Who Cares About the Price of Cotton?

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Source for domestic pricing: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Source for imported pricing: Cotlook LTD, A Index.

The first interesting thing to note about the price of cotton is that it is trending down, both globally and domestically. Why? Basic economics. Supply and demand. The demand for new textiles has been sluggish worldwide because of slow economic growth and people just not spending as much. That means a surplus of raw materials…hence, prices are lowered.

The next thing to notice is the cost difference between imported and domestic raw cotton. A lot of this is easily explained by the “price” being monitored including freight and shipping. So domestic cotton will always appear cheaper.

But another factor weighing into the mix is that Brazil has overtaken the US as the leading global exporter of cotton. Here’s an excerpt from from southernagtoday.org:

In 2016, U.S. cotton exports captured 39% of the global market, but this share has steadily declined since the onset of trade disputes with China. By 2023, the U.S. share in the global cotton market had fallen to 26%, its lowest point in over a decade. Although it rebounded slightly to 28% in 2024 and 2025, U.S. cotton has faced rising competitive pressures, particularly from Brazil.  Brazil’s ability to double-crop cotton with other crops has driven substantial growth in its cotton production and exports. Consequently, Brazil has rapidly expanded its role in the global cotton market, surpassing U.S. cotton export volumes by 2023 and becoming the world’s leading cotton exporter. This shift is closely tied to China’s strategic diversification away from U.S. cotton, with Chinese investment in Brazilian infrastructure improving logistics, port access, and overall competitiveness.

southernagtoday.org

Once again, it means the US is faced with those stubborn economic principles. Lower demand on the global stage means lower prices.

Now, you may ask, what does all this have to do with me? If the prices of the raw materials are going down, shouldn’t the price of my quilt cotton be going down?

The problem is that very little US cotton stays here to be processed and used as fabric. It is exported to mills in Viet Nam and South Korea (which by the way is where 80-90% of quilt shop fabric is manufactured).

When the fabric is finished, it gets re-imported back into the US and tariffs are imposed. It doesn’t matter that the raw material started in the US.

So, I just want to be clear. We grow the cotton here in the US, we are making less and less on the exported farming sales. When it is imported again, we pay the tariffs and those increasing costs are passed down to the consumer.

To reiterate, the US makes less money selling the cotton, and pays more to use the final product. That is the way the system has been designed. This year.

These are the facts.

I don’t know what that means for each individual consumer. You may need to assess your priorities. Me, I will be using my stash as much as possible and supporting my local shops as much as I can. I also plan to monitor the price of quilt cotton around the country over the next year.

When I became a quilter, we were buying fabric all the time–shop-hopping our way to every place we could find. That’s not how the next generations approach this craft. They are re-purposing, mending, re-using, and scrapping. Things are changing. Supply and demand.

It’s important to understand the dynamics at play here. That doesn’t mean any pricing will self-correct over time. In fact it is likely to get far worse before it gets better.

Finally, A Quilt

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It’s been a long time since I posted. It’s been a long time since I finished a project. For some reason, I thought I could whip this one out without much trouble.

And, to be fair, it wasn’t *that* much trouble. But I had my moments. This quilt pattern is from Lori Holt. She has a book entitled Vintage Christmas. It’s darling and I highly recommend it, even if you just look at the pictures, as I have been known to do with most of my books. Or worse, I purchase the book, make one quilt and never open the book again.

But this one has a lovely vintage sampler quilt on the cover and the colors are cheerful, and I think I may make some of the 6 in. x 6 in. blocks.

That’s the only problem with the book. It’s meant to be scrappy, so she gives directions for one block at a time. So if you are making 6 cars, as shown above, you have to multiply all the directions by 6 if you want to make the larger quilt. She does then have directions for assembly. It’s hard to describe, but I like a quilt pattern that tells you ALL the fabric you need right at the beginning. If I wanted to do all the math myself…well I would have spent more time on math in school and less on art.

But in the end I figured it out and got it quilted in time for the holidays.

I’m ready to try something that requires a bit more creativity…drawing, painting, something like that. I also want to do some price-checking on quilt cotton. I want to monitor the price of simple white solid and see where it is over the course of a year or so.

