Fabric you check before you cut
Upholstery and drapery fabric for upholsterers, designers and people re-covering their own chairs. We start with a swatch and the spec sheet, so you know how it's woven, how it wears and how to clean it before you buy the yardage.
- SwatchSee and feel it
- SpecAbrasion, cleaning, width, repeat
- YardageCut from one dye lot
Igor Ovsyannykov, CC0How the cloth is built
Every swatch below is drawn thread by thread from its weave plan, the same over-and-under a loom follows. Pick a weave and a colour, and zoom in to see the interlacing. On velvet, move across the swatch to brush the pile.
Read the spec, not the name
"Performance", "heavy duty" and "durable" aren't measurements. A fabric's spec sheet is: its abrasion test and method, its cleaning code, its width and pattern repeat, and whether it passes the flammability standard for upholstered furniture.
Our spec guide walks through a real-format sheet one line at a time, with the industry guidelines for what each number means.
Read a spec sheetStart here
Three tools for the questions people ask before they order fabric.
Reading a spec
Double rubs, Martindale, cleaning codes, railroading and repeats, explained on one sheet.
Yardage calculator
Pick the piece, the width and the repeat, and see how much to order with a sensible margin.
For the trade
Memo samples, cuttings for approval and holding a dye lot for upholsterers and designers.
Common questions
What's the most durable weave for a sofa?
Tight, dense weaves wear best: twills and plain weaves with a high abrasion rating. Satins and loose basketweaves have longer floats that can snag. Check the abrasion number on the spec sheet rather than the weave name alone.
How many double rubs does upholstery fabric need?
The Association for Contract Textiles' guideline for woven upholstery is 15,000 double rubs (Wyzenbeek) or 20,000 cycles (Martindale) for low-traffic use, and 30,000 double rubs or 40,000 cycles for high-traffic use.
Why order a swatch first?
Colour on a screen is never exact, and the hand, weight and texture only show in person. A swatch also lets you test the cleaning code on a scrap before it's on your furniture.
What is a dye lot?
Fabric dyed in the same batch. Two lots of the same colour can differ slightly, so order all the yardage for one project at once.
Tell us what you're covering
The piece, how it's used, and the look you're after. We'll suggest weaves and fibres that suit it and send swatches with their spec sheets.
Request a swatch