Fabric Tips #13: Velvet Curtain Making
Posted: 14 February, 2011 Filed under: Curtain Fabric, Fabric Tips, interior design, interior designer | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, cotton velvet, curtain, curtain fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, Fabric Tips, ideas for designers, interior design, linen velvet, Mohair, mohair velvets, silk velvet, silk velvets, textured upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvets 3 Comments »
Image by tenz1225 via Flickr
Here are some additional pointers to consider when you are making a curtain using a velvet. Remember that a velvet is just a type of fabric and the fibre(s) that the velvet is made from is important.
So for example we would always recommend that you line a curtain. This gives a superior appearance but also reduced the amount of light going through the fabric hence limiting as much as possible the effect of any fading.
If the velvet has a pile that can be flattened in one direction then we would recommend that you have the pile going downwards for SHINY velvet fabrics and PATTERNED VELVETS.
If however you make up the curtain with the pile upwards then this will deepen the colour so you cold make the curtains this way for cotton velvets and Trevira Velvet and Mohair velvets.
These are general guidelines and it is not necessarily wrong if you make up the curtain ‘the other way’ just so long as you understand the implications to the finished look and performance of the material.
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Black Velvet – Even Better Italian Silk Velvet In Black
Posted: 22 September, 2010 Filed under: Domestic Fabric, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, interiors, modern homes, modern interiors, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, silk velvet, silk velvets, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvet upholstery, velvets 4 Comments »
Black Velvet – only to be enjoyed by those who appreciate that black is the new black! KOTHEA have a range of velvets with shades of black colourways in most of those velvet collections.
“Black Diamond” is the colourway name for the Italian Silk Velvet (100% Silk Pile) with the code 777-108-900.
You can get black silk velvet samples here from KOTHEA if you are a trade professional. Just click the link.
KOTHEA velvets are the best in the market. We only sell top market fabrics, mostly to top European Interior Designers and Architects. Here are some more bits of technical information on our black Italian Silk velvet fabric:
Width: 140cm
Composition: 100% Silk Pile
No repeat, plain.
Abrasion: Martindale 20,000.
Available from stock, normal delivery within 5 days.
Minimum Order length: 2m
Vicuna Silk Velvet (Vicugna) – Better Than Cashmere Silk Velvet?
Posted: 29 June, 2010 Filed under: Domestic Fabric, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, domestic fabrics, silk velvet, silk velvets, velvet, velvets 3 Comments »
Cashmere Silk Velvet is one of the world’s most luxurious fabrics. But is it THE most luxurious? Now this is a good question! and a little tricky to answer.
Perhaps the most expensive yarn is from the vicuña (vicuna, vicugna), which is a camel-like animal found in the high alpine areas of the South American Andes. Whilst not an endangered species it is a rare animal and difficult to farm as it tends to escape!
Cashmere yarn comes from the cashmere goat and other goats such as the pashmina goat.
Cashmere and Vicuna have an outer layer of hair which is coarse and rough but protective for the animal. This is the guard hair. Underneath the guard hair is a warm layer of much, much softer hair. This underlayer consists of hollow-fibred hair that is an excellent insulator. The vicuna has the finest of these fibres of any (resultant) wool anywhere in the world.
About 400g of yarn can be produced from one Vicuna compared to 150g from the Cashmere goat, the latter being a smaller animal. There are many more Cashmere goats in the world and I suspect this is why Cashmere is relatively affordable – as it is produced in much larger volumes in a more competitive market.
As an indication a Vicuna scarf would cost in excess of US$1000. As far as I know it is not produced in sufficient quantities to be available in a suitable form for interiors use (I could be wrong). But if it were it could be woven with silk to produce THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND BEST woolen silk velvet in the world. A further problem is that the Vicuna fibre can readily be damaged when dyed, again making significant production quantities problematic.
Now, as much of the Cashmere yarn produced comes from China, Australia and other countries…in fact just about anywhere other than Kasmir! it strikes me that is an opporutnity waiting to happen for some illustrious, economically-minded, goat breeder out there with friends in the textiles industry. If the production problems could be overcome I could see that there still would be a market for an interiors fabric retailing at in excess of GBP800/m (US£1300/yard) – albeit a small one.
