The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Fun with Fabric => Topic started by: Efemera on July 12, 2017, 08:55:41 AM
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Following Jen's post on Joel's silk fabrics...it got me thinking.
What's the most you've ever paid for a meter of fabric?
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I don't think I have ever bought a metre of fabric :| :D I only do p&q so tend to buy for each new project, usually 1/2m or smaller amounts. Most p&q cottons are between £12.50 r m and £15 per m. I wouldn't pay more than that unless it was very,very special :ninja:
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£30 p/m for Donegal Tweed from Magee in Donegal.
It was only 3 years ago and I see it is now £48.50!
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£30 p/m for Donegal Tweed from Magee in Donegal.
It was only 3 years ago and I see it is now £48.50!
Not many investments do that well these days! ;)
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Star Trek fabrics, different colours, 26 £/m, but I couldn't resist.... :P
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I don't spend much on fabric - I'm a real cheapskate! If the price goes over £5 I can't make any mistakes and it takes the fun out of sewing. About 25 years ago I spent £80 on fabric and lining for a suit, the finished article was lovely, it got a lot of wear, and lasted for years. Guessing £20/m ?
More recently I spent £10/m on coating, not to bad but there was 6m of it - not doing the maths :S
:| that should have said "I don't spend much per metre on fabric" shouldn't it :|
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I've just paid £27 a meter for some mastiff fabric for the Hon Sec of The English Mastiff Association who wants a tote and a shoe bag out of it to take with her to Crufts in September - she says if I give her plenty of business cards she will distribute them through the Mastiff Association and it may well be received with positive orders from other breeders (her words) - Eeerm, no. I don't think so thanks I'm 64 and retired and only make bags for fun!!
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My cavalry twill for my riding habit was eye watering. £67 (not including VAT!) per metre and I needed 3m. I'm now terrified I'll mess up the steaming and cutting and need to buy more! Never ever spending that much ever again! (until I make another one that is... Haha)
I'm happy buying per 1/2m of P&Q fabric at £10-15 pm.
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I don't spend much on fabric - I'm a real cheapskate! If the price goes over £5 I can't make any mistakes and it takes the fun out of sewing.
When I was still sewing, £5 per metre was my limit and I seldom went over this self imposed restriction.
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I spent £35 pm on some tartan Harris tweed a few years back and £30 pm on plain Harris tweed to go with it. It is now £40 pm. You are right, Acorn, we should be investing in tweed. Oops I think I already have! :devil:
Last time I was in Shufflebothams in Macclesfield they had Magee Donegal tweed at £25 pm. Of course we will be suffering from the exchange rate with the euro for Irish tweed.
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And here is me feeling like a total skinflint here!
I misread a notice at Woolfest in June, cotton print material @ £3-50! I thought, wow, what a bargain: I'll have 2 metres of it please. When the feller said £14! I nearly dropped. :o
Why do they put the price so large and not tell you it is half a metre price?
So yes, £7 a metre is my dearest to date, but I am very tempted to pay more if the design is special. And I love Harris Tweed, but when I last saw some at the Rheghed centre it was nearer to £60 per metre! But gorgeous. (that's what set me off buying a RH loom and weaving my own material, not very successfully to date, I might add!
But this sewing lark is growing on me....fast. :vintage:
ETA:
Ahhh I nearly forgot! I visited a fabric outlet a couple of weeks ago and paid £9.00 per metre for some gorgeous Liberty print lawn cotton.
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I rarely pay more than £5 a metre, I'd come over faint I think!
I'm happy with my local outlet where the measures are generous, and prices more than reasonable - usually about £3.50, unless it's something special, or furnishing/curtain fabric.
Love it when I get a lovely remnant for coppers :)
Jessie
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After reading this thread I have a question..... why is p&q fabric so much more expensive than dressmaking cotton?
I'd turn cartwheels if I could get fabric at less than £10 a metre
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Cheap and cheerful here, for me. It usually sits on a shelf willing me to make it up, so I don't want to spend too much on it. I did buy some John Kaldor French crepe a few years ago though, at £14.00 a metre, and it got made up within weeks. So maybe that's where I'm going wrong?
The most expensive fabric I've worked with though, was some a customer brought for me to make her a lacy jacket to go over her evening dresses. She paid over £100 for the 1m piece :o. Scary job cutting that one out! It lightened the stress of cutting out a wedding dress in £50 m flocked polka dot tulle though, or the Linton tweed jacket at £34 m. All beautiful fabrics, but cheaper alternatives are available for similar results.
The lace jacket -
(http://i.imgur.com/2eghMk6l.jpg)
Suzie :vintage:
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£19 for silk velvet (plus silk lining plus a very fine lawn) for my DiL's wedding dress. I didn't begrudge that, but usually buy bargain designer remnants for me. Some of my customers have brought expensive fabrics. Like everyone else, that gave me the horrors when cutting into it. On the other hand, those fabrics make up so beautifully and are so good to sew that it almost converted me to paying top dollar.
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The most I paid and will ever pay again was £100 a mt for cashmere, 3 mt for a wrap around coat which ruined by trying to rush it. A very expensive mistake
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The most expensive fabric I have ever cut was about £150 per metre in the mid 1990's... looked rather like this https://www.joelandsonfabrics.com/uk/fabric/lace/4145a it was a short strapless princess dress and a little jacket as Sewsuzie said its nerve racking.. not even a case of measure twice cut once I think I measured three times
Now days the expensive fabrics tend to be curtain ones
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Sewsuzie, that jacket is beautiful, so delicate!
I bought pricey fabric for an outfit for my son's wedding a couple of years ago. I think it was about £60 a metre. It was beautiful fabric, great quality, and I justified it by looking at prices in a local bridal shop and telling myself I had a bargain! Cutting it out was a nightmare because I was so anxious, but it went okay.
Since then I've gone for the cheaper end of the market. I recently wore a dress to a wedding that I had made from cotton dobby at £3.50 a metre from an ebay seller and got compliments (always nice when it's a home make!). I'll stick to cheaper fabrics unless it's a very special occasion. Easier on the nerves as well as the pocket.
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Lowena, if you are ever in NW England or N Wales you should go along to an Abakhan where you would get p&q fabrics aplenty in the remnant bins working out at about £4-£5 pm. Maybe you need a holiday up here in the cold and rain! Is Liberty lawn too lightweight for you? Katsfabrics on ebay (ebay shop for Standfast and Barrack) has a load of 3m specials of selected Liberty lawn at £18 inc p&p.