You have both options to buy in bulk or order them when you need it. All you need is to have contact with a reliable supplier or manufacturer who could supply you the fabric. Buying from a manufacturer or supplier would be much cheaper than a reseller. Try these suppliershttp://www.hellotrade.com/shijiazhuang-h��http://www.hellotrade.com/yixing-city-ti��http://www.hellotrade.com/deebtex/You will find the other suppliers from http://www.teonline.com/fabrics/
Do you have a projected sales number? If you only plan on selling a few pieces of garments a year, then making it yourself is a justifiable plan of action. But you indicate you want to buy in Bulk . So you evidently anticipate moving allot of product. So answering your question at face value, if your looking for bulk fabric, or fabric by the bolt, many large cities have a fabric district where great values can be found. Sometimes for as low as .90 cents a yard.A google search online may even net you a few sites with bolts of fabric for sale at discount prices. Either because they are out of fashion, or they have over run of a particular material or pattern. If your in the East Coast, Philadelphia s Fabric District is VERY well known for its great deals. Your other option, is to go to a site like alibaba.com.(Website below) Do a search for the exact type of material you are looking for. This is a B2B type marketplace and you will have the world ready to sell to you any material you might need, at a huge discount; but be aware their is a minimum order for that. However, you might want to explore going another route. Like coming up with the design, and working with a local OR overseas manufacturer to reproduce your designs. You will be able to sell more, and concentrate on your design work. Another option is to just come up with a product, make produce a few samples for demonstration and modeling purposes, doing some research on mass production costs and roll out time, and then trying to get a fashion store chain to carry your brand. Good luck!
If you buy fabric in bulk from Alibaba, like has been suggested, you can always sell what you dont use on as commercial supplies on a website like Etsy. Etsy might also be a good venue for selling your items, I know people like Courtney Love and other celebs buy from shops on there and some sellers get featured on lots of U.S t.v shows. I would also recommend Etsy for buying fabrics, fabrics that might be hard to find elsewhere and you can buy as much as you want from some shops. Ive also seen a great website called Spoonflower where you can upload your own images and they print it on the fabric for you, you can select what fabric you want and how many metres you wantGood Luck.
In addition to the advice you ve received, I d suggest you start reading at http://www.fashion-incubator.com -- search sourcing at least, and CPSIA if you have any intention of sewing children s products. Yes, you probably need Kathleen s book. I d also suggest you look at the tutorials, particularly the zipper tutorials. Also if you re in California or New York, search the names of those states -- there are some laws specific to those states you need to know about.See especially: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive�� and the two further parts of that series.Problems with buying retail (or bolts of fabrics from retailers):1) it s more expensive per yard, even if you re getting a healthy discount for buying whole bolts2) if you buy a fabric that turns into a hot seller for you, you may not be able to ever get it again.3) labeling on retail bolts tends to be minimal, and not always trustworthy. And you have that (usually perma-)crease down the center of the yardage. (Manufacturers typically only buy rolled fabrics)4) once you get used to specifying fabrics in a professional way, when you really want some 9oz navy plated cotton jersey, you re not going to be happy with having to run around to look at retail stores and find out their jersey is not plated, or it s actually ribbing or interlock or... or... or...Problems with buying wholesale:1) you ll need to establish your credit2) wholesalers, like almost any supplier in the rag trade, are a little crazy and may not even be willing to answer questions (see http://www.fashion-incubator.com/product��3) yardage minimums are often much too large for a startup -- you may get stuck with fabric you ll have to try to sell to recoup the costsThere s a third option, jobbers -- these are companies that take manufacturer s overages and resell them to small manufacturers and crazy home sewing enthusiasts like me, who have been known to buy 100 yards of a staple fabric at once. Prices are generally better than retail, with decreasing prices as the yardage you buy goes up. However, if you haven t got one near you with what you want, you may not save much because of shipping. And you usually cannot reorder fabric -- they ve got what they ve got, and when it s gone, there ll be something else, but not the one you need another 3 yards of. Here s one near me -- look at the pricing structure for some of their fabrics:http://www.rosecitytextiles.com/product-�� -- the first price is price per yard for 1-49 yards, the second is the price for 50+ yards.
