I can't believe it either. Where is it going to stop? Living on a fixed income prohibits me from purchasing such expensive fabric. I either wait until it goes on sale or until I have a good coupon. But if it is something that a really like and I don't think that it will go on sale, I'll bite the bullet and purchase it.
Just recently I bought some clothing fabric on sale and because I am a 3X I had to buy a bit more. It seemed that I was paying as much for the fabric as I was when buying it already sewed together from a catalogue -- and the fabric was on sale 40% off. After I finish sewing the fabric I bought I'll see if I saved anything. I may be back to buying from the catalogues again.