Re: Help ASAP, upholsterer waiting for fabric ---- Conflicting info on upholstery fab
Cleaning Code "S" is 'dry cleaning fluids only' and very common in the fabrics, water-based cleaning (and never steam clean) can wrinkle fabrics and set stains, so they usually do specify 'S' to be safe. Any 100 % man-made fabric will pill over time. To avoid that, try to get a blend with some natural materials in the mix (cotton, wool, linen). The reason there are so many man-made fabrics out there is they're cheap - and folks like cheap, plain and simple. Your very best fabrics are blends of all natural materials and they usually come out of Europe, but now you are in the $ 100 a yard and up range, and that creates a lot of price resistance. There really is no percentage formula that i'm aware of as to what ratios of blends are ideal - if there is I've never seen it.
Selecting a fabric is never easy, because you are usually balancing performance/style vs overall cost of the build. Manufacturers of upholstery almost never put high quality fabrics in their offerings as it turns off the price sensitive consumer so your choices from most makers in fabrics range from mediocre to poor. That keeps the price down and limits your options to mostly man-made fabrics with perhaps some percentage of a cotton blend.
If you ever want 'the good stuff' for a special piece, you go to the Design Centers that are in most major US cities and look at F. Shumacher, Robert Allen, Scalamandre, Pindler & Pindler, etc. They have the natural blends and the $ 100 + per yard price tags, but there is a difference and you can see it, feel it, and they last a long time. In 1987 I covered a Chippendale Sofa in a costly Greeff Fabric made in Belgium that was a wool/cotton/linen blend in a red pattern on pattern. In 1987 that fabric was $ 85 a yard! It has been the best sofa for our home and now 27 years later it shows some sun fade on the upper back, but is otherwise solid and still handsome with no wear and no stains. Like most things, you do get what you pay for.
Last edited by drcollie; 10-09-2014 at 10:12 AM.
Duane Collie
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