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What is Trevira CS Contract Fabric
Posted: 15 June, 2010 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Curtain Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics 4 Comments »
Trevira CS is a man-made yarn used in many fabrics. It is used to make fabrics usually suitable for many contract applications. The constituent yarn is inherently FR Flame / Fire Resistant.
A clear advantage for the contract interior designer is that the FR Flame / Fire Resistance is an industry known and understood property. There are no further complications, risks and costs involved in fire treatment.
However many Trevira fabrics do not meet the Crib 5 standard and further treatment to reach that standard may be required so you must understand the usage and required FR properties.
It is difficult for many FR treatment companies to treat Trevira to pass Crib 5. There are inherent difficulties with the Trevira yarn that cause this. However it is possible to FR treat it to Crib 5. Please contact us for further information.
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KOTHEA 2010 Fabric Collections
Posted: 14 June, 2010 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Stuff We're Doing, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain fabric, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fake leather, faux leather, faux leather upholstery, interior design, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, natural linens, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric, velvet 1 Comment »
Finally! Our summer collections have been decided and we will begin to introduce the new designs and colourways throughout the remainder of this year. We have been inundated with new work in the first part of this year causing our blog posts to be curtailed and our ‘spring’ collection to nearly be an autumn/fall collection. Not that we really do seasonal collections in any case.
I will return later in another post to KOTHEA’s quite remarkable sales figures for the financial year just finished. Most surprising, especially considering we are in the midst of a recession. We had our best ever year and by quite a large margin.
We expect some coverage of the new collections in World of Interiors and Elle decoration but, again, more on that at another time.
Where can you see our collections? Well, we are as elusive as ever but we are starting to digitize some images to our flickr feed (click the images on the right or here). The flickr update is ongoing, there is information on flickr now but some of the images are not final and some images do not have full associated descriptions / product details but we are woking on that this week. Our usual clients will receive the new collections in due course starting in late summer; if you need them more urgently for pressing projects of course we will be happy to oblige. Please get in contact in the usual way.
Not all are in production yet but most sampling is available now.
As a very broad summary we have:
1. New colours of several existing ranges including faux leather;
2. More velvets including patterned and crush;
3. Striped, double width linens;
4. Upholstery weight linen; and
5. A few more interesting one-off designs in limited colourways like the one heading up this blog post.
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KOTHEA Release KORAFT Fabric – New Raffia
Posted: 9 October, 2009 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Panelling & Wallcovering, Press Releases, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, faux leather upholstery, interior design, textured upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric Leave a comment »LONDON, England. 05-OCTOBER-2009 11.30 AM: KOTHEA today announced it has expanded its panelling collections with the addition of KORAFT. Like KOTHEA, KORAFT is, well, just a little bit different and in the nicest possible way. KORAFT is just one of those products where you desire what you see – the very highest quality, beautifully textured raffia-like wall panelling also suitable for domestic upholstery.
Reference: 01-009-410
Colour Shown: Natural
Other colourways: 1
Width: 138cm
Repeat: none
Composition: 73% Cotton, 27% Viscose
Primary Usage: Panelling and upholstery, contract & domestic.
Martindale: 14,000 Rubs
Type of fabric: Rafia/Textured Weave
About KOTHEA.
KOTHEA are a top-market fabric house based in Read the rest of this entry »
Wallpaper Magazine For Interiors
Posted: 6 August, 2009 Filed under: Companies | Tags: contemporary fabric Leave a comment »
Wallpaper Magazine For Interiors and design, fashion art and lifestyle. A good looking magazine with inspirational articles and ideas. Certainly of high merit for interior designers, if you are looking for fabrics you would need more that this one source.
World Of Interiors Magazine For Interiors
Posted: 6 August, 2009 Filed under: Companies | Tags: contemporary fabric Leave a comment »
World Of Interiors Magazine is the UK’s best magazine source for Interior Designers looking for fabric inspiration. The widest selection of the best houses photographed in the most lavish way. Other soruces include idFX, Wallpaper and Homes & Gardens magazines.
