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Construction: Upholstery Fabric

Furniture Essentials

Fabric Grades

As a company, we have created multiple ways to categorize fabrics within each brand including fabric grade and performance. Performance fabrics are selected based on water repellency and withstanding shrinkage due to machine washing. Fabric grades are determined by fabric content, fabric type and perceived value. In short, we base things on the cost of the fabric which is derived from the mill. The costs from the mill are derived from the fabric content and type of fabric. Fabric Types: Woven Most fabrics are woven together on a loom. Some looms can create very intricate designs using multiple colors of yarn, like a jacquard loom. There are also looms, like the Dobby, that make simpler designs. Knit Not many upholstery fabrics are knit (like a sweater), but sometimes fabrics are adhered to a knit backing for stability. Velvet Velvets are actually created on a loom by weaving two pieces of fabrics face-to-face and then cutting them apart. This creates that luxuriously soft hand. Non-woven Some fabrics (like micro-suede) are not actually woven. The micor-denier (really thin) fibers are bonded together in an irregular “tangle” of fibers. (like felt) Sometimes they are adhered to a knit backing for stability. Print A printed fabric is anything printed on top of a woven fabric. These design can be extremely complex because they are not limited to a loom, but they can also be more susceptible to fading as the design is not worked into the fabric itself but is only on the surface.