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Theme of the day is fabric so I thought I would share the inside scoop on purchasing textiles for my small business.

I knew I wanted to offer custom textiles because I love designing them so much. I thought I knew plenty of places from my experience in the fashion industry who could provide this service for me at a reasonable price, but it turned out to be a lot harder than I thought to find for my specific needs. Typically digital prints are ordered in a much larger quantity than we can afford to spend. So I had to do a lot of research to find suppliers who were willing to work with me on a smaller scale.

Let’s get the business lesson started now!
Like many industries, the fabric (and fashion and sewing) industry relies on economy of scale. (For those of you who don’t know what that means – it means you get a better price point for an increased production – make more and save more per item). This is literally what the fast fashion model was built on. “How much can we produce in order to make it cost us as little as possible?”

So! All of that is to say, we currently cannot capitalize on economy of scale because we are so tiny! In the effort for full transparency, we only ordered 15 yards of each print shown above. (Get your orders in while you can 😉) The price per yard was $12.50, then add approximately $2.00 per yard for shipping and duties. We’re at $14.50 per yard for cost. Well, that’s why this fabric is $29 per yard.

Sometimes when I start to think about everything that has gone into this fabric, I’m amazed that we can even afford to sell it! Linen is naturally grown, which means farmers have to tend to it and then harvest it and then turn it into yarn and then weave it. And then on top of that, they prep it for dye, they digitally print it and then they finish it for use. It’s incredible how many hands have gone into creating this fabric. Not even to mention, my time spent designing and creating the print!

There you have it. #fabricfriday
Go check out all the Forest & Thread fabrics on our website with the link in our bio. ❤️

#forestandthreadfabric #forestandthread #threadityourself

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