Over the years, I have had many interesting conversations with my customers. One topic that seems to come up fairly often is the price of fabric.
Cotton plaids and prints can be found in chain discount stores for as little as $2 per yard. Why then, should one pay three or four times that amount for my fabrics?
Reenacting is already such an expensive hobby, why not save where you can? Simply put, it is a question of quality.
No manufacturer creates a product to be sold at a loss. If the retail price of a fabric is $2 per yard, the wholesale price is less than that, and the cost to manufacture is significantly less than that. Inexpensive goods are made inexpensively. Those savings have to come from somewhere,and with fabric, it is most likely to come as a lesser quality of goods.
For an interesting and in-depth look at the fabric making process you can read this article, from the VIP Cranston website.
Basically, all printed fabric begins as greige: raw, unprocessed fabric directly from the loom. Whether short or long staples of cotton were used in the weaving process, the extent to which the manufacturer removes the fabric impurities, the quality of their dyes and skills of their colorists, whether the uses polishes or finishes....all these are important factors that affect the fabric's look, feel, and durability.
This is not to say that inexpensive fabrics are worthless, or that you should never shop at discount stores. They are great for certain kinds of sewing projects.
But your reenactor wardrobe is more than a project, it is an investment. You will spend hours sewing it, you will wear it in rain, wind, and shine. It will absorb a weekend's worth of sweat and battlefield mud, and need a washing and airing to be ready for the next weekend!
There is also the matter of authenticity. Not every small print in a subdued color is period-correct. And depending on your unit's guidelines "close enough" may not be an acceptable margin of error. Designer reproduction prints have been researched and documented to be as close to the originals as possible. You can visit this website, the Reproduction Fabric Review, which gives excellent information on reproduction fabric lines, and the orignials on which they are based.
I choose my Civil War fabrics with care, and do my best to offer them for a reasonable price, which I feel, fully reflects their worth.
