Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Costs of Textile Transport

Last week, I ordered a set of swatches, including diamond twill swatches, from Naturtuche. During that e-mail conversation, I asked about shipping costs.

It turns out that it will cost me 16,49 Euros (about $24.50 USD) to have up to two kilograms of fabric shipped to the US. The website says that the undyed diamond wool twill weighs about 270 g per meter. So two meters would weigh 540 g, or about half a kilogram. Still, I'd be paying nearly $25 USD for the shipping alone, on top of the 22,99 Euros (about $34 USD) per meter of fabric.

That's nearly $100 USD for two meters of wool just to make the most expensive apron dress I would ever have had--and that's before dyeing the fabric, assuming that I have the nerve to decide to do so.

At that price, I would be terrified to cut the stuff, let alone dye it--and I see no point in buying diamond twill if I'm not going to try out some fitted designs.

I need to think some more about this, and get shipping cost information from the other dealers.

EDIT: I have made small changes in the above text to make it read closer to what I meant to say, the biggest of which was to correct my comment about the price of the Naturtuche diamond twill from "over $100 USD" (with shipping) to "nearly $100 USD" (with shipping). Mental arithmetic, unfortunately, is not one of my more solid skills. :-)
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4 comments:

  1. a stitch in timeNovember 13, 2009 at 3:39 AM

    Unfortunately, shipping over the Pond tends to be pricey. If that is any consolation for you: it's not better if you are sitting at the other end and try to get stuff from the States - because while the USD is quite low at the moment, shipping costs from companies in the states to Germany tend to be higher than the other way round...

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  2. Cathy RaymondNovember 13, 2009 at 7:57 AM

    Most of the items I have previously ordered from Europe were small and light, so shipping wasn't much of a problem. But fabric (especially wool) can be heavy--and that's where shipping costs really start to pile up.

    I'm in no hurry; I can afford to price shop indefinitely and who knows? By the time I make a decision, prices might come down! :-)

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  3. ElinaNovember 15, 2009 at 9:11 AM

    Thanks for mentioning Neulakko! I sure hope to get back on google listings sometime soon, but thanks to being mentioned I hope that my readers will find the site anyway. :)

    Have you had a look at the diamond twills from Handelsgillet? (A swedish online store) see
    www.handelsgillet.se/tyger.htm#diamantkypert

    I ordered some a couple of years ago. Really nice fabric- and the diamonds are somewhat smaller than in the naturtuche one.

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  4. Cathy RaymondNovember 15, 2009 at 11:54 AM

    Elina, you're very welcome!

    I wrote to Handelsgillet at about the time I posted this entry. Hopefully, they will be willing to send me samples too.

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