fabric by the metre
Off the bolt
The bolt is where every job starts, and fabric is what the company sells first.
Furnishing fabric is sold off the roll by the metre, with its fibre composition and its care. The face cloth, the lining and the interlining are chosen together, in the light of the window they are for — from sample cuttings brought to the visit, or left with you to decide at home.
This page goes through the cloths, the layers behind them and the small things that hold a curtain together, then the rules that decide what a label must tell you and which fabrics may go on a cushion.
Six face cloths, and what each does at a window
Press a cloth to read how it hangs and what it is good for.
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A crisp, dry handle that softens with use. Linen hangs in long, slightly irregular folds and lets the light glow through unless it is lined; interlined, it makes a deep, quiet curtain for a tall tenement window.
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Prints and weaves well, takes a firm pleat and suits nearly every heading. A good middle weight for a bedroom curtain or a kitchen Roman blind.
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Heavy and warm in the hand, wool drapes in deep, soft folds. Its care label decides how it is cleaned, so it is chosen with the room in mind.
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A cut pile, of cotton or polyester, that catches the light differently with the direction of its nap. Every width is cut with the pile running the same way, or neighbouring widths look like two colours.
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Fine, open weaves that filter daylight and keep a room private by day. Hung alone or behind heavier curtains, with chain weight run along the hem so they fall straight.
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Heavier, tighter cloth for cushions, seat pads and loose covers. Its wear figure is the maker’s own, from the Martindale abrasion test, and it is quoted exactly as the maker gives it.
Linings and interlinings
Cotton sateen is the ordinary lining: smooth, with a soft sheen, and it keeps the sun off the face cloth. A thermal lining carries a coated back that holds warmth in the room. A blackout lining stops the light outright — the answer to a north Glasgow bedroom on a June night, when it is barely dark at all. A dim-out lining sits between the two.
Bump is a thick, soft cotton interlining; domette is lighter. Either one gives a curtain body and a deeper fold and helps keep warmth in, and either is locked to the face cloth with long, loose stitches so that it cannot drop inside the curtain.
Lining and interlining are worked out separately from the face cloth: they have their own widths and no pattern to match, so they rarely come to the same metres.
The small things that hold a curtain together
- Header tape
- sewn across the top of the curtain; its cords gather a pencil pleat or set pleats in groups
- Buckram
- starched jute or cotton that stiffens a hand-made heading, a pelmet or a tie-back
- Hooks and gliders
- the hook carries the curtain, the glider runs in the track
- Penny weights
- sewn into the hem at each corner and seam so the curtain hangs straight
- Chain weight
- a fine, continuous weight run along the hem of a sheer
- Roman blind rods, cord and cord locks
- the rods hold the folds, the cord lifts them, the lock holds the cord
- Cleats, tensioners and breakaway connectors
- the safety parts every corded or chained blind is fitted with
- Tracks, poles, finials and overlap arms
- the hardware a curtain hangs from and draws along
What the label has to tell you
Fabric sold by length has to say what it is made of. Under the Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012 the fibre composition reaches everyone who buys the cloth, and for cloth sold off the roll it may be shown on the roll. We give it alongside the care route for that mix of fibres, because how a curtain is cleaned depends on what it is made of.
For upholstery-weight cloth the wear figure comes from the maker’s Martindale test (BS EN ISO 12947). The light, general and heavy domestic bands that go with those figures differ from one source to the next, so the maker’s own number is the one you are given.
Cushions, loose covers and small premises
The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, as amended, draw a line through the things made from furnishing fabric. Which side of it a piece falls on decides what it may be made of.
Outside the 1988 Regulations
Curtains, carpets and bedclothes.
Inside them
Upholstered furniture, scatter cushions, seat pads, and loose or stretch covers — which is why cushion covers and loose covers are made only in fabric, with an interliner where one is needed, that meets those rules.
For curtains and blinds in non-domestic premises the British Standard is BS 5867-2:2008, with its Types A, B and C. What a café, a salon or an office needs is set by its own fire risk assessment, and fabric for those rooms is supplied only where the manufacturer certifies that performance for that cloth — the certificate comes from the maker, with the fabric.
Sample cuttings
Cuttings of the cloths you are considering come to the measuring visit, so the choice is made in the real light of that window, against its walls and at its time of day. If a decision needs longer, they can stay with you.
To narrow the choice before anyone comes, up to six cuttings can be posted to you first: the library lists every cloth with its weave, fibre, weight and care, and how it behaves at a sash window.
Cuttings by post Ask for a measuring visit Work out the metres