With my husband’s help, I had AI do some querying for me to gather pricing info. We had to create a script for it to go out to several web sites and bring back the price of quilt cotton.

Sadly, we’re still working out the bugs with AI, but as a human, I can go out and monitor the prices myself. I don’t know if that would be something anyone is interested in seeing. Let me know in the comments if you would like to see a “ticker” or something like that giving the average price of quilt cotton fabrics across the country.

Well, time to get festive. We’ve already had our first measurable snowfall. So the season is off and running!

Tariffs…They’re Baa-aaack.

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Let’s start with Switzerland. No one, including Switzerland, has any idea why they are suddenly the objects of an outrageously high tariff — 39%.

As I’ve written previously, this will have a major effect on the cost of high end Bernina sewing machines. In particular, the 990, which is their current top of the line and is manufactured in Switzerland, and also Bernina’s longarm machines, which are also manufactured in Switzerland.

I don’t know how much is possible, but Bernina also has a manufacturing plant in Thailand, and it would be beneficial for them to move all line manufacturing there. Since Thailand is only at about a 19% tariff (at the moment). That’s the thing. These tariff’s are all at the whim of one person, so no manufacturer can plan with any precision or even with any modicum of trust that conditions will be positive for manufacturing any goods.

For now, we can all rest assured that the only guarantee is that consumer prices for consumer sewing machines will rise. Period.

When that will start to take place is anyone’s guess.

I’m certain that prices are rising already in preparation for changes.

I know that when the Bernina 990 was first introduced last year, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $22,999.

Today, on Bernina’s website, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $23,499. It’s already gone up around $500. And it hasn’t even been around a full year.

Tariffs are not even really being added to pricing. Just for fun, take a look at the executive order which explains the timing of tariffs.

Sec. 2.  Tariff Modifications.  (a)  The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) shall be modified as provided in Annex II to this order.  These modifications shall be effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time 7 days after the date of this order, except that goods loaded onto a vessel at the port of loading and in transit on the final mode of transit before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time 7 days after the date of this order, and entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, before 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on October 5, 2025, shall not be subject to such additional duty and shall instead remain subject to the additional ad valorem duties previously imposed in Executive Order 14257, as amended.

So that tells me that anything that gets onto a boat before October 5, 2025, will not have these newest tariffs. I believe Thailand was down at 10% prior to this order. But I’m not a tariff expert, just a consumer trying to keep up.

Now, having worked in retail, I know that most of the holiday season merchandise will be on a boat before October 5.

All of that is simply to say that we will not see the true impact of tariffs — not really — until first quarter 2026. The 2025 holiday season seems already baked in, at whatever shaky pricing guesses merchants could make.

2026 will start to unveil the true cost of these tariffs. And rest assured, that cost will not be borne by manufacturers…or the government…or distributors…or other countries. ( I mean, ask the CEO of Apple, who went to the Whitehouse with gifts and left with exemptions from tariffs.)

We will pay. We, the American consumers will pay for whatever happens in pricing for consumer goods. And food.

Unless of course the tariffs are renegotiated before then.

Why do I suddenly have a taste for TACO’s?

Kimberbell Builds Character

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Look at that adorable bench pillow. Mainstreet Celebration. Isn’t it cute?

Yeah, that’s what I thought when I shelled out the money for the embroidery designs.

Then I read the instructions. All 42 pages of them. And I set the project aside. For years.

Then one day, my good friend said she had the same kit, and she would do it if I did. She said she also had the fabric kit. But she wanted the accessories.

So here’s what I want you to know about me. I am not a huge fan of Kimberbell, having done one of her holiday quilts. I find it just a touch too cutesy at times. But if you are ever going to snag me in, it’s with houses or a village. It’s just my favorite thing. See my holiday project here and another one here.

So I decided I was going to jump in with both feet. Kimberbell sells fabric kits for all her designs, as well as accessory kits with tiny little buttons and ribbons etc. I bought them both and my friend added the accessory kit and we were off and running. Kimberbell also has a process for adding quilting to her blocks, underneath the embroidery design.

