Home Style Decorating

This is America’s Premier Fabric Store for over 60 years and it has an incredible collection of designer fabrics and current fashion fabric. Vogue Fabrics has a huge inventory of fabrics in wholesale price. surely this store has huge collections of fabrics in it’s tore because it stock tens of thousand of fashionable fabrics such as silk, wool, coatings, rayon, polyester, linen, drapery, cotton, notions, trims, upholstery fabric and novelty items.

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Irish Linen is famous because of its elegant quality. Irish linen is perfect for all occasions like family occasions and celebrations. Irish linen are also great for gifts especially for your family. It is very obvious that Irish linens are produced in Ireland. The flax fibre that is used to make linen are grown in Ireland for many years before. But advance agriculture methods and more suitable climate led the concentration of flax cultivation in Northern Europe. This means that quality flax fibre now is grown not only in Ireland but also in Northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

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Taking good care of our linens ensures that we can enjoy using them for a long time. The first rule of thumb before doing anything to any kind of fabric/garment is to read first the label wherein care instructions are provided by the manufacturer. These instructions take into account tightness of weave, expected fabric shrinkage of thread, lining and trim, dyes used, and wrinkle resist treatments. The second is testing the cleaning method on a small inconspicuous area first, or on a scrap piece of similar fabric, before doing the whole garment. If your results are good, move cautiously to a bigger test or the whole garment.
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Silk organza is a crisp, sheer, fabric woven from raw silk from tightly twisted, fine silk yarns. The gum on the raw silk holds the weave in place creating a stiff fabric and adds volume and body for veils and wedding gowns. It is also good for interfacing or for lining other sheer fabrics.

Silk organza is very lightweight and sheer, but a bit stiff, and can be gathered for bouffant uses, used alone or over other fabrics for fitted to loosely fitted blouses, dresses and evening wear. Also useful for facings, interfacings or lining. Silk organza can be used as an underlining to add crispness to parts of a garment. Sews easily, doesn’t show pin holes and holds creases well.

Organza is washable, but wash it before cutting out.

Many times when you hang draperies, you will find that they do not traverse easily. Panels on rings are many times a problem as are those times when you must use the customer’s existing rods. There are three ideas you could try:

• Spray the rod with silicone spray (made for fabrics as you do not want it to stain the fabric).
• Rub paraffin or soap over the rod where the carriers or rings will glide.
• One more tip for traversing draperies is to totally bend the drapery pin on the overlap carrier all the way back to meet the panel. This will keep the pin from catching on the underneath panel as it closes over it.

Velvet is a type of tufted fabric in which the cut threads are very evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it its distinct feel. Velvet can be made from many different kinds of fibres. It is woven on a special loom that weaves two pieces of velvet at the same time. The two pieces are then cut apart and the two lengths of fabric are wound on separate take-up rolls.

Velvet’s knitted counterpart is velour. Velvet was very expensive and was considered to be among the luxury goods together with silk. Corduroy and velveteen were considered the poor man’s velvet. Panne is a type of finish for velvet which gives it a special shiny look, similar to many velours. Velvet is made, ideally, from silk. Cotton can also be used but this often results in a slightly less luxurious fabric. More recently, synthetic velvets have been developed like polyester, viscose, acetate and mixtures of different synthetics or synthetics and natural fibres like viscose and silk. Lycra is sometimes added to give stretch.

The luxurious and softened depth of dye colour it exhibited made it appropriate for robes and sumptous hangings and drapes. Italian velvets were famous during the medieval times which were then decorated by varying the colors of the pile, producing double pile, brocading with silk and using gold tissue. This techniques are still being used today.

Mercerized cotton is sometimes referred to as pearl or pearle cotton. It is cotton yarn or fabric which has been put through a series of processes, to increase its luster, strengthen, have desirable water handling properties, resist mildew, affinity to dye and reduces lint. Cotton with long staple fiber lengths responds best to mercerization. Mercerized cotton absorbs more water and dye than unmercerized cotton, and that the twist in the yarn will affect the water handling properties. The brilliant, lustrous hues of Mercerized cotton can be found in fabric stores, yarn shops, and department stores all over the world.

