Com - curtain materials for upholstery?

[baileyuph]

Today a very nice customer brought me 4 yards of curtain material requesting a bay window cushion - a big one, well over 106 inches with angles.

I told her it would be done but would need 3 more yards, curtain material is not wide enough to get two plates- hence the need for additional yardage.  She went back and got the material and picked up the job with a positive comment.  She didn't understand why it took so much yardage ,however; I explained again that the requirement would have been fewer yards with upholstery material instead of curtain material.  I don't think she understood, because the sales lady said it would work.

Go figure,

Consumers seem to hear what they want to hear.

Doyle

[gene]

Consumers seem to hear what they want to hear.

And most sales people are willing to tell consumers what they want to hear.

I've had customers who were told a yardage amount by the sales person for cushion covers and clearly the sales person forgot to include the bottom panels of the cushions, the boxing, and fabric for welt cord. They just measured the top panel.

All my yardage estimates state that they are based on a small, or no repeat, and a bolt width of 54".

A large repeat or a narrower bolt width and I need to re estimate the yardage.

I've had upholstery fabric that was 29" wide.

One problem with curtain fabrics is that often times the warp thread, that runs horizontal, is a much weaker thread than the weft thread. The fabric is meant to hang down. This can cause undue stretching sometimes when pulled to upholster or make a large cushion cover.

gene

[brmax]

Great information you all, I really didn't know the warp normally went with the roll out and weft went perpendicular that's what great around here thanks.
Maybe window heights are changing.
Its interesting having to educate the customer with other materials or items of there choosing, and your decision how or if to accept the task with there selection.
curious?
good day

[kodydog]

Wouldn't it be great if the "sales lady" told the customer, I'll make the cushion. Then half way through would realize old Doyle was right. Never doubt the upholsterer. :)

[Joys Shop]

warp thread runs vertical
weft is horizontal

[baileyuph]

Any of you patterned a very large bay window box/zippered cushion in literally cushion material?  It was a challenge to get the material to a proper smooth out.  Easy to measure something to a yard stick dimension but if the medium being used is like a jelly, there are big problems when sewing, getting corners and sewn dimensions to the measured size.

Price drives almost everything, if the material is cheaper, it seems the consumers says something like it is the only one I liked.  BS!  Price over rides the rest of the parameters.

You should have seen my cutting table, had weights holding the fabric stable everywhere.  Heck, just drawing a done across the material would perturb it .........

Well, you don't have to be good all the time, sometimes just have a little luck!  


Next, another customer brought me a job to made a neck roll decorator cushion (my definition or one of them).  It is merely a tubular cushion about 6 inches on the end circular diameter.  Required a zipper.

Even that isn't a walk in the park, especially with these thin fabrics like we experiencee.  

On that one, I used plane geometry to compute the circumference and added seam allowances and compass to shape the circles.  The "pie" constant was carried to 4 decimal places on the calculator.  The analytics worked even with the challenge (practical part) of sewing a zipper in such a small enclosure.  Anyone who has made that trip knows what is meant.

Always something...............I prefer to work on trailer truck tarps - today anyway,  LOL.

Doyle

[gene]

You are correct Joy. I wrote it wrong.

The warp threads are held stationary while the weft threads are moved over/under the warp threads. Thusly, the weft threads run from salvage edge to salvage edge.

Thanks for the correction.

gene

[Joys Shop]

Only way I remember is


threads run from "weft" to right

[baileyuph]

Thanks Joy,

That might help me to remember.  Sometimes I have to make second thought about which is if it has been a while.

Doyle