In spring 2021, we began making some significant changes in how we offer our hand dyed cross stitch fabric to our customers.
As we are sure many of you are aware, the outbreak COVID disrupted worldwide supply chains and made it quite difficult at times to source the base materials for our fabric and thread, which are both manufactured in Europe.
While we originally anticipated these delays to last a few months, we continue to find ourselves affected over sixteen months later - it still remains difficult to obtain fabric, dye and other materials necessary to maintain a reasonable production timeframe along with our subscription clubs and other commitments. Unprecedented demand for cross stitch supplies during the pandemic has strained supply chains even further. It's extremely exciting to see so many new stitchers finding happiness in needlework!
You, our customers, have been so patient and gracious while we made it through the unanticipated challenges of supply delays over the last several months, and it means more than you know. But, we feel it is important to re-evaluate how we operate as a business in this new landscape, at least for now. We are happy to say that we no longer have a backlog of orders and are moving completely to in stock inventory exclusively, available to our retail customers and subscribers.
As of July 2021, all fabric available on our website is in stock and ready to ship to you on the same or next business day. We will not be offering "dyed to order" fabrics or custom orders at this time.
Please allow us a bit of time to make this transition and to build stock an variety once again on our website - this is new for all of us and it may take us a bit of iron out the bumps and ensure that we are stocking the right quantities, counts, types and colors that our stitchers want most! We will continue to open spots in our subscription clubs in moderation, to ensure that we have sufficient inventory.
If a fabric is sold out, you are now able to sign up for "back in stock" notifications to receive an email as soon as the particular color/count of fabric has been replenished! This will also help us to gauge the priorities of fabric to be restocked as we make this transition. We realize that this transition may be a bit frustrating as fabrics might be unavailable, but we appreciate you hanging in there with us!
Our goal is that the website is always stocked with a variety of offerings, but again, it may take us a bit of time to find this equilibrium. We are so very excited at the chance to provide a better experience for our customers (no more 4-6 month wait times!) and are so energized by the enthusiasm you have shown for this change. The feedback you provide is central to all of the decisions we make as a business, and all we want is to take care of our customers and our team, and to provide stitching goodies in the most stress-free way and dependable way possible.
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at help@colourandcotton.com with any questions. We can't wait to show you what we've been working on!
Angela