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Apart from furniture, the homemaker makes extensive use of a large variety of fabrics to decorate her home. These furnishings are used in upholstery, slip covers for furniture, drapes or curtains of various kinds, carpets and other floor coverings, personal and bed linen and table linen.
Although there are variety of fabrics available in the market which are produce by different ways but the main purpose is to create a functional and esthetically sound cloths. Beauty of a fabric is depends upon various element of art such as expressiveness colour, texture, finish and pattern .
Fabrics used for Furnishings:
It is important that the homemaker develops the ability to select pleasing colours, textures and designs in harmony with each other. She needs to have a knowledge of the quality and the durability of fabrics. The durability of fabrics depends upon the kind of fibre from which it is made, its weave, and the finish applied to it.
Fibres are classified as natural and synthetic fibers. Natural fibres include animal fibres such as silk, wool, alpaca, camel hair and mohair. Vegetable fibres include cotton, linen, hemp, jute and so on. Synthetic fibres are chemicallymade. Commonly available synthetic fibres include rayon, viscose and acetate fabrics, nylon, orlon, Dacron, acrylic fabrics and polyester materials. These are not very widely used in India for furnishing, except in combinations with cotton or silk. Many furnishing fabrics now available consist of mixtures of cotton-silk; cotton-rayon; cotton-polyester and so on.
The weave is an important factor in determining the strength of a fibric. However, even before they are woven into cloth, yarns are twisted and made into fine thread. Loosely twisted yarns are generally not able to stand much strain. They absorb moisture easily and are good for toweling but tend to stretch or shrink out of shape. This makes them difficult to use as upholstery or for curtains. Also, the rough surface tends to catch on pointed objects and get damaged.
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