Using Ultrasuede for Home Decorating
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
PLEASE NOTE: WE INVITE YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS POST…CLICK THE SUBJECT LINE TO OPEN COMMENT WINDOW. Ultrasuede is one of the those fabrics that has a multiplicity of uses. iluvfabrix has a fabulous selection of solid and patterned ultrasuedes that are wonderful for upholstered furniture, drapery, and many customers have used them for clothing as well.The fact that ultrasuede can be washed as well as its resistance to stains makes it an ideal material for use on upholstered furniture, even in an active home.Ultrasuede comes in so many luscious colors you can match pretty much everything else in your home with one of the myriad color choices. Check out some of the other fabrics at iluvfabrix as well.
Recovering a piece of furniture
Thursday, December 27th, 2007
PLEASE NOTE: WE INVITE YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS POST…CLICK THE SUBJECT LINE TO OPEN COMMENT WINDOW. How many of you have a really comfortable piece of furniture that is starting to look a little worse for wear, but don’t know where to begin in terms of recovering it. iluvfabrix.com has heard this same story many times. iluvfabrix.com employs a full time designer that will help you with all your calculations. She starts by discussing your room design with you, the changes you would like to make, fabric selection and yardage calculations and she will even recommend a local workroom to do the reupholstering. Leave all the elements of your recovering project to us at iluvfabrix.com
Sew it yourself kits
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
PLEASE NOTE: WE INVITE YOUR COMMENTS ON THIS POST…CLICK THE SUBJECT LINE TO OPEN COMMENT WINDOW. iluvfabrix.com is, by popular request, coming out with “Sew it yourself” pillow kits. The kits will consist of a pillow form, the necessary fabric for both front and back, all the necessary trim and complete step by step instructions. The cost of these kits will of course be much less than pre made pillows and will contain raw materials of the very highest quality. People have been asking us at http://www.iluvfabrix.com to do this and we finally have the time.Also watch for our new category of Iron Rods & Fixtures which will be filled with wonderful choices very soon. Keep an eye on it at http://www.iluvfabrix.com/upholstery-fabric/rodsfixtures/23.htm
How to plan a (re)upholstery project
Thursday, September 6th, 2007
Whether you have an exisiting sofa or chair that you wish to recover (or in fact do slipcovers for) or you intend to have a custom furniture builder build a sofa for you to your specifications, there are a few things that should always be attended to first. It is always best to first decide where the sofa is to be placed in your home, as this will to a large degree determine the type of fabric you need to purchase for wear purposes ie, is it in a formal living room that gets very little use or a family room that will be used all the time. Second is what is your family like…..do you have rambunctious young children and pets which will require a fabric with a high degree of durability or is it just adults. Three is price point for the fabric……you don’t need to spend a fortune to purchase fabric that will wear like iron and still look fabulous after years of use. iluvfabrix.com has a designer in house that will walk you through these preliminary decisions and, since everything iluvfabrix.com sells is below wholesale, you can get very high end fabric for a very reasonable cost.
Sewing yourself vs professional sewers
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
One of the advantages of having a professional designer on staff is the ability of iluvfabrix.com to provide precise direction on how to sew drapes yourself. Our designer will help you calculate the exact number of yards you need for your drapes depending on the drape style you choose and then can send you simple step by step sewing directions. We have found many people who have sewn drapes themselves with our directions, even for the first time, yield professional looking results. You can get a pretty good idea of how much fabric is required for a chair or sofa by clicking on our fabric chart as follows: http://www.iluvfabrix.com/estimator.html Have a look at the fabrics at http://www.iluvfabrix.com/upholstery-fabric/designer-fabric/13.htm
Buying the “Best of the Best” fabrics
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
iluvfabrix.com generally sells only the “Best of the Best” fabrics. What does this really mean to you, the end user. Firstly, we purchase our fabrics direct from some of the best fabric mills in the world…..companies that make the fabrics for Scalamandre, Brunschwig & Fils, Colefax & Fowler, Manuel Canovas and many, many more. When you buy fabric at this level of quality, you are getting the finest designs, the finest yarns, the greatest attention paid to detail, the best treatments and fabric that will make pieces that last and last and last. Lesser qualities of fabric will have less of some or all of the above mentioned attributes and the longevity, beauty and appeal will decline in lockstep. In other words, you get what you pay for. Comments?
Fabric qualities from Europe vs Asia
Friday, August 31st, 2007
We have been asked many times how the quality of fabrics differ from Asia vs Europe. iluvfabrix.com has done extensive research on this and have to say that fabric from China has improved very substantially in the past four or five years. iluvfabrix.com purchases almost all of our fabric, with very rare exceptions, from the best mills in France, Belgium and Italy as we are known for selling the “Best of the Best” fabrics in the World and they typically come from Europe. What’s the difference, you say? Better quality yarn, more interesting and much more complicated designs with far greater artistic content, more durability, more pre-treatments for this like stain resistance and fire retardation are only a few of the things that render “best” quality fabric from “good” quality fabric. If you hold two fabrics side by side even the untrained eye can tell the difference. Comments?
Suitability of Fabrics for Upholstery and/or Apparel
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
We get asked this question a lot….”will this fabric work for both upholstery and drapes…..and clothing”? There are many fabrics in the marketplace and many that we carry that will serve a dual or even triple purpose. Most high quality upholstery or drapery fabric is pretreated at the factory for shrink resistance, stain resistance, in many cases fire resistance. Thus any fabric that is of light enough weight to be used for drapery can also be used for upholstery as they are all pretreated for durability. Obviously there are some fabrics that will not stand up to rigorous use on upholstery and are more suitable for occasional furniture. Many of these lighter fabrics (especially silks) can be used for clothing and in fact make exquisite clothing that looks great and lass virtually forever. What experiences have any of you had?
Durability of Upholstery & Drapery Fabric
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Firstly, to all the current and future customers on our site, www.iluvfabrix.com, welcome to our BLOG.
We get many questions regarding the durability of the fabrics we sell on www.iluvfabrix.com. Almost all of the fabrics we sell are preshrunk, treated for stain resistance and are specially chosen by our designer for their beauty, durability and practicality.
Generally we think it is true that most people assume that furniture will be durable and meet their expectations about maintenance and appearance. However you should know that some types of upholstery fabric are better suited to specific areas of the house and specific rooms. Always consider where and how a piece will be used. Furniture in high use areas (family rooms, kitchens) must be durable and easy to maintain. Elegant textiles with complex textures may be more suitable for low traffic areas such as formal living rooms where the amount of use will be much less.
We are always available to answer your questions about fabric durability, wearability and, in fact, anything else you wish to know.