A couple of friends and I make kids quilts for the hospital. We have been buying our fabric at Walmart which is less than half the price of other fabric stores. We have found out that Walmart is discontinuing fabric in all their stores. We are all on Social Security and cannot pay $7-$8 a yard for it. Does anyone know where we can find cheaper material, or a place that might donate some. We are heartbroken over Walmart's decision to phase out fabric.
By Jean Cowden from Buhl, ID
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Put a Want ad on Craiglist and mention the good deeds you all are doing. Or, you can talk Fabric stores and maybe they will donate fabric thats going out of style. Also, thrift stores and garage sales! Buy sheets and use the fabric as you normally would.
I'm sorry I don't have any information about where you can purchase inexpensive fabric. But I'm also very upset with the new Walmart Super Centers. Not so long ago I emailed the Walmart Corporation and told them that I didn't like the new super centers because the store didn't have a fabric department. I received the typical generated response that they send out to everyone who writes them. When Walmart first opened they were interested in satisfying their customers. Now Walmart is just interested in money and greed and they could care less if they satisfy their customers.
I will not shed a tear when Walmart some day bites the dust and goes out of business.
Sell your idea to businesses in town and see if they will donate money for the cause, so you can buy the fabric to make quilts for children in hospitals.
On the internet there are websites you can order cheap cotton quilting fabric on the bolt when they have their sales and get it reasonably. Check that out too.
You can post your need for fabric on freecycle.org. Someone may want to donate their unused fabric to you.
Anyone who sews has lots and lots of fabric stuck back and probably would be glad to clean their closets out. Begin with area churches and ask them to spread the word about what you're doing.
Go to your local Goodwill or Salvation Army stores. They often sell craft items and even if they have none available at the moment you can check the section where they sell linens like table cloths and sheets. They are priced so reasonably and the money spent there gives others help, too :-) Good luck and I hope this helps :-)
How about using fabric from old, unused clothing? It might be a bit more challenging, but big old skirts have huge amounts of fabric. Thrift stores and garage sales would be excellent places to acquire such quantities of fabric with very little cost.
Try www.fabric.com. I have gotten very good material there, and they have both clearance and some at under $5. I know what you mean. I make charity quilts also and since I am a widow and on Social Security, I have to be very careful. I make quilts for children at the abused women's shelter and for local nursing homes. Good luck.
You can always call 1-800-wal-mart and leave a comment regarding your dissatisfaction with dropping their fabric. I have heard that for 2 years now and call ever so often to praise the staff in that department. So far, no changes at our stores!
Ask your local sewing or quilting group and if there is an area quilting organization that puts out a newsletter, ask if you can put a notice in it asking for unwanted fabric. Quilts sometimes don't use up all the fabric bought for them or the fabric turns out to be not what was wanted ( in the store it's beautiful, at home it's ugly). Good luck
My WalMart still has fabric. However, the newer one on the other side of town doesn't. They don't have near as large a supply of fabric as they did several years ago, but they still have a good selection. They have also downsized their craft department, which doesn't sit real well with me or several other people I know. It seems like they are downsizing departments of interest to women and expanding things like electronics and things that are of more interest to men.
I have heard of people that have called or emailed them and mentioned the rumors about eliminating the fabric departments, etc. What they do is tell how they regularly get prescriptions filled at their pharmacy department and that they will take their prescriptions someplace else if they don't continue having fabric, etc. They say so far it has worked.
My mother-in-law is "cleaning" out YEARS of quilting fabric--some by the yard that never got used--some pieces. I am helping her to do this. We can surely work out a deal of some kind. Contact me.
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I'm trying to get fabric to make quilts to be able to sell them and make a little extra money on the side. Does anyone know where I can get large amounts of fabric, cotton, yarn etc. for a low cost. What I'm really looking for is a buy now pay later option on this type of stuff. Any help would be appreciated.
Amanda
I go to my local thrift shop where they have barrels of clothes that don't sell. They periodically cull their racks and put perfectly good clothes in the barrel which they sell for a $1.00 a bag. I look for large cotton garments, bring them home to wash, and cut them into pieces. I've made several quilts this way. I also use sheets for backing which often sell for only a dollar.
I've had lots of fun doing this and have found perfectly good material. If your thrift shop doesn't have the barrels, ask them to consider it as most shops just send the stuff to the landfill instead.
Have fun. (08/19/2005)
By Pat
Try the thrift stores. If they don't have regular fabric, you can always buy some curtains and cut them up. (08/19/2005)
I use my children's old clothes that don't fit them anymore. I've made a few denim quilts with their jeans. The jeans have fancy logos (JNCO, South Pole, etc.) stitched on them. I cut them into a square or rectangle. They'll always remember the "in" jean when they went to school. (08/20/2005)
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Our Salvation Army throws away bunches of clothes. Just start pulling out of the big trash bins, free for the taking, just the cost of you washing and cutting apart. Might want to save the buttons, zippers, lace, and appliques for other projects. (03/20/2009)