Mercerization starts with gathering the cotton and spinning it normally. Because cottons with long fibers take better to mercerization, Pima, Egyptian, and Sea Island cotton are usually chosen for the process. The cotton thread is held under tension and submerged in a highly alkaline bath of sodium hydroxide in a percentage which ranges, but usually hovers around 22%. After treatment, the mercerized cotton is placed into an acidic bath to neutralize it. Once this process is complete, the cotton can be dyed and knitted, woven or packed as stand-alone spools of thread.

Watered silk is a textile which has a moire pattern, a rippling pattern created by lines which are superimposed on each other. The name is a reference to the appearance of the pattern which is when well- made, watered silk resembles a body of water with small waves trembling in a breeze.

To make watered silk, woven silk cloth is passed through giant rollers. The calendering process crushes the fibers of the silk. Silk which has been passed through rollers will have a rippling pattern which resembles a large series of water stains. The pattern is set by starching and the resulting fabric can feel ridged or rough. The pattern of watered silk can be damaged if it is crushed or mishandled, so watered silk garments should be handled and cleaned carefully. Some silk painters work with watered silk, sometimes painting or dyeing the silk before calendering to create a disrupted pattern that looks like it is shifting underwater.

Watered silk is often used to make women’s gowns, but it can also be used in drapes, fabric wallpapers and other ornamental textile features. In a flowing gown or jacket, watered silk can look quite stunning. Watered silk is used to make flowing draped garments or tight bodices which showcase the figure of the wearer. It may also be embroidered or beaded for extra effect and each garment will look slightly different due to the unique calendering process.

Batik is both an art and a craft that is becoming more popular and well known in the west as a wonderfully creative medium. The art of decorating cloth in this way, using wax and dye, has been practiced for centuries. In Java, Indonesia, batik is part of an ancient tradition producing some of the finest batik cloth in the world. The word batik originates from Javanese word “amba”, meaning to write and the Javanese word for dot or point which is “titik”.

To make a batik, selected areas of the cloth are blocked out by brushing or drawing hot wax over them and the cloth is then dyed. The parts covered in wax resist the dye and remain the original colour. This process of waxing and dyeing can be repeated to create a more elaborate and colourful designs. After the final dyeing the wax is removed and the cloth is ready for wearing or showing.

Contemporary batik is different from the more traditional and formal styles. The artist may use etching, discharge dyeing, stencils, different tools for waxing and dyeing, wax recipes with different resist values and work with silk, cotton, wool, leather, paper or even wood and ceramics. Batik is historically the most expressive and subtle of the resist methods. The ever widening range of techniques available offers the artist the opportunity to explore a unique process in a flexible and exciting way.

Woven fabrics are classified as to weave or structure according to the manner in which warp and weft cross each other. The three fundamental weaves, of which others are variations, are the plain, twill and satin.

In plain weave, also known as calico, tabby, taffeta or homespun weaves, the weft passes over alternate warp threads, requiring two harnesses only. The relatively simple construction suits it to cheap fabrics, heavy yarns and printed designs. Variations are produced by the use of groups of yarns, as in basket weave and monk’s cloth or by alternating fine and coarse yarns to make ribbed and corded fabrics like the warp-ribbed Bedford cord, piqué and dimity and the weft-ribbed poplin, rep and grosgrain.

The second primary weave, twill, shows a diagonal design made by causing weft threads to interlace two to four warp threads, moving a step to right or left on each pick and capable of variations like herringbone and corkscrew designs. Noted for their firm, close weave, twill fabrics include gabardine, serge, drill and denim. Satin weave has floating or overshot warp threads on the surface which reflect light, giving a characteristic luster. When the uncrossed threads are in the weft, the weave is called sateen.

Pile fabrics have an additional set of yarns drawn over wires to form loops, and may be cut or uncut. Warp-pile fabrics include terry and plush; weft-pile, velveteen and corduroy. In double-cloth weave two cloths are woven at once, each with its warp and filling threads, and combined by interlacing some yarns or by adding a fifth set. The cloth may be made for extra warmth or strength, to permit use of a cheaper back, or to produce a different pattern or weave on each surface like steamer rugs, heavy overcoating and machine belting. Velvet is commonly woven as a double cloth.

In swivel weaving, extra shuttles with a circular motion insert filling yarns to form simple decorations like the dots on swiss muslin. Figure weaves are made by causing warp and weft to intersect in varied groups. Simple geometric designs may be woven on machine looms by using a cam or a dobby attachment to operate the harnesses. For curves and large figures each heddle must be separately governed. The Jacquard loom attachment permits machine weaving of the most complicated designs.