I printed out the instructions…all 42 pages. Plus another set of pages for the quilting embroidery instructions. My friend said she found it easier to work from the electronic file because she could increase the size of some of the pics, which helped tremendously. I struggled through with my printed pages. I like them because I could write notes in the margins, scratch line items off as they are completed, and I could “x” out whole sections that included instructions for multi-hooping. I had a larger hoop so I didn’t need some of those instructions.

Next comes the organizing part. Kimberbell has you separate everything into plastic bags, while trimming applique pieces to her specifications. This was something that irked me. First I had to cut all these pieces into smaller pieces…only to trim them off when using them for applique. Just seemed like a lot of extra work. Did I mention fusing SF 101 to all the background fabrics? Yeah, more tedious work.

So after days of sorting, sifting and trimming these teeny, tiny pieces. I was ready to embroider.

I have a high regard for the quality of Kimberbell’s embroidery. It stitches out beautifully.

It just takes a looong time. Because of all the thread changes and all the trimming of incredibly small pieces.

The fire station, shown partially completed here, had 48 thread changes. FORTY-EIGHT!!

Which included a lot of trimming. See those tires down there? Yeah, that’s some fussy work.

Then there’s the installation of the lights. The last thing that stitches out on every block is a set of eyelets scattered across the top of the block. The lights get pinched through those eyelets. I used a leather hole punch set at the smallest punch size. It wasn’t easy, but I wrestled those eyelets into submission. After that, setting each light was a squeeze, but I got them all in place.

There are people who do YouTube videos of these projects. I don’t think I can ever do that…too much cursing (on my part) and YouTube likes child-friendly content.

But when it was done, I was happy with it. And I had second thoughts about adding the lights, but…I really like them. They bring Mainstreet to life.

This was one of those projects that just seems to keep growing in size. Oh the blocks are done, but I still have to stitch out some accessory designs. And now I have to add all those accessories. And now the patchwork needs to be quilted,…and now I want to add cording (purchase the cording, wrap it, sew it,)…and now lights…you know how it goes. Every step needs to be figured out.

Am I losing patience as I get older? Yes, for sure.

Do I have the fortitude to push through a project like this? Yes, still got it. But it’s not necessarily how I want to spend all my time. I know Kimberbell has a cult-like following. But I prefer to own the creativity. I don’t want to outsource the ideas and just be the implementer…if that makes any sense.

So it’s nice to work through something like this once in awhile. But then I want to at least choose my own fabric. Work on something original. That’s what I crave.

I hope you try something that’s not your preferred way of working once in awhile. Keeps the brain sharp. Or it might drive you insane.

It’s a fine line.

YOU Get a Tariff, and YOU Get a Tariff, and YOU Get a Tariff…

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Author’s Note 4-9-25: So a week after the tariffs were announced, and the US stock market lost over $6 trillion, they were put on hold for 90 days in 75 countries. China, however, is now being tariffed at (checks minute by minute notes…) 125%. Our global trade policy now has the entire global economy jumping around like your drunk uncle doing the chicken dance at a family wedding. YOU do the math. I’m out.

Let’s chat for a hot minute about sewing machine manufacturing.

First, let’s all get on the same page.

No domestic sewing machines are manufactured in the United States. None, Not one.

You can read about where they come from here.

I had planned on writing soon about the cost of sewing machines. Bernina’s top of the line has a manufacturer’s suggested price of $22,999. That seems obscene to me. But when you look at other top of the line machines, they are all in the same range.

Now, a decent dealer will probably offer it at somewhere around $20,000 as a special deal or with financing.

Now let’s get to the tariffs. Switzerland (where the top of the line Bernina machines are made) now has a tariff of 31%. So for grins, let’s add the tariff price onto the manufacturer’s price.

22,999 x .31 = 7129.69

22,999 + 7129 = 30,128

So the new manufacturer’s price will likely be near $30,000. I assure you, your local dealership cannot eat the cost of that increase. Neither can Bernina. You will pay it.

