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| My daughter works in product planning for a very large American retailer. She said their product development people report that the price of cotton is going through the roof. This means ready to wear, home goods and quilt fabric will follow suit. Get ready to work from your stash or dig deeper in your pocket. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Fran, I grew up in 'cotton and tobacco' county. Then everyone switched to Vidalia onions. This year there are cotton fields every where again. So I think the farmers have been told it will be expensive and they will make money. Hopefully enough are switching over and will hold the costs down some. Rosa |
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- Posted by sunnycentralfl (My Page) on Sun, Nov 14, 10 at 13:24
| Cotton is the new Gold. Cotton futures soared last week and some investors don't want to invest in Gold, so commodites are soaring...stay tuned! Gwen |
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- Posted by toolgranny (My Page) on Sun, Nov 14, 10 at 14:37
| Thanks for the tip Fran. Maybe I need to go shopping fast. |
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- Posted by petalpatsy (My Page) on Sun, Nov 14, 10 at 15:24
| I grew my own this year.
If nothing else, it's a good way to appreciate the wonders of the cotton gin. So little cotton, so many seeds!
Ya know, "About four months are needed for the boll to ripen and split open. A cotton boll contains 27 to 45 seeds and each seed grows between 10,000 and 20,000 hairs or fibers. Each fiber is a single cell, 3,000 times longer than wide. The fibers develop in two stages. First, the fibers grow to their full length (in about three weeks). For the following three to four weeks, layers of cellulose are deposited in a crisscross fashion, building up the wall of the fiber. After the boll matures and bursts open, the fibers dry out and become tiny hollow tubes that twist up, making the fiber very strong. The seed hairs or fibers grow in different lengths. The outer and longer fibers grow to 2.5 in (6.4 cm) and are primarily used for cloth. These fibers are very strong, durable, flexible, and retain dyes well. The biological function of the long seed hairs is to help scatter the seeds around in the wind. The inner, short fibers are called linter." |
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| Most interesting, petalpatsy! I can't believe you grew and cleaned your own. What's next? Can you twist it into thread? (not kidding; seriously wondering how that's done and if it can be done without machinery) |
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| Sure it can because cotton has been in use for millenia. It's carded and spun, much the same as flax or wool. |
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- Posted by petalpatsy (My Page) on Sun, Nov 14, 10 at 20:22
| I haven't done any cleaning to this cotton. When you do it all by hand, there isn't much breakage or trash that gets in it to start with, this bag has just been pulled off the seeds by hand and laid in a mound. I only grew four plants. :) Even that, I planted late so I didn't get much of a harvest before frosts. It was mostly for the novelty of it, since I'd never grown it before. I've no idea what I'll do with it. I've considered stuffing a pillow, or maybe growing more next year until I have enough for a lap quilt batting. |
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| I've been reading about how much more expensive cotton fabric is in Australia than it is here in the US. Can any of you "down unders" let us know how the cost of wool is down there? I'd love to make a wool quilt, possibly something like a rail fence pattern, but the fabric is just too expensive. Is it also very expensive in Australia, which produces so much wool? Right now, I'd say in the US that a nice wool (not mixed with polyester or rayon) is running between $15-$20/yard. Nice cottons from the LQS can be had for $9-12, and inexpensive cottons from the chain store are much cheaper. I just bought some clearance WOW fabric for $1.50/yard at a red tag sale. Any input on fabric prices from down under? Is there enough of a difference each direction to think about doing an exchange?? Thanks, |
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| I told that to a couple of women in Walmart fabric dept. this morning, they started grabbin' and snatchin', one of them said, "you mean we might have to start using our stash??" I laughed. |
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| I do think I have enough stash to get me through 2 or 3 years but I always see something new that I want! |
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