Dear Friends,
Unfortunately, we are seeing higher prices on fabric. I was quite upset when some fabrics came in with prices over $10. It helped a little bit to understand that our fabric prices are tied to the global marketplace.
Most of our fabric comes from the Far East. Most of the greige goods comes from China and is printed in China, Japan or Korea. We have one remaining print plant in the United States that prints high-volume orders with limited colors.
Several problems affect the price of our fabric — shipping costs, earthquakes in China, damaged greige goods plants, the Korean government has new regulations for print plants regarding environmental hazards; our dollar doesn’t compare as well to some foreign currencies, and other factors.
When I started in business 28 years ago, none of our cotton prints sold for over $4.99. Of course, we did not have the deep, rich colors nor the intricate designs with 10 or more screens.
Anita