Cost Guide

Velvet Cost Structure: 300 m vs 3,000 m

Q: Is a lower price always a worse fabric?

No, but a lower price always comes from somewhere. It may come from a stock colour instead of a custom dye, an existing pattern instead of a new development, a standard width instead of a custom one, or a larger order quantity. Those are legitimate savings. It may also come from lower-grade yarn, less pile density or a lighter ground, which are not savings but substitutions, and they show up in the garment six months later.

Q: How can I reduce cost without reducing quality?

Five levers that do not touch the cloth: use a stock colourway instead of a custom dye, use a pattern already in the mill's library instead of developing one, accept the standard usable width instead of asking for a custom width, consolidate several colours into one production run where the mill allows it, and consolidate shipments. None of these change the fibre, the pile or the ground.

Q: Should I split a 3,000 m order into three 1,000 m colours?

Usually not, if the pattern is the same. One printing run followed by three dye lots is normally cheaper than three separate printing runs, because the pattern setup is paid once. Ask explicitly whether the mill prices the printing and the dyeing separately; a mill that runs the process in-house can answer precisely, and the answer tells you how to structure the order. What you cannot avoid is three lab dips and three minimum dye quantities.

Mujia Textile · Mill Notes from Fengqiao, Zhuji November 2, 2026

Velvet rolls in the mill, each representing a separate production run

Introduction

A buyer receives two velvet quotes. At 300 metres the price is one figure. At 3,000 metres it is another, and the gap is not a factor of ten. Sometimes it is not even a factor of two. The natural reading is that the supplier is discounting generously at volume, or that the small-order price is inflated.

Neither reading is usually right. Velvet pricing is dominated by setup, not by fibre, and setup does not scale with length. Once you see which lines on the quotation are fixed and which are proportional, the numbers stop looking arbitrary — and more importantly, you can start moving the ones that are movable without touching the cloth.

This is the breakdown we give to buyers who ask why. It is written from our own costing, for burnout velvet on an 80% viscose / 20% nylon base with greige held in stock.

The Seven Cost Lines

Every velvet quotation decomposes into the same seven elements. What varies between mills is not the list but how much of each line is fixed.

#	Cost line	Type	What drives it	Behaviour as quantity rises
1	Yarn	Variable	Viscose pile yarn and nylon ground yarn, priced by weight per metre	Falls slowly; better buying at large volume
2	Weaving	Mixed	Loom time per metre, plus warp preparation and machine setting	Warp preparation amortises; loom time does not
3	Pattern setup	Fixed	Developing or adapting the motif, screens or rotary engraving	Collapses per metre at volume
4	Burnout process	Mixed	Paste make-up, printing, activation heat, washing, line cleaning	Make-up and cleaning amortise; printing and washing do not
5	Dyeing	Batch	Dye batch minimum, lab dip, shade correction	Steps down once a full batch is reached
6	Finishing and trim	Variable	Softening, stentering, beading or rhinestone application	Proportional; trim labour is per metre
7	Inspection, packing, freight	Variable	Inspection time, roll packing, volume and weight	Proportional; freight per metre improves with load efficiency

Lines 3 and 5 are where most of the argument lives. A buyer who fixes the pattern and the colour, then compares prices across quantities, is essentially watching two fixed costs being divided by different denominators.

What the Curve Actually Looks Like

The table below describes behaviour, not a price list. It shows the shape of the cost response, which is what matters when you are deciding how to structure an order.

Cost line	At 300 m	At 3,000 m	Direction
Pattern setup	Heavy per-metre load	Largely absorbed	Falls sharply
Paste make-up and line cleaning	Two setups paid on a short run	Two setups paid on a long run	Falls sharply
Lab dip and approval	One cycle	One cycle	Flat
Dyeing	Small-batch surcharge likely	Full-batch rate	Steps down
Yarn	Proportional	Proportional, slightly better buying	Falls slowly
Weaving time	Proportional	Proportional	Flat
Finishing and trim	Proportional	Proportional	Flat
Inspection and packing	Proportional	Proportional	Flat
Freight per metre	Poor load efficiency	Better load efficiency	Falls moderately

Two practical consequences follow. First, the per-metre penalty for a small order is a setup penalty, and setup is paid once per pattern per colour, not once per metre. Second, the curve is not smooth: there is a step where the order becomes a full dye batch, and another where freight stops being inefficient. Knowing where those steps sit is worth more than a percentage discount.

