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Among the many acronyms and symbols used in the fabric industry an important one to know about is UFAC, which stands for Upholstered Furniture Action Council. This organization was founded in 1978 as a coalition of fabric manufacturers and retailers to ensure that upholstered furniture was more resistant to ignition from smoldering cigarettes. UFAC does not manufacture any upholstered goods. There are two UFAC ratings: 1 and 2. UFAC class 1 means that a fabric meets the flammability criteria of the UFAC when in contact with polyurethane foam. UFAC class 2 fabrics are those that do not meet the flammability criteria and must be used in conjunction with a flame retardant material between the fabric and the foam. Here are some of the UFAC class 1 fabrics carried at J&O:  Celine Upholstery: Ebony
Labels: flammability, UFAC, upholstery-fabric
 Across the centuries velvet has retained its allure as a rich and opulent fabric available only to the privileged. In earlier times only royalty and nobility could afford to garment themselves in the pristigeous material. An expensive process requiring more yarns and more steps to create, velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are very easily distributed with a short dense pile giving it a distinctive look and feel.
Elegant, with a supple hand and soft pile characteristic of the finest velvet, the fabric has always brought an air of sophistication and style to any garment or interior decor since the Elizabethian error when priveledged women wore tight waisted gowns with status defining ruffles, Dukes and Earls wore velvet breeches, and the nobel garnished their dining hall chairs, sitting room lounges, library windows and sleeping quarters in decadent crushed velvet dyed with burgundy, onyx and evergreen.  It has only been in this century that velvet has become affordable to the masses. The industrial revolution brought with it the chance for the common person to experience luxury that was for centuries reserved for royalty and the rich. From custom upholstered crushed velvet car interiors and velvet pimp suits, to sexy love seats and posh office interiors, the artistic weave of crushed velvet has found its way into our homes and onto our bodies for another spin on the fashionable fabric wheel once again.
Labels: crushed-velvet-fabric, elizabethian-fashion, upholstery-fabric, velvet-fabric
Be bold and add some color to your home decor to welcome in spring and summer. One way to get rid of the winter doldrums is to replace drab decorative elements with vibrant color. While element such as wall decorations, window treatments, and other accessories are important in this blog we will focus on how upholstery fabrics can brighten a room's decor. Choosing the right fabric requires taken into account not only the color of the fabric but the texture as well. For instance chenille fabrics are soft and tend to have a warm, inviting texture, while bark cloths are stiffer and more vibrant in appearance. Depending on what your aim is you can find a fabric with both the right color and texture. How can you get these fabrics to work for you? The most dramatic effect is produced by re-upholstering your existing furniture. Although it is a more expensive avenue to try it will have the greatest impact on your room. Smaller details can also be tweaked by using a fabric to make slipcovers or decorative pillows. Here are some of the colorful fabrics you can use to renew your rooms:
Labels: decorative-fabric, decorative-fabrics, retro-fabric, retro-fabrics, upholstery-fabric, upholstery-fabrics
 In these economically uncertain times, our survival skills kick in and our natural response is to cut back, cut out and hold our breath while the nightly news reports on yet another mass lay off of jobs. We join the ever growing population of stressed out worker bees and me-myself-and-I clones in the competitive rat race called 'life', who find truth in the encouraged notion that it is survival of the fittest, with no rest for the weary. It is a delusional and vicious spiral of continuous fear based responses that chip away at the 'reality' of what it means to be alive. And while this method works for some, it is not the remedy of choice for everyone. There is another group of people who are ready, willing and able to look at the economic challenge and see an opportunity to create and REcreate their life, and help others along the way as well. They are able to turn their stumbling blocks of lost jobs and income into stepping stones, and their obstacles of financial exhaustion, into opportunities. It is amazing how creative we can be when our backs are against the wall. What better time than now, to nurture all those gifts we carry but have discarded as silly little hobbies from our younger years. What better way to REcreate our circumstances, than to pull out those carpentry books we tucked neatly away for a rainy day read, take a free class in photography at the community college, or unfold those wisely preserved and still stylish designer fabrics and never used Singer machine that you promised yourself one day you would create magnificent fashions with. What better time than now to put down our worries and fears of what tomorrow may bring, and challenge ourselves to creating the future we want for ourselves. It really is a matter of perspective, and at J&O Fabrics, we strive to make it our business to tempt you with enough eye catching fleece, upholstery, decorative, novelty and organic fabrics to bring out the successful survivor in all of us. Because even if your passion isn't crafting, your creative juices will start to flow in one direction or another. The time is now. Labels: childrens-novelty-fabric, conservative, consumer-savvy-carol, fleece-fabric, frugal, novelty fabric, resourcefulness, upholstery-fabric
 We’ve gotten some great feedback from our Extreme Makeover: Marrero Family Finally and thought we’d take a moment to do some highlights on the rooms you loved the best. The first room we will be focusing on is the walk through living and dining area. As you were able to see in our last write up, yards of our Camel Cotton fabric dressed the front and side windows of this fabulous area of the house. From the time you walk in thru the front door, you are met with an open and airy look and feel. The house itself suddenly seems longer because there are no dividers or walls separating the living, dining or kitchen areas. No obstacles block your walkway, and the same soft flowing material garnishing the windows along the way, create a reserved yet inviting stream of sunlight into an already brightly lit area.  Our White Suede fabric wrapped around the cushioned base and backs of the dining room chairs offer an additional luxury to the dining experience. Don’t let the light color and fabulous look fool you. The fact that it is created with a polyester also makes it very resilient, quick drying, and easy to wash. The feeling is harmonious and unifying. And with such a big family, the décor of these rooms together is just the right combination for making a house feel like a home. This is a great area not only for living, but entertaining as well. Holidays, football season and big family breakfasts will never be the same when gathering in this welcoming space. Even the Marrero family’s Fen Sui artist friends will find its free flowing layout quietly appealing. Labels: canvas-fabric, cotton-twill, Designer fabric, donation, donations, duck-cloth, Extreme Makeover Home addition, Extreme-Makeover-Home-Edition, Fabric, fabrics, suede-cloth-fabric, upholstery-fabric
"Ya Gotta Co-ooordinate"
Not to rip off John Witherspoon's famous saying from the movie Boomerang but, it's true. In order to take something from mediocre to excellent, ya gotta know how to coordinate. Mixing and matching your own fabrics is a fabulous way to express your creativity and personal style. If you struggle with coordinating the right fabrics, we've included a few tips to help you along the way.
Coordinating fabrics in any of your sewing projects is just as important as the actual construction. From our previous blog on Coordinating Fabrics, you'll be happy to know that J&O Fabrics is now working on adding matching coordinates to just about every fabric we carry.
Anyhow, most home decor textile manufacturers come out with new lines each season jam-packed with coordinate collections complete with decorative florals, stripes, supersoft chenille upholstery and more. In any given catalogue, a whole living room will be decked out with a complete set of fabrics to upholster the couch, ottoman, chaise lounge and even make drapes and decorative pillows. All this is excellent! However, not everyone wants a cookie cutter living room, sometimes you may want to mix and match fabrics on your own to suit your own tastes. So. . . you'll need to have some idea on just how to do it.
Firstly, feel free to express yourself and not be shackled by trends. Trends will come and go. Just because everyone matches florals with stripes doesn't mean that you have to. If you follow the reasoning behind why florals match well with stripes, you should be okay matching on your own.
While coordinating, one idea is to create balance with contrast. A straight line will contrast with a circle. Dark will contrast light. A tight structure will contrast with chaos and something large will contrast with something very small.
Here are a few examples of how these ideas manifest themselves on fabric combinations.
Linear to Circular
  
