the question is also a bit of how often it will be sat on, and whether sharp things often come into contact with it, for example if it is a waiting room chair or car seat. If you want more firmness, you can possibly use an extra layer of, say, an even-colored upholstery fabric as a carpet pad.

Almost all African fabrics contain stickers on the fabric. These stickers have been put on by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, many of these stickers cannot simply be pulled off, as they may tear or leave adhesive residue. To avoid this, they can be completely removed using the following instructions: The easiest way to remove the stickers is to first iron the stickers from the back of the fabric with a steam iron, these stickers will then release on their own. To remove any remaining adhesive residue you can lightly steam it again and rub it off with a cloth, or wash short pieces of fabric afterwards at a maximum of 40 degrees Celsius. Do not use chemicals or other cleaning agents. Do not put in the dryer!

Watch our video to see how you can remove the stickers:

We get this question frequently, but unfortunately the answer is difficult to estimate from a distance. This is because it depends on the patterns the tailor uses. For example, a long dress that is wide may need twice as much fabric as a long dress that runs tightly along the body. So always ask the tailor. It is also important to consider how the pattern runs, sometimes you want to use a design of a fabric in width, and sometimes in length. ( For example, with stripes, whether they will be horizontal or vertical on the garment.

Here are some rough estimates, purely to give an indication. Please do not use this as a basis for ordering the amount of fabric for your specific garment: a simple top 1-2 yards ( with sleeves maybe more ), a short skirt 2 yards, a midi skirt 3 yards, a maxi skirt 4 yards, a wide dress 5-6 yards.  These are purely indications, this is not advice!

So always ask your dressmaker!

In the product category, in the product overview, you will see "From" prices per yard, these are the prices per yard you pay if you order 6 Yards of the fabric. If you choose individual yards, the price is slightly higher. This is because we have to cut the fabric to size, so we are left with fabric that is shorter than 6 yards.

Not necessarily, but may be wise in some cases. Some common reasons are:

• Shrinking of the fabric after a (first) wash: All Fabrics can shrink up to 5% by washing in the washing machine. This is quite normal with cotton / polycotton fabrics. On average, they shrink about 3% after a first wash at 30 or 40 degrees Celsius. So keep this in mind when projecting. For example, if you are making a custom-made dress this tight fitting, it is convenient to wash the fabrics first.
• Hygiene: If the final product requires a higher degree of hygiene, such as products for children, or mouth caps, it is always advisable to wash the fabric first.
• Softness of fabric: Washing the fabric with a little fabric softener also makes fabric a lot smoother. This may be desirable depending on the type of finished product.

Tip: Before washing, do not forget to remove any stickers on the fabric first according to the instructions provided. These instructions can also be found on our website.

Our warehouse is located in Edam, a small town near Amsterdam, Netherlands. We are an online store. Picking up orders placed online is possible, you can choose this during online checkout. Coming to store or try on in our warehouse without an order is only possible by appointment, which you can make via whatsapp, phone or email.

Yes, AfricanFabs is run by Jane. You can find out more on the "About Us" page.

We are often asked this question. It is certainly good that you ask yourself this question, especially since there is already more social awareness these days about cultural identity and cultural appropriation.

Our vision is simple; products such as fabrics, waist beads, clothing, hair bonnets & head wraps can be worn by anyone. As long as you wear them with pride, and from the love for the colors, patterns and culture, we only see this as an enrichment and a compliment. So when we look at our customer base, it is a wonderfully diverse audience from young to old, with roots and cultures from literally every country in the world. But there is one thing that unites these customers all: the passion for colorful, unique and practical products from AfricanFabs.

As for the patterns and symbols on the fabrics; Many of the prints we sell change every few months, it is therefore with most of the prints just a flow of fashion and colors, most of the figures and symbols therefore have no specific cultural or traditional meaning, but are worn mainly because they are beautiful and expressive.

AfricanFabs customer service can be reached Monday through Friday between 9:30 am and 5:30 pm (CET) via whatsapp +31617227322. ( or click on the green whatsapp button at the bottom right of your screen ) We will try to respond within minutes.

We can also be reached through the email form on the contact page, we strive to answer all emails within 48 hours. Most emails are answered the same day.