Is a sewing machine worth that much to you? That might not be a fair question, because at the end of the day we don’t know how these tariffs will play out. Maybe some will be renegotiated. And, Bernina dealers have some units in stock. So if you want one BUY IT RIGHT NOW before new stock has to be brought in.

Now, the rest of Bernina machines are manufactured in a Bernina-owned plant in Thailand. That’s a 36% tariff. So let’s imagine a low- to mid-line machine that’s roughly about $2500.

2500 x .36 = 900

2500 + 900 = 3400

Author’s Note: Since publishing this page, I discovered that Switzerland already has tariffs that are 2-5%, and Thailand has 5-10% (before the new tariffs were announced). So we cannot accurately anticipate the exact price increase…likely a few percentage points lower than what’s shown above. But another note, the day after the tariffs were announced, they were revised, and now Thailand is up to 37% tariffs. So the situation is fluid…notably, no prices are going down and are likely going up very much.

Now you can do this math on all the machines, for all manufacturers. Because sewing machines are manufactured in many places: Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam, China. Price increases will vary, and the whole chain of distribution will be working through the supply that they already have. But I would guess that within the next few months, you can count on major increases.

Side note about the tariffs in general: They are apparently calculated by dividing a country’s trade surplus with the U.S. by its total exports, using 2024 data. Many, if not all countries, sell more to the US than we do to them….for obvious reasons. We’re big, we’re wealthier, we consume more, we like low prices.
But when it comes to services, we sell much more to other countries than they do to us.

The whole idea behind these tariffs is to spur manufacturing in the US.

But lets take a look at Bernina. It took them years to locate and build a facility in Thailand. Not to mention the expense of that investment. And that was while building materials such as steel were readily available in that country. The chances that they are suddenly going to determine that the US is a great place to manufacture are very slim. In all likelihood, because they are an international company, they will restructure their business to focus more on selling to other countries and to ride out the storm in the US for as long as they can.

If you are interested, here is the list of reciprocal tariffs in all countries.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/trump-reciprocal-tariffs-countries-chart-imports-united-states.html

I don’t know how this will all play out. No one does. But none of it so far looks good. It’s difficult to see how this becomes successful. Unless, of course, countries begin to offer other concessions in exchange for lower tariffs. I have no idea how that would be received, except to garner hatred from around the world rather than partnerships.

By the way, not much quilt fabric is manufactured in the US either. But I know that one is called American Made Brand. Here’s a link to some of their fabric at Missouri Star.

Hang onto your fatquarters, sewists, the ride is about to get bumpy.

When I Despair

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“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won.” –Gandhi

That’s the quote embroidered on this quilt.

I finally got around to hanging it in the sewing room. I hung a rod that is a place for me to change out the quilt being displayed whenever I feel like I need a change.

I worked on this quilt years ago. You can see the details and read about it here.

It’s the quote that is hanging with me now.

Despair is not conducive to creativity. These days, I spend a lot of time and energy on despair. Some of you may feel the same way. Others will think I’m being a drama queen. The point is not how any of us SHOULD be feeling. Feelings happen. The goal of those of us who are grown-ups is to learn to cope with them, or at the very least to learn to work through them and not be imprisoned by them.

Gandhi is a leader in this area. He is famous for recognizing that anger is a tool that can be harnessed.

Apathy was what he considered to be the enemy of the good.

So in an effort to shake off both apathy and despair (which I recognize as being diametrically opposed) I decided my sewing needs to start small.

I’m not ready or able to take on a big project. Maybe soon.

But for the next few days, I’m going to focus on these 2 piles of scraps. One is of old upholstery samples, and the other is a pile of jeans…most from my father, but the cute pockets are from another project I had in mind at some point.

I plan to start serging and see where it takes me. I want to make some grocery bags because I want to permanently replace all those plastic bags. Forever. Which means I need a supply of large sturdy bags.

Wish me luck.

I am starting without any clear direction, which is never a good plan.

But sometimes you have to take a leap of faith and start the work and hope the creativity shows up.

Stay strong, fellow stitchers.

This, too, shall pass.

