I know you guys are tired of hearing about it. I’m tired of debating it, and my husband’s tired of looking at fabric swatches online. So I finally did it.
I placed my first wholesale fabric order! Yippee!
I’ve been doing research on this for quite a while now. I whipped up a color story for 2011 to guide my fabric choices and looked through lines of fabric OVER and OVER. For a couple of weeks now I’d been set on opening an account with Westminster/Free Spirit – I even have all my fabrics picked out. Their opening order is $750 so my little business has been patiently saving money in hopes of getting there soon.
But I got antsy. I started to look around again. And I realized Riley Blake Designs has a TON of prints I like, in colors that fit my color story! And they have a much lower starting minimum. I’m sure you can guess how this turned out – I ordered 100 (yes, ONE HUNDRED) yards of fabric from Riley Blake! Here are the five full bolts I bought:
Plus I bought a set of 3 yards of each of 8 fabrics from the Wheels line, which was on sale for WAY cheap (I think it’s out of print). I’m now realizing I have no idea which of these fabrics I’ll get, so it will probably be all the blenders and not the cool bike and car prints, but that’s okay.
Looking at my choices made me realize I may have an affinity for polka dots. This is reinforced by the fact that there is both a green dot and a brown dot fabric currently in my dryer. I was trying to buy fabrics I’d use a bunch of, and dots go with everything, right?
I’m also excited about two upcoming Riley Blake lines that I’ll be able to order from – Happier and Farm Fresh. Aren’t these two prints so stinkin’ cute?
Hopefully in the next couple of months I’ll be opening that Free Spirit account, too, especially since I put so much work into picking my fabrics (and hello, bolts of Nicey Jane? Awesome!).
Are there any supplies you buy in mass quantities? Do you love having a big supply of the same thing, or do you like having small amounts of a variety? Am I going to be so tired of these fabrics that I’ll never want to see them again?
I love Riley Blake too! I am definately going to check out that farm fresh! I am not to a point of buying in such large quantities.
ReplyDeleteDid you look at the rest of the prints in Farm Fresh? They're SO cute. And the Christmas line is even cuter than last year's!
ReplyDeleteCan I come over and play with all your fabric? Congrats on taking a leap to buy that much. Time to get busy doing more creating.
ReplyDeleteTisha, I think I'm just going to stand in a corner with my bolts of fabric and pretend I live in a fabric store. :)
ReplyDeleteThese are such cute prints! How could anyone get sick of them? :P It'll be interesting to see how this works out - I love how you came up with a "color story" for the year.
ReplyDeleteWeeeelll 15 yards is a LOT of fabric! I usually buy 3 yards at a time, so I
ReplyDeletethink I'll be seeing these prints in my dreams! :)