What Is a Durable Upholstery Fabric?
Many upholstery fabrics claim to be durable, but you have to consider the qualities that make one kind of fabric stronger than another in order to really understand what durable means. Additionally, you need to consider the kind of furniture, how it will be used and how much it will be used to understand your own requirements of the term "durable." A durable upholstery fabric is determined by the kind of threads and their quality, the tightness of the weave, how easy the fabric is to clean and how well it maintains it shape, color and overall look. Does this Spark an idea?
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Fiber Content
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Upholstery fabrics are made from either natural fibers or synthetics. Cotton blends and leathers are the most durable natural fibers. Tightly woven cotton blends are resistant to fading and stretching and tend to be very sturdy. Leather is very strong, easy to clean and it will not stretch or lose its shape. Nylon, olefin and vinyl are all excellent synthetics that make fabrics strong, resilient and fade resistant. All of these fibers range in quality. The most durable fibers are those that are not mixed with cheaper materials that weaken their quality.
Tightness of Weave
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When you hear the term "thread count," this refers to how many threads fit into one square inch. The more tightly woven a fabric is, more number of threads fit into one square inch. With a higher thread count, you get a stronger upholstery fabric which in turn, renders a higher durability.
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Cleaning
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Durable upholstery fabric should be fairly easy to clean. A durable upholstery fabric will endure cleaning chemicals and the pressure of rubbing and scrubbing, which allows you to easily remove spills without showing the effects of the cleaning effort. You can clean a durable upholstery fabric with a simple swipe of a damp rag, for example. If soil gets into the weave, you should be able to scrub it gently with a brush and upholstery cleanser and not be left with a shadow or faded area.
Pillage
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Although some upholstery fabrics are tightly woven with strong, durable fibers, they tend to show signs of pillage after some wear. Pilling is the formation of small bumpy knots on the surface of the fabric. Some low quality acrylics have a tendency to pill, for example, though many are treated to be resistant to pillage. A durable upholstery fabric needs to be resistant to pilling.
Fading
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Some fabrics are more sensitive to light, both natural sunlight and the artificial lighting in a room. The most durable upholstery fabrics are resistant to fading so that the colors are still bright and vivid 20 years after you bought the fabric. Many upholstery fabrics are treated with a fade-resistant solution to make them more durable.
Shape
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A durable upholstery fabric will be able to maintain its shape even after many years of use. This means that they can hold a lot of weight, even in the same place, over and over without becoming loose-fitting. Such strength is produced by high thread counts and protective treatments.
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References
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