I Don’t Know If I’ve Been Changed For the Better…

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I’ve been thinking a lot about change and “stuff”. As the year begins, I’m feeling overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in my sewing room. I’ve spent the last couple of years doing a first level “Swedish Death Cleaning” in my basement. It’s an ongoing project. I don’t want to purge my life of everything.

I just want to make it more manageable. I have a big house and a fairly large sewing room.

I get overwhelmed just walking in.

The thing is, I’m not disorganized. I know where everything is.

I just have way too much of it.

These are just a few fabrics I’ve been saving to make garments. Some are well over a decade old. This does not include any of my quilting fabric or scraps.

When you embroider, you need the right color. Again, fairly organized but just way too much. I have 3 containers like the one above.

These threads above? I haven’t used any of them in a decade, maybe twenty years for some of them. Why? Because they are a mix of cotton and polyester. The oldest ones are a brand that I don’t use any more because I don’t like their quality.

So really. Why can’t I let them go?

I partly know. It’s the same reason my father, at 91, still has a shed filled with tools and nuts and bolts and bits and pieces. Because you just never know when you’re going to need that one thing you just got rid of.

It’s the same reason my husband keeps all his electronic doodads and cords and flotsam and jetsam. Because one day, the day after you get rid of something, you will need that very item.

I know very well that I have fabric I will never live to sew. But with the cost of cotton going up and up and up, shouldn’t I be recycling and upcycling it all? Finding a use for it?

Or would it be better to pass it on and let someone else make use of it?

That’s the question I’m struggling with right now.

Aging has a way of bringing a new perspective. Maybe I don’t have to be the one to do it all. Maybe it’s time to pass some of this along to the next generation.

So I don’t know if I’ve been changed for the better in this new year. But I hope I’ve been changed for good.

Here’s a lovely treat for you. My favorite part is when the conductor turns around to see who is singing. And Kristen Chenoweth bursts out in a giggle.

My Resource Gift to You: the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Library

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Have you seen this? I offer it to you because I discovered it, and now I want to share.

The Royal School of Needlework has been around since 1872. They are located in London (and all around the UK.) Last year, they offered a series of classes in the U.S. I’m looking forward to further US offerings, as it is my goal to attend at least once–here or overseas.

But getting back to what they refer to as their stitch bank. I was so impressed by the quality of all the information. The whole idea is that historians and stitch artists (also known as embroiderers) needed a place to reference stitches on antique garments. The School also wanted to supply a fertile ground for those who want to experiment with new stitches and preserve techniques that could easily be lost forever.

So the Royal School of Needlework created their stitch bank.

Feel free to hop over and look around. https://rsnstitchbank.org/

Every stitch listed has photographic instructions on how to make it, an accompanying diagram, to make things clearer, and a short video, so you can see exactly how the stitch is made.

That’s fantastic!

You’ll want to use the menu on the lefthand side to explore stitches categorized by their utility or their structure.

The “Stitch Wall” shows you a simple graphic of each stitch and you can choose to explore.

The number of stitches grows all the time.

I hope you find something there that excites your imagination or challenges you to try something new. I’ve decided that I will commit to at least one online class in 2025…to challenge myself.

Enjoy and Happy Stitching!

These Are the Times That Try Men’s Soles….and Pantlegs, and Elbow Patches.

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Presumably, Thomas Paine was not talking about the soles of socks, and I am also left to presume that women wore clothes during revolutionary times, as well as men.

Nevertheless. Here we are. Repairing our clothes. Or as my husband likes to say: “You are working on your post-apocalyptic skills.”

Now I’ve seen some videos of people who literally have a tiny knitting machine that they use to darn holes on knitted fabric. I imagine it works on any fabric. But before I got myself into anything too complicated, I tried a simpler, slow-stitched, hand technique.

As you can see above, the trick to repairing a hole, any hole in your clothes, is to delineate the area you will stitch.

Then you want to start and end each stitch across the hole with an “anchor” stitch. This is important. It helps to hold the shape, length and tautness of the long stitch.

