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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Fabric Tips #11: Mohair Velvet – How To Store
Posted: 14 February, 2011 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Fabric Design, Production & Details, Fabric Tips, interior design, interior designer, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: cotton velvet, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, Fabric Tips, interior design, linen velvet, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, silk velvet, Upholstery, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvets 4 Comments »Image via Wikipedia - Alpaca Wool can be made into luxurious alpaca velvet...if you can find it
How to store Velvet.
The same instructions apply to all velvets.
Some background first: As an interior designer you buy and handle many fabrics. You may have wondered why some fabrics come in rolls of up to 100m whereas other come in much smaller lengths. Is this because of their value? The likelihood of them being sold quickly enough? Or perhaps longer lengths of some fabrics would be just to heavy for someone in a warehouse to physically carry or indeed too heavy for a courier to carry? Or perhaps it’s something to do with the thickness of the roll?
Well there is some truth no doubt in all of these reasons and others to. But one very important consideration with a velvet and especially with a Mohair velvets is the weight of the fabric and the weight of the fabric ON ITSELF. Because velvets have a pile they are thicker and heavier than other fabrics as they contain more material; similarly some velvets such as many mohair velvets have a dense pile…again more fabric and more weight.
There comes a point when the sheer weight of the roll of fabric becomes too much for the pile of the first part of the wrapped fabric on the roll and the inherent weight of all the fabric can cause damage to the pile. So velvets and especially mohair velvets have smaller lengths on the roll. Sometimes 25m but sometimes also 40m and 50m per roll.
So the length of fabric on a roll will be impacted by the weight of the fabric per linear metre AND the fact that a pile fabric can be more affected by added weight than other fabric.
So, how to store.
1. Store horizontally
2. Store with no other, external weight applied to the fabric.
3. Covered up to avoid exposure to dirt and dust i the air -especially if stored for long periods
Typically you will find that many of our velvets come to you in special containers where the velvet is on a roll and suspended by special cardboard ends in the boxes. For small volumes of velvet on a single roll there is often no need for these special containers. Where the velvets are supplied in suspended roll containers it is safe to store the velvet in this form. Ideally youwould have a horizontal racking system for rolls of fabric as lengths can easily be cut off as and when you need them but cleary most interior designers do not have this facility.
The safest method of course is to let your supplier hold the stock and order cut lengths from them. It de-risks you damaging the fabric. Unless of course the supplier can specifically reserve entire rolls just for you, you would have the potential problem of dye lot or batch variation of colour with many fabric dyes. There would normally be a charge for an additional service such as this.
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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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Fabric Tips #10
Posted: 21 June, 2010 Filed under: Environmental, Fabric Tips | Tags: Fabric Tips, natural fabrics Leave a comment »Interior Designers are sometimes asked for the environmental credentials of their specification. Here are some figures that give you an idea of the greenness of different yarns used in fabric production. The figures show the energy consumption (per kilo in KWH) required to make the fibres. Of course this is far from the total carbon footprint of the finished delivered and fully made up cushion or sofa or curtain. But it is a starting point often covering the more energy intensive part of the process.
17 Wool
27 Viscose
32 Polypropylene
35 Polyester
69 Nylon
Clearly natural wool wins hands down!
As a side note, the “Campaign For Wool” should start to get media coverage throughout the rest of 2010 with the patronage of HRH Prince Charles. The society of British Interior Design are planning to give wool a big push “All we are saying is…give fleece a chance”. Their tagline. Great! Well it made me laugh!
Mohair Velvet, Silk Velvet: How to upholster using it
Posted: 19 June, 2010 Filed under: Fabric Tips | Tags: contract fabric, contract fabrics, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, Fabric Tips, linen velvet, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, silk fabrics, silk velvet, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvet upholstery, velvets Leave a comment »
Mohair Velvet and Silk Velvet buyers consider this: You have just invested a considerable amount of money in a high quality silk velvet or mohair velvet. Are you really considering upholstering with it yourself. Use an experienced upholsterer who, to be brutally honest, should not need the instructions that follow.
Some velvets are woven with a nap others are not. It is not a problem either way. If there is a nap you need to know which way it goes as that affects the process of upholstering. When you run your hand down the mohair velvet or silk velvet the smoothed direction indicates the direction of the nap. Remember this, it is important.
I’m assuming that you have already checked that the fabric is not damaged and that each piece is from the same dye lot.
The nap should be upholstered downwards for:
- the back;
- the seat; and
- side surfaces.
The nap should be upholstered from the outside inwards for:
- arm rests.
How do you flip your cushions? Top to bottom or left to right?
Most people flip from top to bottom. It is therefore standard upholstering practice to upholster the front and the back the opposite way. IE when they are flipped over the nap is the same.
You should use a layer of wadding between the foam and the fabric. The wadding can be either cotton or synthetic it does not really matter but check with any fire rating requirements. Again check that you are using the right kind of foam but HR foam or cold foam are both fine.
However if the pile is vertical then we advise the additional use of a cotton slip-cover.
Going back to the foam for a minute we advise that you use white wadding. In certain circumstances it is possible that grey wadding will ‘bleed’ causing marks on your beautiful Mohair Velvet. For example this may be caused from moisture used in the cleaning process.
Always use wadding on the arm rests as a protective layer to help eliminate ‘sharp’ edges. Using wadding on arm rests will thus reduce wear and tear considerably.
For the piping never use synthetic piping cord, always use cotton piping cord. As with the arm rests this will reduce wear and tear by eliminating the ‘sharper edges’.
Again to reduce wear and tear also use the length of the fabric to make the piping. this will look better as well.
Happy Upholstering
Fabric Tips #9
Posted: 18 May, 2010 Filed under: Fabric Tips | Tags: Fabric Tips Leave a comment »When using sheers think about double width fabric. Many sheer fabrics are available in double width. This reduces the number of joins you need to make and also may well allow you to run the fabric the ‘other way’ (ie railroaded)
Fabric Tips #8
Posted: 18 May, 2010 Filed under: Fabric Tips | Tags: Fabric Tips Leave a comment »Always consider sheers and/or lining fabrics that are in sunny windows.
Fabric Tips #7
Posted: 10 May, 2010 Filed under: Fabric Tips | Tags: Fabric Tips Leave a comment »When choosing a fabric for upholstery think about the finished sofa.
If you are planning to have piping (made by rolling the fabric) then make sure that your chosen fabric can be used in that way. It is sometimes hard to roll thicker fabric.
Also bear in mind that your upholsterer might be overly cautious. So, for example, people are often told that some Mohair Velvets cannot be used for piping when they usually can.
Fabric Tips #6
Posted: 14 April, 2010 Filed under: Fabric Tips | Tags: Fabric Tips Leave a comment »When your newly ordered fabric is delivered it will have the face rolled on the inside. This makes sense when you think about it. The roll will be transported and any damage caused during transit will be made first to the outside and that, when unrolled, will be the reverse/back of the fabric. So if there is minor damage the fabric can still be used.
However, if you fabric arrives and damage is apparent then:
1. Don’t cut it; and
2. Either reject it or get the courier to note the damage.
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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