By colour, by pattern, by what it is for.
The library cut the ways people ask for it. A collection is one house's own range; these are everything we hold that matches, whoever wove it. 423 ways in.
By colour
Twenty colours, named the way the mills name them. Ask for teal and you get everything teal, whoever wove it.
By pattern
Ten patterns. Plain is the largest by a distance, which is what a workshop that covers a lot of sofas would expect.
By what it is for
Rub counts and weights, already sorted. Upholstery cloth takes a seat; curtain cloth hangs.
By kind
Wallpaper, velvet, outdoor cloth, carpet. What the thing actually is, rather than what it looks like.
Colour and pattern
The two questions people ask together. Teal, and then teal geometric.
Colour and use
A colour narrowed to the job. The same shade behaves differently on a chair and at a window.
Pattern and use
A pattern narrowed to the job, for when the drawing matters more than the shade.
Colour and kind
A colour in one cloth: teal velvet, blue wallpaper, green outdoor.
Colour, pattern and use
All three at once. The narrowest way in, and still fifty at least to choose from.