Furnishing fabric guide
Welcome to our new line of furnishing fabrics.
We've taken a bit of time to create a perfect selection of prints that can add some fun and colour to your home.
Designing
Creative Director Alice creates all the designs herself often sat at the kitchen table with paint brush in hand, inspired by combinations of a colour palettes seen in everyday life and travels. She uses water colours and then translates them digitally playing around with composition and design. These then get sent off to the team in India to be printed.
Weaving
The cotton yarn comes from Bihar, with the weaving done in Bengal. The linen yarn is from Bhagalpur and the weaving is done in Assam. Both the cotton and unbleached linen are hand woven on traditional wooden looms, which reduces the carbon footprint and therefore are extremely sustainable to produce. The looms require no power to operate. Hand woven fabric also uses considerably less water in its production compared to mill manufactured fabrics. To produce one metre of fabric by hand requires 5 litres of water in comparison to mill manufactured fabric which will use 55 litres of water per metre of fabric produced.
The final fabric is the width of the looms and so comes up slightly narrower compared to other traditional upholstery fabrics. Each weaver has their own loom at home and every roll will have the name of the maker. It takes them one day to weave 3 meters. They will all have slight differences in their weave making each roll unique. The thread is hand spun and will vary in its thickness throughout, and in the weaving process the threads will be joined by little knots – unseen in uniformed machine made material. By choosing hand woven fabric we are keeping traditional weaving methods alive whilst also having a positive impact on the environment.
Printing
The fabric is screen printed by hand using a manual technique. Being made in India everything can be easily dried outside in the sun avoiding the use of any drying rooms keeping the fabric sustainable. Some of the designs are printed digitally keeping true to the detail of the mark making and brush strokes, producing a more textured print.
When you receive your fabric think about the journey it’s been through and hands that have spun each thread, resulting in a vibrant fabric that will breathe new life in to your home.
Sustainability
Linen is a much more sustainable fabric to produce over cotton as it requires a lot less water to produce. Linen is made from the Flax plant where the whole plant is used, meaning there is very little waste. Our cotton is fantastic for and curtains and blinds, and the linen has a lovely heavy movement, it drapes beautifully and works well for upholstery. They have all passed significant rubbing and lightfastness testing.
How to order
Our advice is to ask your upholster for professional advice on how much fabric you will need for your project, we really don't want to be responsible for getting any measurements wrong!
If you have any queries please do get in touch humphriesandbegghome@gmail.com
And, if you are local to Stroud we do have a great upholsterer we can put you in touch with.
Our rolls are narrower than the common size as they have been hand woven rather than power loom. The diagram below shows our Honeycomb print on the roll
Each order will come with a passport with the name of each weaver. Please retain this as every weaver is slightly different and if you need to order more fabric to maintain consistency we would recommend getting it from the same weaver.
Using for upholstery
Our linen and cotton fabrics have been through professional lightfastness and rub tests and have passed for use in a general domestic environment. Fabrics with red in the print are advised to not be used in strong sunlight as this colour could fade slightly.
We would definitely recommend lining and interlining curtains, and you can add a leading edge which will also prevent additional fading or discolouration.
We are working a heavier cotton that is suitable for a more hard wearing household. Please get in touch if you'd like a sample.
How to care for your fabric
All our cushion covers and small rugs can be put in the machine on a cold wash using minimal detergent and a light spin, allowing them to dry naturally.
For larger items we recommend professional cleaning or dry cleaning.
Any spot cleaning or specific stains on your fabric or rugs please gently use a natural cleaning or foam product that you then vacuum off.
Fading, shrinkage, wear and tear
There will be a degree of natural fading over time and we would advise to not put any red prints in strong sunlight or please ensure that they are lined in some way.
We would advise using the linen for any well used sofa for instance, and the cotton will be great for an occasionally used chair.
If you intend to wash the fabric a lot, then make sure you pre-wash it before making up.
As they are natural fabrics please expect some degree of shrinkage.
We do not advise tumble drying any of the fabric.
We've tried and tested this in our own home, we upholstered a chair in the Colour Dreamer linen and even with a small person rolling round in it regularly, it's still looking fresh.
The furnishing fabrics are a new venture for us and although we have been advised by professionals we welcome feedback.
If you have any further questions then please email us;
humphriesandbegghome@gmail.com
