Using a quality vinyl upholstery fabric is very important when you would like to repair or even make quality upholstery, that’s why it’s very important for you to know what the most important criteria are in order to select only the best quality fabric for your creations or repair purposes.
And this is what I’m going to talk about in this post, what makes a perfectly nice upholstery fabric.
The first and most important thing I need to talk to you about is cotton backing!
I’ve seen this happen over and over: customers come to me and want to buy the cheapest vinyl upholstery fabric, they tell me that price is very important to them and they want any fabric that’s cheap, so, they end up buying an upholstery fabric that’s not cotton backed!
What is cotton backing?
If you have examined an upholstery fabric before, you may have probably noticed that it has some kind of fabric or fibers that’s either woven into the fabric itself or it’s backing it.
Well, this cotton backing is extremely important because it’s the one that’s going to make your vinyl upholstery fabric withstand pressure, tearing, and humidity and other elements.
When you buy an upholstery fabric that’s not cotton backed, it will start to crack and even peel very soon, and no matter what you do, you will always end up with a damaged piece of upholstery!
The second thing you need to have in mind whenever you are shopping for a vinyl upholstery fabric is the price.
First, I don’t recommend buying small pieces, they are much more expensive, I only recommend buying fabrics by the yard, it’s much more affordable and convenient as well, and the next thing you need to understand is that price is very important.
And no, because you are dealing with a synthetic fabric, don’t think that you can get it for dirt cheap!
From my experience, if you go below the four dollars a yard mark, you are just making a terrible mistake and your upholstery pieces or creations are going to start cracking and become damaged very quickly.
Even worse, your fabric is going to be very difficult to work with and manage, which is going to cause you so many hassles and troubles.
The next thing I would like to talk about is the smell.
Be ready for a surprise when you buy a vinyl upholstery fabric, it’s very smelly, especially when it’s newly produced.
Unfortunately, you can do nothing about this, the only thing you can do is to manage this situation, I highly recommend that you put your upholstery fabric in an open area where you have airflow, but please, be careful and keep it away from sunlight, UV rays are extremely damaging for vinyl fabrics.
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