Fabric Tips #12: Rolling a velvet
Posted: 14 February, 2011 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Curtain Fabric, Domestic Fabric, Fabric Design, Production & Details, Fabric Tips, interior design, interior designer, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, Fabric Tips, fabrics, interior design, linen velvet, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, silk, silk velvets, Textile, textured upholstery fabric, Upholstery, upholstery fabric, velvet 4 Comments »
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You’ve just ordered a new velvet and unrolled it to admire your purchase. But how do you re-roll it?
When you roll almost any fabric you should have the face on the inside. With a velvet this is the pile so you have the pile on the inside.
Some, but not all, velvet piles stand straight up others will ‘lay down’. for the former it does not matter which way you then roll the fabric (provided the pile is on the inside). However for typically longer pile which lays down (ie you can brush it flat with your hand in one direction only) then you should roll the fabric down the pile as you return it to its roll.
Hopefully that made sense. Good luck.
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What is fabric sanforisation, sanforised, sanforising?
Posted: 14 September, 2010 Filed under: Product Comments | Tags: contract fabric, cotton, curtain fabric, Design, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, Fabric Tips, ideas for designers, interior design, natural fabric, natural fabrics, Shirt, silk, Textile 3 Comments »
Image by rogue-designs via Flickr
Sanforising is a finishing technique for already woven fabric.
Interior Designers do not need to know the detail of exactly what happens. So, in brief, the process is usually associated with cotton fabric and often also with shirting fabric. The idea behind sanforising is to pre-shrink the fabric. Clearly any shrinkage after the fabric has been made up may cause problems and Interior Designers DO need to be aware of that!
When sanforised fabric is subsequently made up into curtains or used on upholstery the naturally occurring effects of fabric stretching are reduced, but like many natural fabrics some further shrinkage could occur.
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As a general rule: more tightly woven fabrics tend to shrink less.
The sanforisation process involves stretching and heating damp fabric over a series of rollers
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What is BS5867 / BS 5867 part 2 type B? type C?
Posted: 19 July, 2010 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Curtain Fabric | Tags: contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain fabric, faux silk, interior design, silk fabric, silk fabrics, Textiles and Nonwovens, Upholstery and Furnishing Leave a comment »
BS5867 part 2 type B is a contract standard for fire retardancy for CURTAINS.
As an interior designer you do *NOT* need to understand the details of the test nor the performance criteria that needs to be achieved.
However interior designers are responsible for the project/installation and because this is a serious are concerning fire risk you DO NEED to:
- Be certain what standard is required for your project/installation;
- Know that you are specifying fabric that meets the appropriate standard; and
- Prove that the fabric you have installed is up to the job.
So here is what you need to do to achieve that, essentially what you need to do to do your job and to ensure you have covered the bases of your responsibility.
1. Determine the fire retardancy standards that need to be adhered to. This may involve contacting the local fire officer. Determine what documentation you need to provide them.
2. Liaise with your fabric supplier to determine if the fabric either:
- inherently meets the standards; or
- requires treatment.
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3. On purchasing the fabric, specify the treatment required. You would say to the fabric company “Treat the fabric to the contract curtain standard BS 5867 part 2 type B, and provide me with documentation showing this has been done”.
4. What you have done now is to specify what standard of treatment has to be undertaken. By doing that there is no guarantee that the fabric will pass the appropriate test even though it has been treated to a standard where is should pass the test. Normally you will receive a document saying that the fabric has been treated to the standard. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT HAS PASSED THE STANDARD. You need to determine if you want your specific batch of fabric to be specifically tested (after treatment). For larger projects this will almost certainly be prudent to undertake. You will need to purchase additional fabric prior to treatment and engage the services of a fabric testing factory (not treatment factory). At the end of that process you will receive documentation stating that the fabric meets the required standard.
Here is related information on fire retardacy for contract upholstery (Crib 5, BS7176 BS5852) and durability of fabric for contract and domestic upholstery. More…
The following test details are not normally required to be known by the designer:
Test method
A sample of the fabric, vertically held, is exposed to a small flame.
