Field Trip to Fabric Store

All About Looks Fabric Store

Often times, it is difficult for a designer to select appropriate fabrics that are fashionable.  This is when companies, such as All About Looks, come into play.  Today I had the opportunity to visit All About Looks during a class fieldtrip.  The store is a full service interior fabric retail business located in Lubbock, Texas.  Although the shop is not large, it houses a wide variety of types and colors of fabrics.  After a visit to the shop, I was impressed with the selection and the extent to which the owner and her two daughters go to in order to create customized looks and to achieve every customers’ full satisfaction.

When I first walked into the store I noticed that the interior was cozy, a characteristic that would be comforting to any client that the store may have or that an interior designer or decorator could possibly bring.  We received a presentation over many of the types of fabrics that the store carries, including some that cost up to 700 dollars per yard.  It became obvious very fast that we were in a true custom and quality fabric store.  Some of the fabrics included bamboo, juke, leather, and polyester.  But this was not all they had available to customers.  The walls were lined with hundreds of fabric samples and examples of some custom works that had previously been done, such as headboards, chairs, and window treatments.

When thinking about a fabric store, I do not necessarily think of beautiful and trendy patterns. In our presentation we were told that this store constantly keeps up with what is in style and what is considered to be old news by attending conferences and going to market often.  This became very obvious when we were shown an example of a remote control window covering that the store was using.  This is a new technology that will supposedly be a staple item in interior design in the future.  The fact that they carry theses new shades was just one of the reasons that convinced me that I was standing in a fabric store that was current to the latest trends.  I was amazed when looking through the store’s samples to see how many creative, beautiful, and unique patters and textures I found.  From these samples, to the current home magazines sitting at the front of the store it became obvious that the store is a place that can be trusted to carry materials that are up to date.

Another neat feature about All About Looks was that they also carried untraditional materials to be used in interiors.  A main item that the store had recently started carrying was wallpaper.  Although the wallpaper trend has been out for a while, it has been slowly coming back over the past few years, and All About Looks is already carrying it.  Another interesting item they have available is cork.  They had examples of it being used as pillow upholstery, wall covering, and floor covering. These are new ideas that I had never even heard of.  I was very impressed with these and other unique things that the store had to offer.

            The thing that impressed me the most in the store was that fact that they could reupholster almost anything.  We had a discussion on the fact that older furniture is often times a lot sturdier than newer furniture is due to the way it has been built.  Because of their firm belief in this fact, the store encourages and firmly believes that reupholstering older furniture is always a good option when renovating an interior.  We were able to go in the back of the store where their professional upholsterer was working.  Able to see some of his work, I was impressed with the quality.  I learned that there are many techniques that can be put into place to revive an older piece of furniture, and that this store will get creative to make things work for a customer. 

From the presentation that my class received on the different fabrics and materials that were available, it was quite obvious that the store had a lot of experience and expertise in the field.  I learned a lot about fabrics and the many different materials that are available for interiors.  I know that I could bring a client of mine into All About Looks and be confident that they would receive the best service available.  The diverse collection of fabrics and the obvious quality in customer service made the store a complete package and made my trip a great learning experience.

Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute

Trip to Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute

In my trip to the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute, I learned a lot about the testing processes that fabrics go through before they are able to be made into things such as clothing, blankets, draperies, and upholstery.  There were three main processes that provided information that someone would need to know before buying fabric to use on any of item.

            The first testing machine was called the “Martindale Abrasion Tester,” which finds the abrasion resistance of fabrics, or how much wear and tear a piece of fabric can handle.  Plain weave, crossbred, or worsted wool fabric is used to abrade the test fabric.  The fabrics are rubbed together until one of three options happens.  One option is to stop when a hole to appears on a knitted fabric or when one or two strings break on a woven fabric.  The second option is to stop when a noticeable change in appearance is reached that would dissatisfy a customer who might buy a fabric.  The third option is to determine the overall loss in mass of a fabric by using a percentage.  All three of these options provide necessary information for a manufacturer or customer, especially when the fabric will be used for something that will receive a lot of wear and tear.