Busy to Textural (Plain)
 
Large to Small   
Going along with the idea of creating balance by contrast, another way to blend fabrics is to combine HOT with COOL colors. Hot colors include, reds, oranges, yellows etc. And COOL colors include, greens and blues. In a project full of hot warm colors, a cool colored accent may be just the key to creating a perfect balance. Take a look at these examples.
     
You may also want to consider combining Contrasting Colors. The Contrasting Colors include
Blue/Yellow
Green/Red
Purple/Orange
Overall, texture, color, print, and scale all play a part in how well two fabrics will match. These principles can be explained further in an upcoming blog.
If you follow the above guidelines and focus on creating balance
through contrast your coordinating adventures should prove to be both
rewarding and a lot of fun!
J&O Fabrics. . . sew many possibilities
If you're in the area, visit our store in Pennsauken, New Jersey, right
outside of Philadelphia. The size of a supermarket, we have the largest
selection of fabrics in New Jersey! Everything we carry is not on our website, so if you're in the area, check us out and browse our
fabric aisles.
J&O Fabric Center
9401 Route 130 South
Where Rt.73 and 130 meet
Pennsauken, New Jersey 08110
856-663-2121
info@jandofabrics.comPosts by J&O Fabrics StoreLabels: coordinating fabrics, craft-ideas, decorator, discount-fabric, fabrics, quilting-fabric, upholstery-fabric
Have you ever looked around your house and thought to yourself……I’d love to give this place a new look, but I don’t want to spend a fortune replacing furniture or flooring? We have five inexpensive and easy ways you can freshen up any room in your house simply by adding fabric! 1. Pillows: Pick out a bright fresh color, you can go with something wild, like an animal print, or more conservative, possibly a toile fabric. Pillows are a fun way to add spice to your room. Remember you are not committed to a certain look, pillows are an easy change. If one day you want blue put out your blue pillows, the next day put out your yellow ones! For this section we would recommend looking in the novelty fabric section along with the upholstery fabric and decorative fabric sections. 2. Seat covers: This is the best and easiest way to freshen up your dinning room or kitchen. Take the seat off of your dining/kitchen chairs and staple your new fabric around the bottom of the seat…..and like magic, you have new chairs! You can go with an ultra suede, or maybe an upholstery fabric that blends with your décor. 3/4 of a yard will cover 2 seats. 2 1/4 yards will be enough for 6 seats. We recommended any fabric in the Upholstery fabric section or Decorative fabric section. 3. Window swag: This one is so simple. Just pick out a fun or colorful fabric. Go to your local hardware store, even Target will do. Get 2 hooks, one for each side of the window. Once the hooks are up just drape the fabric from hook to hook and now you have just added a little flare to your window. We recommended sheer fabric, but chiffon is also a nice inexpensive cloth that has an elegant look and feel. 4. Window Shades: This is my favorite. Go to your local hardware store and purchase blackout shades (approx $5.00 per window) and they normally cut to size. Pick out a fabric of your choice and then glue the fabric onto the blackout shade. Now you have custom shades that would normally cost hundreds of dollars. Any of our novelty fabric would be fun along with the upholstery and designer fabrics. 5. Wall hanging: Simply pick your favorite fabric and staple it around a wooden frame that you can purchase at any craft store. This is an easy and low cost way to add artwork to your walls. Recommended fabrics: anything goes in this category. If you want to go a little wild, check out the retro fabrics or you can even go with tropical fabric. Stay tuned for our future blogs for step-by-step instructions on how to create each of the five home décor fabric projects! Posts by J&O Fabrics StoreLabels: craft-ideas, decorative-fabric, fabric-store, novelty-fabric, upholstery-fabric
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