Quality of fabric declining?
02-19-2011, 08:50 PM
#72
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Silver Springs, NV
Posts: 2,404
abt three years or more ago sister in law (owns a shop) gave me some material. It was actually heavy in feel. I went there last summer make three quilts, (still paying on) the fabric was no where near as nice as the last time. I didn't find anything in her shop as nice as the fist time re: feel, pretty colors. No I didn't tell her... lol I am still trying to get her to save me her scraps. geez, I go there and garbage dig lol./.... I know I cannot afford to make another three quilts at the price of last three, no batting yet. yikes. SSA doesn't go that far. :(
02-19-2011, 09:05 PM
#73
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: So Cal
Posts: 576
I've been reorganizing my stash too, but I buy almost all my fabric from LQS, not usually JoAnnes, etc. I tend to buy mostly Robert Kaufmann and Hoffman and South Sea Imports etc. I haven't noticed any difference in those brands. I buy a fair amount from eQuilter.com too, but have had good luck with them too. It may depend on the manufacturer. The manufacturers I buy keep moving their prices up along with the rest.
02-19-2011, 09:56 PM
#74
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,281
I second blueheavenfla's comment! I hate to see the US stripped of its manufacturing capability, and that goes for every industry - automotive, textiles, appliances, even Corningware! It was manufacturing that made this country great and strong. That should tell us something about what's going on. :(
02-19-2011, 11:54 PM
#75
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 416
Did you notice that they never write the thread count on the bolt board.. For the past few years, cotton targeted for the quilting market have been woven at 68 threads per square inch. More and more companies are cutting corners and going to 60 threads per square inch. You might also see the same prints i various retail establishments at different prices. Be aware that the print can be on different qualities of cloth (greige goods) and that the quality of the dye and/or finish can also differ. Price is often a good indication of the quality discrepancy,
Do not blame your government only for the moving of your manufacturing capability, instead think Wall Street, they only want the little shareholder to have a dividend at the end of their fiscal year. They are pushing the governments into free trade. We shop for the best price, they also do and they are more clever at it than us,
Do not blame your government only for the moving of your manufacturing capability, instead think Wall Street, they only want the little shareholder to have a dividend at the end of their fiscal year. They are pushing the governments into free trade. We shop for the best price, they also do and they are more clever at it than us,
02-20-2011, 06:23 AM
#77
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 416
My argument is that you should know what you buy and who sell to you.To me , it is O.K. to read price are increasing and then complain without being able to give the reasons of the increase. There are books and newspapers that you can read to get informations. I took the information for the threads by square inch in Quilters Academy, tome ii and about the industrial sector in the newspaper financial section. Before investing my money to buy something I learnt that Wall Street do not invest because they feel an urge to buy something. I buy the quality according to my pocket book and if is a tool the best I can afford. I also try to buy local if possible and from stores and companies that respect their workers. If a company moves a factory in the Third World to pay less wages, they don't decrease their prices, they keep the savings and your neighbour loses its job. After reading the comments on this post I felt bad that people blame their government for everything. I don't know if I'm a capitalist or something else I only try to know and understand what is going around me, I'm a Canadian that has no political affiliation, just a social conscience .
02-20-2011, 10:09 AM
#78
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Port Lavaca, TX
Posts: 1,276
Originally Posted by carolynjo
Blame the government who allowed all the fabric manufacturers to move overseas so the owners could make huge profits. The Chinese are manufacturing almost all the fabric we get in the US now and of course it is cheaper. Remember when they started selling cheap quilts and undercutting real quilt artists who had worked years to establish themselves; the Chinese quilts cut the heart out of their businesses! We knew that the fabric industry would suffer greatly when the plants all left the US. I know of thousands of jobs in SC lost and hundreds of plant buildings standing empty because their work was sent overseas. It seems there is nothing we can do about it; big business has us by the throat and doesn't seem to care about us, the consumer. PROFIT drives the world now, not service and decent products! (That's all for now; my rant is over!)
02-20-2011, 10:15 AM
#79
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Port Lavaca, TX
Posts: 1,276
Originally Posted by Alondra
Nope, you're not nuts... you're quite right. I have some fabric I purchased at JoAnn's 10-12 years ago - not expensive fabric, just middling - but when compared to some rather expensive fabric I recently bought, it's obviously better quality. I think fabric has fallen victim to the same dynamics everything else has. And what makes it even worse, where there used to be quality inspections, there are none. That goes for the things they spray on fabric, too - there's no control, no way to tell if it's dangerous or even toxic. That is what off-shoring has gained us (besides significant job losses).
I have been "shopping" from my stash for a couple of years now...
....and washing the fabric every time.
02-20-2011, 10:57 AM
#80
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,281
Originally Posted by marthe brault-hunt
Did you notice that they never write the thread count on the bolt board.. For the past few years, cotton targeted for the quilting market have been woven at 68 threads per square inch. More and more companies are cutting corners and going to 60 threads per square inch. You might also see the same prints i various retail establishments at different prices. Be aware that the print can be on different qualities of cloth (greige goods) and that the quality of the dye and/or finish can also differ. Price is often a good indication of the quality discrepancy,
Do not blame your government only for the moving of your manufacturing capability, instead think Wall Street, they only want the little shareholder to have a dividend at the end of their fiscal year. They are pushing the governments into free trade. We shop for the best price, they also do and they are more clever at it than us,
Do not blame your government only for the moving of your manufacturing capability, instead think Wall Street, they only want the little shareholder to have a dividend at the end of their fiscal year. They are pushing the governments into free trade. We shop for the best price, they also do and they are more clever at it than us,
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