It really should come as no surprise that there are plenty of places to find wholesale fabric over the internet. This staple is used mostly by hobbyists and the manufacturers of clothing. While fabric might be sold as a hobby supply at retailers, many people who make clothing and articles from cloth order in bulk through wholesalers. Finding the best for you depends on several criteria.
One criteria is the desired price range. Cloth ranges from fairly inexpensive to a bit pricier depending on the material, source, and the intricacy of the weave. Most fabrics are made with synthetic or cotton threads and then woven with machines. Even fairly elaborate patterns can be made quickly and inexpensively by machines. In comparison, rarer materials such as linen or highland wool might be more expensive.
Price can be controlled through wholesale buying. Generally, a significant purchase must be made in order to achieve great price savings per unit, but this is only practical if a particular type and color of fabric is likely to be heavily used. Otherwise, it might not be worth paying for a bulk order or a subscription when a small order from a discount seller would do.
Wholesalers have a variety of tricks to sort the serious buyers from the hobbyists looking for small purchases. One trick is to charge a subscription fee. It is like getting a subscription from a bulk retailers in that a large portion of a profits for the seller is to act as a warehouse for a subscription customer. An online wholesaler might not have an open-door outlet and instead wants to encourage serious customers and to discourage those who buy small quantities.
Many wholesalers are really retailers that appeal to the general public looking for a deal. They achieve their price savings largely through low overhead but might not receive their stock straight from the factories. These public wholesalers might not be as cheap as bulk outlets, but they do not charge fees and orders can sometimes be places even without creating a login profile. These suppliers can provide a wide range of selections as well as discounts to clear their inventory.
A reason to work with subscription sites for wholesale fabric is to obtain rarer items or to take advantage of a bulk purchase. They might have access to foreign imports or to colors and patterns normally only sold to manufacturers. Whatever the difference, a catalog of different wholesalers can be found on a convenient directory.