Road trip to Leicester!

Fabric suppliers:
So I found a couple of really brilliant high quality fabric suppliers in Leicester SPECIALISING in Jersey. They actually manufacture all their fabric here in th UK (as apposed to shipping it in from France and Italy and knocking the cost up to silly prices)... so I arranged a day of meeting with them to check them out!
What struck me straight away on arriving at these places was their willingness to accommodate me and my millions of questions. These people who ran these business were so pleasant, they gave me so much of their own time and expert knowledge, advice and explained everything from the actual manufacture of each fabric, the cost of the yarn, and all the minimums and exact costs.
I knew these were people I wanted to be working with.

Production Factory:
After this successful morning, I headed to a factory I had spoken at length to on the phone and previously arranged a meeting with. About 5 minutes down the road from the fabric suppliers and coffee or 2 later, I found myself again extreamly impressed by the kindness, the time and the proffessionalism these people were giving to me.
I discussed my design ideas, possible quantities and prices ....they quoted me around one quater of what I had been quoted in the London factories. The owner of the factory, even took time to discuss a couple of my design finishes with one of his sample machinests, then walked me round the place to show me the superior level of quality they have to offer... buy showing me the last 100 or so samples they have produced. Very impressive. Whats more, is the owner actually bothered to ask me about me as a designer, what im wanting to achieve, and how everything is going. I thought this was nice.

Again I knew by the time I had walked back to the car outside that I wanted all my sampling and production done here. I think working with people you trust and actually willing to help you out in the early days is of key importance.

Thinking outside the box definitely payed off!!