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.

Related Articles

• Fabric Tips #12: Rolling a velvet (kothea.com)
• Mohair Velvet & Other Velvets (kothea.com)
• Fabric Tips #11: Mohair Velvet – How To Store (kothea.com)
• Contract Upholstery Fabric – How to Specify It (kothea.com)
• Upholstery Linen – Sourcing Luxury Linen in the UK (kothea.com)

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.

Related Articles

• Plus Size Velvet (fatchic.net)
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• Roller curtains with your graphics on them (hackaday.com)
• Fabric Tips #11: Mohair Velvet – How To Store (kothea.com)
• Fabric Tips #12: Rolling a velvet (kothea.com)

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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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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Mohair Velvet

Mohair Velvet – A velvet made from natural Mohair Wool. Typically durable with high Martindale rub test results. Natural fibres give a degree of inherent fire retardancy.

Cotton velvet – A velvet made from natural cotton

Linen Velvet – a velvet made from natural linen typically an excellent domestic upholstery velvet.

Silk Velvet – Potentially beautiful and amazing velvet fabric made from silk but a high degree of quality variation across manufacturers.

CS Trevira – Made from synthetic Trevira. Excellent contract velvet.

Cashmere Silk Velvet – Extremely high quality luxury fabric. Mix of two natural fibres ie Cashmere Wool and Silk. Combines beauty with durability.

Vicuna Silk Velvet – Extremely high quality and rare luxury fabric. Rarely available as an interiors fabric.

Cotton & Silk Velvet – A less expensive way to strengthen the beauty of the silk with the strength of cotton. Cotton being cheaper than Cashmere wool for example!

Note also that a velvet is made with a back cloth material. It is not unusual for an extremely fine top market velvet to have a 100% cotton back cloth.

Related Articles

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• New Fabric Trends Update Your Decor (chicagonow.com)
• Upholstery Linen – Sourcing Luxury Linen in the UK (kothea.com)

“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

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

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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Interior Designers are often interested in the properties and manufacture of velvet – the two being necessarily related. The depth of the pile, the durability of the finish, the ease of maintaining the beautiful finish.

Velvet is made in one of two ways – cut or uncut:

1. Cut pile

a. Here the loom is configured to have two fabric cloths being woven on face-to-face, one on the other. The pile is woven from one into the other. The cloths would be bound together were it not for a moving knife that travels between the two.

b. Wire loom

Here the yarn is looped over a wire above a single cloth. A knife cuts the top of the loop as the wire is withdrawn.

2. Uncut pile

Very similar to the wire loom except the yarn is NOT cut as the wire is withdrawn. This method gives the fabric even more depth and interest.

Dyeing & Finishing

Velvet is often woven in ‘greige’ in longish lengths of 200m or more. A further stage is added whereby individual pieces are cut and coloured to precise colour formulae. KOTHEA use this way to be quickly able to turn around orders for bespoke colours from stock of the greige. Precise chemical dye mixes ensure good replication of colours for re-stocking.

After colouration the fabric is finished. This involves tumbling and brushing and a backing applied.

Different types of pile effects: If the yarns are finished upright then the effect is called, funnily enough, upright pile. Alternatively a panne pile is one which is flattened so that the pile is laid in one direction.

Often you will hear of Mohair Velvet. Mohair is just one of the kinds of yarns that could be used. It could equally be linen or cotton or a cashmere and silk mix.

Velvet Fabric Includes Mohair Velvet

Velvet Fabrics by KOTHEA include Mohair Velvet, Cotton Velvet, Linen Velvet & silk velvet. The most popular being mohair velvet the most luxurious being Cashmere Silk Velvet.

A. Some velvets are extremely hard wearing. However cats claws can act like knives and few, if any, fabrics are knife proof. So unfortunately no we do not sell cat proof velvets.

However the hardest finish would be one that is least affected by a claw. So at one end of the scale you might have a fine silk, easily torn, and at the other end of the scale a vinyl based finish would be quite durable.

So a cat proof sofa would probably be covered in a vinyl floor tile like material. It would be ‘cat proof’ but awful to sit on! So I would go with a compromise like a faux leather or keep my cat’s claws well clipped or create some alternate environment for the cat to exhibit its natural claw sharpening tendencies elsewhere. Good luck.

There’s probably a little confusion here as wool and mohair both refer to animal hair. Technically mohair is wool; as wool encompasses animal hair from the Caprinae family (ie sheep, goats, llamas and rabbits). Assuming that the question means sheep wool then both could be woven together of course. But then the suitability of those fibres for upholstery really depends on how they are woven.

So neither wool nor mohair in themselves are always suitable for upholstery. It depends on how they are woven. To properly assess any fabrics suitability for upholstery you need to look at the fabrics rub test and its ability to be fire treated.

Pure natural fibres (sheep wool and mohair) are normally exempt from the match test for upholstery but still need to pass the cigarette test (please look elsewhere on this blog for information – or for definitive information look at www.textilesfr.co.uk).the fabric may or may no require treating, you will have to check.

Mohair can have a Martindale/rub test of over 100,000 (e.g. our Mohair Velvet) and so can be suitable for contract upholstery. Whereas one of our 100% sheep wool fabrics has a martindale of 23,000 again making it suitable for upholstery.

So really its probably best to find the Mohair/Wool fabric you like and then find out if that particular one is suitable for upholstery.

