The Big List of Fabric Manufacturers

If you sew products to sell you’ve likely taken a hard look at the cost of your materials and wondered if there was a way to buy fabric wholesale. Fine fabrics, especially quilting fabric, are expensive. In order to make your margins work you’ve got to source materials in a cost-effective way.

And what if you’d like to begin selling fabric yourself? Many of the established online fabric shops and brick-and-mortar stores we’ve come to love began as small Etsy shops selling fabric leftovers. Lindsay Prezzano of Hawthorne Supply Co is a great example of this last scenario. She began buying fabrics wholesale to sew patchwork picture frames on Etsy in 2007. She opened a second Etsy shop to sell the leftover yardage and that second shop took off, eventually becoming one of the most successful online fabric retailers today. (Listen to our interview with Lindsay on episode #55 of the podcast).

But how do you get started?

Quilting cotton is sold wholesale by the bolt. Each bolt holds 15 yards of 44-45” wide fabric and is typically priced between $82.50-87.

Whether you’re looking to manufacture items or sell fabric retail you’ll need two things to set up a wholesale account with a fabric company: a business and some money. Proving you have a business is not very onerous; the information needed is very basic. Most fabric companies have an online form to download and fill out in order to open a wholesale account. The form will ask you to fill in the name of your business, your name, your address (this can be your home address), and your tax ID. (Don’t have a tax ID? Here’s how to get one. It’s free and you can apply online. You’ll need your social security number. Once you complete your application you’ll have your EIN within a few hours.)

Some fabric companies will ask for your website URL (this can be an Etsy shop which is free to set up and takes just a few minutes) and others may ask how many years you’ve been in business. (These credentials are essentially the same as the credentials required to attend Quilt Market, the industry trade show, where you can make appointments to see the newest fabrics and place orders in person.)

The second requirement is some money to pay for your first order. If you plan to sell fabric retail you’ll need to meet the manufacturer’s minimum for your first order (the minimum drops considerably, or disappears entirely, for subsequent orders). The first order requirement for retailers ranges from $0-$5,000 depending on the company, but there are plenty of options in the $500-$1,500 range. Some companies require that you order a certain minimum amount each year, others don’t. Note that you can order a variety of different bolts to meet your minimum (they don’t have to be the same bolt or from the same collection).

If you’re planning to manufacture sewn items there’s typically a very low, or no, minimum order but you’ll likely have to choose from a catalog of existing designs rather than the latest lines hitting stores now. The fabric you receive as a manufacturer will likely be on a roll rather than doubled and bolted like it is for retailers and sometimes that means shipping charges are higher.

Use this chart to find the information you’ll need to get started ordering quilting fabric wholesale.