FLYING AND BUYING

White Chalk’s fabric comes from China, from a tiny corner of a massive fabric market in Guangzhou. Nathan and Ginny Moore — Hayley’s brother and sister-in-law — travel four times a year to source fabric, with Hayley joining them on two trips. Hayley spends a night flying, two and a half days on the ground selecting, then another night flying back.

“The market is about 1.5 kilometres by 1.5 kilometres. It’s huge. And that’s just for samples. Anything I remotely like, I take samples back to the hotel, spread them all out and cull until I have what I like. Then, on my last day, we go back to the market and order, and that night I go home.”

Nathan and Ginny then wait for the fabric to arrive from the warehouses. That can take a while. “We seriously under-estimated how long it took the first three times, but now we allow 10 days,” says Nathan.

The trio says they were lucky early to meet a man they call Mr X. “That’s what he told us to call him,” says Nathan. “You need someone like Mr X who can help.”

“In the main, the sellers have been great,” says Hayley. “China is geared up for repeat business. They want us to come back.”