Crib 5, Crib 3 FR treatment – is it OK to mix these? inter liner fabric
Posted: 14 February, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: contract fabric, contract fabrics, fabric, interior design, Interlining, Interlinings, Textile, Textiles and Nonwovens Leave a comment »
Image via Wikipedia and not too much to do with Crib 5!
“Is it OK to mix Crib 5 and Crib 3?” was the question. The client further explained that they planned to use a Crib 5 inter-liner and a Crib 3 fabric and was this OK in a restaurant?
I think the uncertainty existed as sometimes with domestic usage interlining can help with meeting FR needs.
However for non-residential spaces that is NOT the case.
The Crib5/Crib 3 mix would have been OK in an office type environment where Crib 3 was required however in a public space this is certainly not acceptable and so a different fabric is needed that is inherently Crib 5 or can be treated to Crib 5.
Related Information:
Upholstery Velvet – Sourcing Luxury Velvet (Mohair) in The UK
Posted: 16 February, 2011 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Domestic Fabric, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, Product Comments, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, interior design, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, textured upholstery fabric, Upholstery, upholstery linen, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvets Leave a comment »
Luxury Mohair Velvet For Upholstery
Luxury Upholstery Velvet is notoriously difficult for interior designers to consistently source. Sourcing a generic velvet is easy enough but often velvets vary greatly in quality with many being relatively cheap and scoring relatively well with Martindale results but they just look ‘cheap’. The look and feel of the velvet are, after all, two of several important reasons why you are specifying it in the first place.
A further problem is the composition. When, for example, you say you want a Mohair Velvet that is what you want: a velvet made out of Mohair and NOT lots of other things PLUS a bit of Mohair.
Whilst Mohair velvets are generally very good across the market they too can vary significantly in quality. So even when you buy a Mohair Velvet you are not necessarily getting the durable, luxury, fantastic looking product that you hoped for.
Further complications come when looking at Velvets made of a mix of yarns. Well some of the mixed fibre yarns too are actually excellent in quality!
So I guess I’m saying that there really is no sure and fast way of knowing that what you are buying without actually seeing the fabric AND being assured of its technical characteristics, notably Martindale as we are considering upholstery here.
Most KOTHEA luxury upholstery velvets have inherent Martindale rub tests of in excess of 20,000 rubs with several collections exceeding 100,000 rubs fo rcontract usage – 20,000 Martindale being eminently suitable for domestic upholstery.
In addition to non-velvet, textured upholstery we have many luxury velvets suitbale for upholstery including Italian Silk Velvet (high quality, luxury velvet), Cashmere & Silk Velvet (the ultimate velvet), trevira Velvet (inherent fire retardancy), Mohair Velvet (high quality, luxury velvet),
Most of our velvet is available by the metre with no minimum quantities.
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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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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 »
Image via Wikipedia
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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Upholstery Linen – Sourcing Luxury Upholstery Linen in the UK
Posted: 17 January, 2011 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Domestic Fabric, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: Business, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, faux leather upholstery, ideas for designers, interior design, linen, natural linen, natural linens, Textile, Textiles and Nonwovens, Upholstery, Upholstery and Furnishing, upholstery fabric, upholstery linen, upholstry fabric 5 Comments »
Upholstery Linen
Upholstery Linen is notoriously difficult for interior designers to source. Sourcing linens for curtains is easy enough but often linens are not woven with sufficient strength to score Martindale results that are high enough to warrant using the fabric for upholstery.
Some suppliers can be a little evasive and will quote the weight of the linen as a measure of the linen’s quality. The implicaiton being that the higher the weight the better suited the fabric will be for upholstery. There is some thuth in that implication but you cannot say for certain that a high weight linen is inherently suitable for upholstery. Get the Martindale!
Most KOTHEA luxury upholstery linens have inherent Martindale rub tests of around 20,000 rubs with one range further strengthened to 85,000 rubs for contract usage – 20,000 Martindale being eminently suitable for domestic upholstery.
Furthermore when buying upholstery- (or curtain-) linen you need to know whether or not it will shrink when washed. Linen ALWAYS shrinks. So what you have to find out is whether or not it has been pre-shrunk before you buy it. A common way of pre-shrinking linen is through the sanforisation process.
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Here are the details of our new 2011 upholstery linens that are named Recline, Relax and Restful. We have many others, these are just the new ones:
Name: Recline
Usage: Luxury Contract Upholstery
Colourways: 24
Width: 135cm
Comp: 54% Li 35% Co 11% Pa
Weight: >350g/m2
Notes: Martindale >85,000
Name: Relax
Usage: Luxury Domestic Upholstery
Colourways: 24
Width: 135cm
Comp: 100% Li
Weight: >265 g/m2
Notes: Martindale >15,000
Name: Restful
Usage: Heavyweight Luxury Domestic Upholstery
Colourways: 4
Width: 135cm
Comp: 100% Li
Weight: >470 g/m2
Notes: Martindale >45,000
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Fabric Abbreviations For Material Composition (Textiles For Interior Designers)
Posted: 27 September, 2010 Filed under: Contract Fabric, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, Product Comments | Tags: Angora wool, fabric, fabrics, Fiber, interior design, Kashmir, natural, Sheep, Textiles and Nonwovens, wool 4 Comments »
Click To Read More Interior Design Articles
Fabric labels often have abbreviations and, as you will see below, some of these generally accepted abbreviations are for non-English words. So here is a handy little reference chart for all you interior designers out there showing what all those pesky abbreviations mean. Please comment if any are missing.
WO – Wool (Sheep by default)
WV – Virgin Fleece Wool
WP – Alpaca Wool
WL – Lama Wool
WS – Cashmere Goat aka Kaschmir and Cachemire and (incorrectly) Kashmir
WM – Mohair (Goat) Wool
SE – Silk / Seide
CO – Cotton / Baumwolle
LI – Flax / Linen
HA – Hemp / Hanf
CV – Viscose
CMD – Modal
CLY – Lyocell
PA – Nylon / Polyamid
PES – Polyester
PUR – Polyurethane
EL – Elastane aka spandex
ME – Metallic
AF – Other Fibers
Some Italian Translations and Abbreviations:
WP – can also mean baby alpaca Wool
VI – also means viscose
WK – camel hair wool
WA – angora wool
PBT -polyester
EA – elastane
PC – acrylic
PM – polyester
For more information on luxury cashmere throws or to request cuttings please visit www.kothea.com. For black faux leather upholstery fabrics try <here> and for mohair velvet and mohair velvet upholstery fabric please follow the links. Upholstery Linen is also one of our specialities as are luxury silk velvet fabrics.
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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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KOTWIG – New Farbic From KOTHEA
Posted: 1 May, 2009 Filed under: Press Releases, Product Comments | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, cotton, cotton velvet, curtain fabric, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, fabrics, linen velvet, linens, textured upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric Leave a comment »KOTHEA Release New Fabric For Interiors
LONDON, England. 04-MAY-2009 11.30 AM: KOTHEA today announced it has expanded its product range by the addition of KOTWIG. KOTWIG has an off-the-wall textured design. It has a high Martindale score which is unusually achieved without incorporating polyester. It is highly suitable for a wide range of uses including heavy upholstery and wall treatments in either domestic or contract installations.
Flickr Image Of KOTWIG
Full information can be found <here>.
KOTWIG
Reference: 14-002-436
Colour Shown: Brown – Light Brown
Other colourways: 20
Width: 145cm
Repeat: None
Composition: 43% Linen, 36% Viscose, 21% Cotton.
Martindale: 40,000 ‘rubs’
Primary Usage: General upholstery or wall 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.”
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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