For type B (Hotels, etc) the ease of ignition is observed. It is also noted if the flame reaches one any edge of the specimen and/or if any burning pieces of fabric fall down.
For type C (NHS) the fabric is further analysed to see what happens once the flame stops but when the fabric still may be glowing.
NB: The fabric is tested before and after laundering
type B (12 wash cycles at 40°c)
type C (50 wash cycles at 40°c)Test Performance Criteria
Type B Performance Criteria: The edges must remain completely intact and no burning debris should fall.
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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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Curtain Fabric Manufacturer and Supplier
Posted: 6 August, 2009 Filed under: Curtain Fabric | Tags: curtain fabric 5 Comments »
Curtain Fabric - Sheer
Curtain fabric from KOTHEA provides the most beautiful and opulent textures and colours combined with technical characteristic making the fabric directly suitable for curtains because of its light fastness or suitable when interlined. KOTHEA never compromise on elegance in design throughout their extensive range of collections that encompass many silks and sheers and other beautifully coloured fabrics. Much more information can be found about our products and company elsewhere here in The Fabric Blog.
Try searching for particular technical characteristics like ‘light fastness’ or ‘ the specific type of product like ‘silk’ or ‘curtain fabric’ or ‘double width sheers’.
Alternatively ask a question by commenting on this page and it will be answered.
Curtain Material Manufacturer And Supplier
Posted: 6 August, 2009 Filed under: Curtain Fabric | Tags: curtain fabric Leave a comment »Curtain Material - Sheer
Curtain material from KOTHEA provides the most beautiful and opulent textures and colours combined with technical characteristic making the material directly suitable for curtains because of its light fastness or suitable when interlined. KOTHEA never compromise on elegance in design throughout their extensive range of collections that encompass many silks and sheers and other beautifully coloured material. Much more information can be found about our products and company elsewhere here in The Fabric Blog.
Try searching for particular technical characteristics like ‘light fastness’ or ‘ the specific type of product like ‘silk’ or ‘curtain fabric’ or ‘double width sheers’.
Alternatively ask a question by commenting on this page and it will be answered.
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.”
# # #
Sheer Fabrics & The Rub Test
Posted: 8 July, 2009 Filed under: Product Comments | Tags: contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain fabric, sheer linen, sheer linens, textured upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric 1 Comment »
KOTHEA was recently asked “Do sheer fabrics have a double rub test?”
The Martindale rub test (covered extensively, elsewhere on this site) is an abrasion test. Essentially is mimics sofas being sat on a lot.
Any fabric can be put through the test procedure.
Sheer fabrics are used for curtains and blinds.
So the answer is “No”. Only because sheer fabrics are not used on sofas.
For sheer fabrics or for contract curtains then the most important test is for flame retardancy/flammability.
Quirky, New Textured Weave Fabric For Contract & Domestic
Posted: 6 July, 2009 Filed under: Press Releases | Tags: contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain fabric, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, textured upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric Leave a comment »KOTHEA Release New Fabric For Interiors
LONDON, England. 06-JULY-2009 11.30 AM: KOTHEA today announced it has expanded its extensive upholstery fabric collection by the addition of KOCAFELATTE. KOCAFELATTE is a somewhat quirky and hard wearing fabric with an unusual, fine patterned design. It is a striking fabric with a high Martindale result, achieved whilst maintaining the highest levels of exclusive design. It is well suited for a range of uses but targeted towards upholstery and cushions in either domestic or contract installations.
 |
KOCAFELATTE Reference: 02-002-415 Colour Shown: Champagne Other colourways: 3 Width: 135cm Repeat: V9 – H9cm Composition: 100% Viscose Martindale: 40,000 ‘rubs’ Primary Usage: General upholstery or window treatments, contract & domestic. Type of fabric: Textured Weave |
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.”
# # #
For Further Information
Please visit the company web site at http://www.kothea.com
Trademarks
KOTHEA is a registered trade mark of KOTHEA Limited. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
BS7176 BS5852 Crib 5 - A Guide
Fabric Tips #13: Velvet Curtain Making
Posted: 14 February, 2011 | Author: Nathalie Arrigone | 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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