Where to Buy Sewing and Quilting Supplies to Sell

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Welcome to Day 7 of How to Earn $ From Sewing and Quilting! Today we’ll look at where to buy supplies for your sewing and quilting business. This week we are talking about selling sewing and quilting supplies, but you also need to have a good supplier for the other arms of your quilting business.

The most obvious place to buy sewing and quilting supplies to sell is from a wholesaler. Now if you are just starting out, you can of course buy on sale from other quilt shops, and then re-sell the items. But this isn’t the best way to go about it for a few reasons – firstly,  some people get annoyed if you do this (I have heard people complaining about others who do this) and secondly, you will not make as much profit.

To find out where the wholesalers are in your country, you can of course use Google.

Word of mouth is also great. Ask others who are in the sewing and quilting business – most will be happy to share.

Often companies that are based in the US will have distributors in other countries that you can get in touch with, e.g Moda will have a rep in Australia that you can call rather than shipping straight from the US.

I will just tell you about the ones I have had experience with in this post.

Checker Distributors

Checker Distributors is where Nora buys most of her stock. They have a huge range of sewing and quilting supplies. This is where we get our rulers, fabric, threads, cutters, patterns, batting and so much more. They are great to work with, very reliable and have great customer service.

Once you are accepted as a wholesale customer there is a wealth of knowledge in the member’s part of the website. There are suggestions on how to sell your products, package them, suggestions for classes and lots more.

United Notions

United Notions is basically where you can order all that lovely Moda fabric and their precuts.

I tried to order from them when I had the shop and I was rejected because my shop was “too small”. Before I got around to replying to their email with actual sales figures and proof that I could sell what their minumum requirement was, I learned that we were moving back to Australia….. so I didn’t bother in the end.

Be aware that there are prerequisites to being allowed to sell from many of the wholesalers. Some will want to know how big your shop is, what your sales are, how many customers you have, and most of them have a minimum order amount.

Accuquilt

Accuquilt is an amazing company to work with. As I mentioned a few posts ago, we contacted them and asked if we could stock their products in our shops. They said yes, and with our first order they sent not just one, but two start up kits.

These kits included a free Baby Go! and a free regular Go! cutter. We both got promotional material, including a little tv to play Go! videos for our customers.

Again, their website has lots of information on how to sell their products, hints and tips, ideas for demonstrations and of course lots of free patterns to go with the dies.

Victorian Textiles

Victorian Textiles is an Aussie wholesaler, based in VIC. This is where a lot of my long-arm quilting friends get their batting, threads and backing fabric. They also sell normal quilting fabric, precuts, notions, rulers, etc.

Victorian Textiles were very generous to our little quilting group when we made over 60 charity quilts a few years ago. They donated several rolls of batting, which was greatly appreciated.

Well, those are the main suppliers that I have dealt with, and of course there are so many more out there. Some are better to deal with than others, but you just have to try.

Has anyone else dealt with these wholesalers or any others I haven’t mentioned? And how was your experience?

Come back tomorrow for Selling Sewing and Quilting Supplies – How and Where to Sell Sewing and Quilting Supplies.

PS Please remember I am answering your comments in the comment section below and not via email like I usually do. Sorry for the hassle, but I am hoping this month we can share ideas!

PPS The main page of this series is here along with links to each post for this series.

PPPS You can download the FREE EBOOK of last year’s series, 31 Days of Quilting UFOs HERE!