More of an explanation about velvet is given here – essentially ‘velvet’ is the finish arrived at by a specific production process. That process can be applied to many fibres. Mohair usually refers to a silk-like fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat and cotton is a natural fibre that grows from the cotton plant.

There are a few new marketing activities we have planned which should hopefully add a little value to the interior design community rather than just trying to sell stuff to them, so watch this space and your in-box for more information on that.

We have tried to offer as full a range of velvets as possible: cotton velvets; linen velvets; cashmere silk velvets; silk velvets; mohair velvets and so on. We are thought about offering a budget range as well but decided in the end not to tarnish our strong quality brand. I think we made the right choice.

KOTHEA use TFT in Ilkley for fabric testing. We recently had some Mohair Velvet and Cotton Velvet tested there for Cribe 5 / Crib 5. They are UKAS accredited.

TFT (Ilkley)
Ltd

We’ve added some new colours to several of our ranges. Shades of pink and black! Not earth shattering news perhaps but black velvets and pink linens are asked for more often than you’d think.

KOTHEA also have black fabrics in interesting textures such as mohair velvet, bobbly wool and a cord / corduroy.

Have a look at some of our thoughts on the year ahead as shown in the excellent on-line design directory The House Directory. An excerpt from the MARCH 2009 edition is shown below.

For a sneak preview of some of our new fabrics we have a 2009 flickr feed.

Mohair velvet can be notoriously difficult to clean. If you are in any doubt please contact a professional cleaner. You will probably get that recommendation from most fabric companies. The following information is provided as a guide and is not a formal recommendation by KOTHEA.

As with many fabrics, prevention is the best cure. A regularly cleaned velvet will last longer and cleaning should consist of brushing with a hard clothes’ brush and regular vacuuming. As part of a cleaning routine we would suggest expert cleaning approximately every 5 years.

Removing Stains

You should never attempt to remove more serious stains. That should always be undertaken by a professional.

It is possible to remove minor stains but always test any cleaning method on a small area that is not normally visible.

For stains that have not dried try using an absorbant and dampened, lint-free cloth. Do not use a coloured material as the colour may rub off into the velvet. Should water fail to work you could instead try a diluted upholstery shampoo/cleaner carefully following the manufacturer’s instructions. Rub very gently on the fabric, finishing in the direction of the nap. Afterwards ensure that all chemical residues are removed.

Make sure the fabric is not used again until thoroughly dry.

Dealing with wear and tear

As indicated earlier, a regular cleaning regime is requried for velvets. If no such regime is followed the fabric can become prematurely worn most noticeably, for example, on the regularly used parts of sofas or chairs. Frequent movement by a person on the velvet pile will cause the pile to be pushed in all directions; sometimes, eventually, resulting in matting. Once the pile has been moved in different directions the shade of the fabric can appear to have changed. This is a natural property of the fabric and is exacerbated by excesses of heat or humidity.

Fortunately, mohair velvets usually take and keep colour well and usually also have high rub tests.

Only on clean fabric try the following; apply a thoroughly clean and dampened cloth for 10 hours and then dry naturally for 10 hours in a well ventilated room. Only dampen the cloth slightly with pure/distilled water. Never ‘wet’ or soak the cloth or the fabric when cleaning.

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Source: KOTHEA and Spearson Textiles

Velvet is a type of tufted fabric woven with a warp pile. It has a short dense pile of 3mm or less (‘plush’ has a pile longer than 3mm) and a distinctive feel. During production wires lift the yarn creating small loops which are either cut or left depending on the desired finish. Velvets tend to take colour very well and also tend to be hard-wearing with a high degree of suitability for varied uses; they were typically hard to clean but that problem is mostly solved with modern dry-cleaning.

What’s in a velvet?

Kashmir was probably the birth-place of velvet in the early 1300s but by the 16th Century Bruges had become the leading source of what at the time was a definitive luxury item. Luxury velvets are still made in Europe as well as in Asia.

The original velvets were typically silk velvet. With the passing of time and increasing technical sophistication it has become easily possible to make velvets from many natural and synthetic yarns. At KOTHEA we have velvets at the top end of the quality range made from fine yarns including Linen Velvet, Cashmere-Silk Velvet, Linen Velvet, Cotton Velvet, Wool Velvet and of course Mohair Velvet. Other velvets available in the market have compositions that include polyester, nylon, viscose, acetate or mixtures. Sometimes small amounts of lycra are included to give the fabric stretch.

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We have many velvets of differing compositions (Silk Velvets, Cotton Velvets, Linen Velvets, etc.) and we were interested to see how one of the velvets, at the very highest end of our range, would perform. So we used SGS to test one of our Cashmere Silk Velvets (75% Cashmere 25% Silk).

The tests were undertaken in accordance with BSEN14455 (based on BSENISO12947) and a result of 13,000 rubs was obtained, which considering the perceived delicacy of the product was fantastic. 13,000 rubs makes the product suitable for light usage such as residential.

The penthouses have amazing views and KOTHEA have supplied some of our very best mohair velvets for this development.

Essex Flameproofing,

Textiles FR, and

TEK Treatments

Just click the company name to take you to their web site. Please feel free to add comments to this posting recommending any suppliers you have used but any negative comments about other comapnies are not permitted on this site. Thank you.