The Small-Order Trap: Three Colours at 300 m

This is the most common structure in the market and the most expensive per metre, and buyers rarely see why. A brand wants three colourways. It orders 300 metres of each. The quotation comes back at three times the 300-metre price, and the brand concludes that the mill does not want the business.

What actually happened is that the pattern setup was paid three times, the paste make-up was paid three times, the line cleaning was paid three times, and three separate lab dips were approved. The only thing that got bigger was the yarn and the loom time, which are the cheap parts.

There is a structurally cheaper way to buy the same thing, if the pattern is shared across the three colours:

One printing run, three dye lots. The motif is burned out once across the combined length, then the cloth is split and dyed in three batches. Pattern setup is paid once. This is how a mill that runs the process in-house would prefer to organise it.
One lab dip per colour, still. This part cannot be collapsed — each colourway needs its own dip, and each needs its own minimum dye quantity.
One shipment. Three colours shipped together load better than three separate shipments, and the per-metre freight difference is real on small orders.

Ask your supplier whether they price the burnout step and the dyeing step separately. A mill that does both in-house can answer immediately and precisely. A trader quoting a single blended price per metre usually cannot, because the two steps happened at two different factories.

Five Levers That Do Not Touch the Cloth

Buyers ask for a lower price and are offered a lower-grade cloth. That is the wrong trade. These five levers reduce cost without changing the fibre, the pile density or the ground — they change only how the order is structured.

Lever	What it removes	What it costs you	When it works
Stock colourway instead of custom dye	Lab dip cycle, small-batch dye surcharge, shade-risk	Colour choice narrows to what is already running	When the shade is close enough to your range
Existing pattern instead of new development	Pattern development and engraving	The motif is not exclusive to you	When the design is not the differentiator
Standard usable width instead of custom	Stenter resetting, width-specific weaving	You re-plan marker efficiency	When your marker can absorb the standard width
Consolidate colours into one run	Repeated pattern setup and line cleaning	One delivery date for all colours	When the pattern is shared and the timing allows
Consolidate shipments	Per-shipment fixed costs, poor container fill	Later delivery on the first colours	When your production calendar has slack

Note that four of the five are about what you are willing to standardise, not about what the mill does. That is the general principle: on a process-driven fabric, flexibility is the expensive input, and standardisation is where the money is.

Where Cutting Cost Becomes Substitution

The same request for a lower price can be met two ways, and only one of them is a saving. This is the distinction worth holding on to in negotiation:

Request	Legitimate saving	Substitution dressed as a saving
“Can we get closer to our target price?”	Use a stock shade; run one pattern across colours; accept standard width	Reduce pile density; use a lighter ground; downgrade yarn grade
“Can the MOQ be lower?”	Order from greige already in stock	Split a batch below dye minimum and accept shade risk
“Can lead time be shorter?”	Skip the new pattern, use a library motif	Skip the wash test or the lab dip
“Can we drop some tests?”	Drop tests irrelevant to your end use	Drop the tests that would have caught your defect

The left column changes your order. The right column changes your fabric, and the change surfaces in the garment, in the wash, or in the retail complaint — usually after the bulk has been paid for.