I used some decorative thread that I had from Wonderfil that was attributed to Sue Spargo. Eleganza Perle Size #5. This is a fairly substantive thread. Nothing that I would ever use in a sewing machine. Standard Valdani perle cotton is usually Size #8 or #12.

Thread actually gets to be a heavier weight as the numbers go down. The calculation is based on how many kilometers of thread will weigh one kilogram. So a thread that is thicker and more robust will have fewer kilometers per kilogram.

With this method, we’re actually creating the warp and weft of a fabric, as we stitch it out. You can see one layer above, after it’s finished.

Next, we start the weaved layer. Again, you must create an anchor stitch at the start and end of every row. This, of course, is where a little tool would come in handy, but it’s certainly easy enough to do by hand. Weave in and out every single thread. This part is easier to do if you turn the needle and use the blunt end to weave. Don’t worry, I missed a few. It happens. But the more precise you can be about getting your needle in and out in the right places, the more it starts to look like a woven fabric.

I was working on stretch jeans, and so, I noticed a bit of puckering from pulling the stitches taut. I could probably have avoided that it I had stabilized the area, but I really wanted to just try it without a lot of fuss.

I used a small hoop and opened the pant leg up on the side to make it easier for me to stitch.

Would I consider it lovely? I don’t know. It’s unique. And I think with a bit of practice, I could get this to where It’s pretty cool.

I urge you to start repairing your clothes. On social media, I see the youngsters buying up all of Grandma’s old quilts at garage sales and thrift stores and turning them into hoodies and dance pants. It’s really something.

Hope you enjoy some slow stitching in your life, and find you own way to revitalize something that might have ended in the trash.

Sashiko is another gem on my list of repairs. I just bought myself some Sashiko needles. Can’t wait to try that.

To close this one out, we’ll give Thomas Paine the respect he deserves when he speaks of tyranny.

“These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
–Thomas Paine, 1776

Flower Garden on my Overalls

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I bought a pair of those baggy overalls the young people are wearing. For me, they are at the very least, cool and comfortable.

They are not flattering.

They should be worn while working around the house. Not in public. (Not by me, anyway.)

However, I got it into my head that I wanted a row of flowers across the top of the bib.

It was not a difficult task, but it is a challenge to transfer a drawing onto a dark background. I don’t have the solution to this yet. For these, I just redrew the image I wanted directly onto the overalls using a blue wash-away pen.

Then I stitched it out.

I thought it was cute. But then the dark color of the hyacinth on the end was bothering me. It’s actually very true to what a hyacinth looks like. I have pics of them starting to bloom in my back yard.

But every time I walked past them, the dark color of that flower on the end bothered me more and more. I was not going to relax until I picked out every single one of those french knots and redid it.

Since I wanted to stay true to the color of a hyacinth, I went with peach. I have peach hyacinths in my front yard.

I am much happier with this result. The hyacinth looks a bit bright in this pic but that’s just the lighting. It now blends in with the others much more.

Tip:

I wanted to protect the stitching and the knots on the back so that when this gets machine-washed, nothing will fall apart.

I remembered a product that OESD carries called Gentle Touch. It is designed to iron onto the back of machine embroidery so that the stitches against your skin (or a child, or baby’s skin) will not irritate. It really is very soft, with fusible on one side.

I ironed it onto the back and now, not only does it not rub, but all the stitches are given an extra layer of protection when going through a washer and dryer. The front stays exactly the same, There’s just an added layer of protection on the back. I’m going to use it on the back of all my hand stitching.

It’s funny that there is a product for every single need. Of course, when I needed Gentle Touch, I did not have it in my vast stock of stabilizers. Here’s a link for you.

My next challenge is a patch on my husband’s grass-mowing pants. No pressure there. If my mending is a complete failure, who cares? (Trust me, not my husband.) So that leaves room for me to be a bit experimental.

Anyway, the season is starting to turn here in the Northern Hemisphere. We are prepping for a solar eclipse and an onslaught of cicadas. Nature is keeping us occupied this spring.

As my grandmother used to say, “Keep your hands busy!”

Hugs and stitches, and have a wonderful Spring.