Press Release | Interiors | Fabrics | KOTHEA | Aug2009
Posted: 31 July, 2009 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Press Releases, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain, curtain fabric, cushion fabric, cushions, faux leather upholstery Leave a comment »
KOTHEA Release New Fabric For Interiors
LONDON, England. 03-AUGUST-2009 11.30 AM: KOTHEA today announced it has expanded its extensive curtain fabric collection by the addition of KOOMEGA DUPION. KOOMEGA DUPION is a highly unusual contract fabric – on the face of it a superb silk for contract curtain usage with washability and both daylight colour fastness and UV resistance. Yet these are not characteristics not usually associated with silk. 28 colours make it a steadfast choice with more than enough colour options for every scheme. The beautiful fabric looks the part of the finest silk, yet it is a silk alternative, attractively priced for high volume contracts and desirable for domestic usages where silk is required in high-light conditions.
KOOMEGADUPION
Reference: 20-001-452
Colour Shown: Pink
Other colourways: 28
Width: 158cm
Repeat: none
Composition: 100% Polyester
Martindale: na
Primary Usage: Curtains, contract & domestic.
Type of fabric: Silk alternative
About KOTHEA.
KOTHEA are a top-market fabric house based in London serving customers throughout all of Europe and The Middle East. Founded in 1999 they have since continued to develop and sell an extensive range of timeless fabrics to the top architects, interior- and yacht-designers for projects ranging from mega-yachts to boutique hotels and from luxury spas to penthouses.
KOTHEA operate on a trade-only basis and their fabrics are available to the public through interior designers and specialist interior design shops such as Gotham, Interiors Bis and Fiona Campbell. KOTHEA also supply beautiful hand-woven linen fabrics and finished goods – throws and table linen.
KOTHEA’s trade customers would perceive their signature fabrics to include several ranges of velvet including the exclusive ‘cashmere silk velvet’, silks, linens, double-width sheers, faux leather and interesting weaves for upholstery often with high Martindale ‘rub tests’ making them highly suited to both contract and residential projects.
Founder and Executive Director, Lisa Parsons started KOTHEA more than 10 years ago after 11 highly successful years with Nobilis Fontan in Chelsea and Donghia in Chelsea Harbour. She says, “At KOTHEA we like to think we bring something a little different to the market. Our difference will be reflected in our customers’ eyes by unusual fabrics that complement our core fabric ranges; all augmented by our excellent levels of customers service, market knowledge and attention to detail.”
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BS7176 BS5852 Crib 5 - A Guide
A Chat With Verity du Sautoy – Her Thoughts On Winter Fabrics
Posted: 7 February, 2012 | Author: Nathalie Arrigone | Filed under: Companies, contemporary interiors, Contract Fabric, Domestic Fabric, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, interiors, Press Releases, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: cashmere throw, Cashmere wool, contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, faux leather upholstery, ideas for designers, interior design, KOTHEA, luxury cashmere throw, luxury fabric, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, natural fabric, silk velvet, Textile, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstery linen, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvets | Leave a comment »Truly beautiful Cashmere Silk Velvet by KOTHEA
KOTHEA Fabric Picks For A Chilly Winter’s Day
With Verity du Sautoy of KOTHEA.
We love the seasons. All have their beauties and all have touched our senses in memorable ways over the years. Winter is no exception: lower, more balanced light; quietness and chaos with both the shopping and the weather; festive celebrations; the cuddle of a loved one; the hope and expectation of early spring flowers grasping for rare and tiny glimmers of light; and, perhaps, the welcomed warmth of a beautiful fabric.
Some of my best memories are centred on family: a warm fire; a little baby; or a bouncing toddler. Then an old children’s classic on the iPlayer watched on my Mac as it balances precariously on an elegant coffee table. I stroke my children’s hair with one hand and rest my other hand on my sofa. A generous cushion is warm, encapsulating and a bit of fun for the little ones to hide under. The curtains are not yet fully drawn but they smooth the boundary to the cold outside and give us tantalising glimpses of the world beyond – should we venture too close to the sheers that offer the final, soft protection from the elements.
Dominika B Tana Lawn
I work for a fabric company. I love fabric. I can’t pretend that it (fabric) is a be-all and end-all to life and that somehow it will make your life complete. It can’t. But what it clearly can do is complete the sensory experiences in the parts of life that, if you choose, you have control over…the parts of your home. Memories are not just photo-like snapshots in your brain; they are stored, multi-sensory splashes of emotion.
Here are my Winter picks. They are actual ‘picks’ that I’ve recently purchased or are about to purchase.
Take my sofa as an example. My sofa isn’t Read the rest of this entry »
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