There will be many times when there are issues beyond your control. Fabrics are back-ordered even when you reserved them, the back order is pushed back, the back order is pushed back again, the fabric arrives damaged, the wrong fabric is sent, you are short shipped, the fabric is discontinued...and once even I have had a fabric lost at sea. There is a school of thought that if you can speed production and the client takes delivery at the same time there is no need to alert them and risk the order. I would advise against this. What happens when the fabric is pushed back again or discontinued entirely? What makes customers most upset is the feeling that they were left in the dark.
I suggest always calling the customer as soon as you know. Only wait for confirmation or a concrete answer from another company that they have the same goods and can ship (or something like that). Once you know you should call, remind the customer that you are just as upset as they are, and work together to decide what to do. If you have done things properly then you should have already talked about an alternative in their house when placing the order. Let them decide between waiting (assuming a back order) or switching to the alternate you had pre-selected. Empower them don't simply inform them. You will find that an informed customer is much more likely to use you for future projects, even in the event that this one falls through.
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