            The second machine that I viewed was the “Dimensional Changes of Fabrics Accelerated.”  This machine simulated what a home or commercial washing machine would do to a fabric if it were to be washed.   This machine takes a sample of a fabric and marks it in five different places.  The fabric samples are then washed and allowed to dry.  The markers are then measured again to see how much a fabric has shrunk.  Each time the markers are measured, both before and after washing, the humidity and temperature of the air in the room stays the same so that neither of these factors can altar the results of the test.  Often times a favorite shirt or pair of pants shrink during washing and cannot be worn again by a customer.  This process provides us with information that can give manufacturers the knowledge to prevent this sad occurrence from happening.

            A third testing machine, the “Tearing Strength and Elmendorf Method,” measures how much tearing force a piece of fabric can handle before it breaks.  The fabric to be tested is cut into 5 testing 2 ½ inch X 4 inch strips and placed into two clamps that will pull the strip into two different directions when a pendulum with a weight attached is dropped.  After the pendulum drops the fabric is observed for any ripping or tearing.  If the weight used on the pendulum didn’t break the fabric, then a heavier weight will be used until the highest weight possible is used.  This helps a manufacturer to know how much pressure can be put on a fabric once it is manufactured, so that it will not rip once it is in the hands of a customer.

            The fourth machine that I looked at was the “Breaking Force and Elongation of Textile Fabrics.”  This machine measures how far a fabric will stretch before it tears.  This machine also puts two ends of a strip of fabric into two clamps that will stretch the fabric.  Instead of a pendulum dropping, this time the two ends of fabric are pulled apart at a steady rate.  This again, will help a manufacturer know what fabrics can be used for high-pressure areas in finished products.  The amount of stretch is also important for comfort of a fabric in both clothing and upholstery. 

            The trip to the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute was very informative and allowed me to see many of the processes that are used to test fabrics before they are sold to customers.  It also helped me to understand and think about what kind of qualities are looked for in fabrics for different purposes, which help an interior designer like me understand the best fabrics to use for different projects.

Fibers

Cotton

            Written on the tag inside of the clothes in almost every closet in the world is the word “cotton.”  As we all know, cotton is used in man of the products that we use today.  This plant has been grown from the ground for hundreds of years.  It continues to be a main staple in both clothing and upholstery fabrics today. 

            There are many reasons that people love cotton.  First, it is very resistant to abrasion and tearing, and therefore is good for everyday use.  Cotton also holds color well through light exposure, which makes it a good fiber to be used in things such as window treatments due to its resiliency.  Another well liked quality of cotton is that is blends easily with other fibers.  Today many fabrics are made with synthetic fibers, which are again used in both clothing and upholstery.  Cotton can be blended with many of these synthetic fibers, such as polyester and spandex.  This makes it possible to have fabrics that contain multiple substances, and therefore can have the positive qualities of many different types of fibers.  Cotton is also absorbent, and is therefore used for things other than just clothes and on furniture; it is also used items such as towels, rags, cotton balls, and q-tips.  Even though some may not realize it, cotton is a part of most people’s daily lives due to these qualities as well as many others.

            Before fibers of cotton can be used for any type of fabric, there are multiple processes through which it must go.  It is grown in staple form, or short lengths, and therefore cannot be immediately woven into fabric straight after being pulled from the ground.  The original short fibers are spun and twisted together until a ply of yarn is created.  These plies can be spun together to make bigger pieces of yarn.  After this, the yarn can then be woven into fabric.  Although the cotton starts as just small brittle pieces, it amazingly can be turned into a very strong textile.

            Another important part of the procedure through which cotton goes while being processed into fabric is some sort of dyeing process.   One process is called stock dyeing, during which the single stock fibers of cotton are dyed before being made into yarn.  A separate process is yarn dyeing, during which the fibers are dyed after they have been spun into yarn and are then woven into fabric.  Stock dyed and yarn dyed cotton are the dying processes through which a solid sheet of colored fabric will be made from.  Another method of dyeing is called piece dyeing.  This method is applied after the yarn has already been woven into fabric, and is often used to produce prints and patterns on top of a solid sheet.  The versatility that is seen in cotton products is often due to the different dyeing processes, because each one causes the fibers to take color in a different way.

            The uses of cotton are as varied as the ways that there are to produce it.  Many different processes can be used to make the original staple fiber into varying textures, thicknesses, and colors so that it can have a wide variety of uses, especially when being made into fabric.  When looking at things from bed sheets to curtains it becomes obvious that the ways in which cotton can be produced varies greatly.