Okay, here's the story. While I was in Australia a couple of years ago with YWAM, I took some donated, flat, motel sheets and made them into fitted sheets for the many twin beds at the base. I went to a local fabric/notions store and bought "sheet elastic". It is FABULOUS stuff, has a rib down the center and elastic on both sides, probably about 5/8 to 3/4 wide and when you stitch it on the raw edge of the sheet fabric, it completly encloses the edge. The "rib" wraps around the edge, the two sides get stitched together automatically with one stitching and you can go all the way around the entire sheet with elastic, not just at the corners. When I was done with each sheet, they looked "professional" like it was factory done, the sheets were gorgeous!!
When I came home, I decided I would cut down some of my king-size sheets for my new queen-size bed and went to buy some of this elastic at the local fabric store. CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE IN THE U.S. IN BULK!! There are teeney, weeney little 2-1/2 to 3 yard packages for $5 or something like that, but when I was in Australia I bought an entire roll of about 15 to 20 yards +- for very cheap, don't remember exactly, but very cheap, something like 30-50 cents per yard. It was on a large cardboard winder sort of thing, not the tiny cardboard and plastic bubble package.
I can't find it in bulk anywhere in the U.S. I have even googled and emailed shops in Australia and the ONE that answered my inquiry said they won't mail it to the U.S. because the postage costs more than the elastic and they don't want an "unhappy" customer. And yes, I'm aware that the exchange rate of the currency would change the cost of the item here and there.
Also, I found it (much wider, but too wide) in a fancy wedding shop in Portland, OR, but the cost was about $1.50 per yard, waaaayyyy to expensive. Have found VERY wide stuff that is close, but not exact that is used on the bottom of swim suits?? Problem is, it's usually some wild color and I only want white.
1. Do any of you know which elastic I'm talking about?
2. Do you have any idea how/where I can buy it in a large quantity, very cheap?
3. Has the entire world stopped making this kind of elastic? I've googled trying to find suppliers in the US with no luck and one said they couldn't sell to me because I am not a wholesaler.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I've tried the usual elastic, the thinner stuff, and string it around the edge of a sheet, and it's not even close to the same. I don't want to "enclose" it in a casing, that's too much work. This elastic is so incredible, easy and fast to apply and looks gorgeous when you're done. I'm on a very tight budget and am trying to use up sheets that I already own and adapt them to smaller queen and twin beds.