What a Velvet Quotation Should Contain

A per-metre number alone is not a quotation. These are the lines we publish, and the ones worth demanding from anyone else, because a missing line is a decision being made on your behalf:

Composition — with the pile and ground fibres named separately, not just “80/20 blend”
Mass per unit area — g/m², with the test method (ISO 3801) stated
Usable width — not nominal width; the two differ after finishing
Pattern reference — the specific motif, and whether it is exclusive to you
Colour basis — stock shade or Pantone, and who approves the lab dip
MOQ — stated per colour and per pattern, not per order
Price basis — FOB port named, and the incoterm spelled out
Quantity break points — where the price steps down, and why
Lead time — measured from lab-dip approval, not from order date
Payment terms — deposit percentage and the trigger for the balance
Test scope — which tests are included and which are chargeable extras
Packing — roll length, roll diameter, and marking requirements

Item 9 is the one that causes the most disputes in practice. “15 days” means very different things measured from order date and from lab-dip approval, and the difference is entirely in the approval cycle, which is in your control, not the mill's.

Our Published Position

For clarity, since the point of this article is that velvet pricing should be legible rather than mysterious:

Burnout (devoré) velvet — 80% viscose / 20% nylon, 170–270 g/m² depending on pattern openness, ~140 cm usable, from US$3.10/m FOB for standard patterns, beaded and rhinestone styles quoted on request.
MOQ — 300 metres per colour or per pattern, which is viable because we hold greige in stock rather than weaving from zero.
Lead time — around 15 working days after lab-dip approval.
Trade terms — FOB Ningbo or Shanghai; T/T or L/C.

We quote these numbers openly because a buyer who understands the structure asks better questions, and better questions produce fewer disputes later. Our mill is in Fengqiao, Zhuji, Zhejiang, where the velvet is woven and burned out; the showroom is in Keqiao, which is where most buyers visit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is velvet so much more expensive per metre at 300 m than at 3,000 m?

Because most of the difference is fixed cost, not fibre. Pattern development, setup, paste make-up, line cleaning and lab dip happen once regardless of length. Spread over 300 metres they carry a heavy per-metre load; spread over 3,000 they nearly disappear.

At what quantity does velvet pricing stop improving?

There is no universal number, but the curve flattens once the fixed setup is diluted and the order exceeds a full dye batch. Below that threshold each additional hundred metres helps noticeably; above it, the gain is small. Ask your supplier where their dye-batch threshold sits.

Is a lower price always a worse fabric?

No, but it always comes from somewhere. It may come from standardisation, which is legitimate, or from lower-grade yarn, thinner pile or a lighter ground, which are substitutions and surface later in the garment.

How can I reduce cost without reducing quality?

Five levers that do not touch the cloth: a stock colourway, an existing pattern, the standard usable width, consolidating colours into one run, and consolidating shipments. None changes the fibre, the pile or the ground.

Should I split a 3,000 m order into three 1,000 m colours?

Usually not, if the pattern is shared. One printing run followed by three dye lots is normally cheaper than three printing runs, because the pattern setup is paid once. Three lab dips and three dye minimums are unavoidable.

This guide is written by Mujia Textile, a velvet and cotton fabric manufacturer based in Zhuji, Zhejiang, China. We weave and burn out velvet in-house, hold greige in stock, publish FOB prices, and work from 300 metres per colour. Cost lines described above are our own.

Want a quote broken down by cost line?

Send us the pattern, the colourways and the target quantity — we will show you where the price sits and which levers are available to you. Swatch cards shipped, courier at cost.

Request a Broken-Down Quote

Related Guides

Standards, Regulations and Data Sources Cited

The measurement methods and classification references behind the figures in this guide:

ISO 3801:1977 — Mass per unit length and mass per unit area of woven fabrics — the reference method behind every g/m² figure, and therefore behind yarn cost per metre.
ISO 2060 — Determination of linear density of yarn from packages — how yarn count is established, which is the input to yarn costing.
ISO 7211-2 — Determination of number of threads per unit length — fabric sett, the other half of the yarn consumption calculation.
General Administration of Customs of China — 海关总署 — the official source for export declarations and HS classification of pile fabrics under heading 5801.3.
National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System — 国家企业信用信息公示系统 — China's official registry for verifying a supplier's legal entity, registered capital and operating status.