Well priced suit fabric source to make cover for a bench

[Henry Carter]

Hi All,

This is a bit out of left field, but I am making from scratch a bench to go at the foot of my bed to put my shoes on in the morning, as my bed is a bit too tall (no short ass jokes please, I'm 6'2).

The plan is for a traditional bench seat in wood painted black, which will have a foam padding to sit on glued to the bench. I want to upholster the foam in a suit material and at this stage I'm leaning towards a mid to dark grey herringbone fabric.

Considering all I will be doing is sitting on it, I'm not looking for Loro Piana or Zegna etc, just something fairly cheap I can get online reasonably easily. Any help is appreciated.

 

[tsaltzma]

Originally Posted by Charlie's Wardrobe

Hi All,

This is a bit out of left field, but I am making from scratch a bench to go at the foot of my bed to put my shoes on in the morning, as my bed is a bit too tall (no short ass jokes please, I'm 6'2).

The plan is for a traditional bench seat in wood painted black, which will have a foam padding to sit on glued to the bench. I want to upholster the foam in a suit material and at this stage I'm leaning towards a mid to dark grey herringbone fabric.

Considering all I will be doing is sitting on it, I'm not looking for Loro Piana or Zegna etc, just something fairly cheap I can get online reasonably easily. Any help is appreciated.

I've done my share of upholstering, so a word of warning. Make sure you use a fairly heavy weight cloth. I made a bench cushion once with fabric not intended for upholstery, and it wore thin, and ripped in a matter of months.

 

[Boston Tweed]

AndrewRogers on here is selling suiting fabric from some great mills at a nice discount through the end of the month.

http://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=123538

I've purchased from him in the past and I recommend him highly.

 

[Don Carlos]

Suiting fabrics are for suits, not for furniture. They're too delicate and lightweight (even the heavy ones) for the purpose you're intending here. Just go with some furniture fabric of your choice. Trust me.

 

[Henry Carter]

Originally Posted by tsaltzma

I've done my share of upholstering, so a word of warning. Make sure you use a fairly heavy weight cloth. I made a bench cushion once with fabric not intended for upholstery, and it wore thin, and ripped in a matter of months.

Good advice thanks, I hadn't thought about that, I will try and get something around the 15oz kind of range.

AB, with all due respect the advice I'm seeking is not if I should do it, my mind is already made up and I'm a stubborn bastard. I'm really seeking advice on the best place to get fabric and I will check out the previous link. Only way i'd consider a non suit fabric is if I could get something that resembles the dark grey herringbone pattern I have in mind.

Wear and tear is certainly something to cosider but taking in to account it will be sat on for barely a minute in the morning and again at night, it should see much less wear than any of my suits which I sit at a desk wearing all day (well trousers anyway) and are generally 12oz and below.

 

[apropos]

Originally Posted by Charlie's Wardrobe

Good advice thanks, I hadn't thought about that, I will try and get something around the 15oz kind of range.

AB, with all due respect the advice I'm seeking is not if I should do it, my mind is already made up and I'm a stubborn bastard. I'm really seeking advice on the best place to get fabric and I will check out the previous link. Only way i'd consider a non suit fabric is if I could get something that resembles the dark grey herringbone pattern I have in mind.

Wear and tear is certainly something to cosider but taking in to account it will be sat on for barely a minute in the morning and again at night, it should see much less wear than any of my suits which I sit at a desk wearing all day (well trousers anyway) and are generally 12oz and below.
Mate, for this sort of application you'll want a tweed, not a fine worsted. The fine worsted will shine, and eventually wear through.

Check this guy out (I've taken the liberty of entering search terms for you). His prices are reasonable, and the quality is there. Avoid the 'softer' tweeds (read the listing descriptions), you want a densely woven 'thornproof' sort of tweed: http://shop.ebay.com/how6955/m.html?...&_sop=10&_sc=1

 

[AndrewRogers]

Charlie, if you want some brown moleskin in a heavy weight, it's yours so long as you pay post within Australia. The length is 1.5 m long and about the same wide, so 1.5 square metres. I think this ought to be plenty for your purpose and you could even double it over. Moleskin is very, very durable.

It's the brown down the bottom and in person, it is richer.

 

[Henry Carter]

Guys thanks, that ebay store has a grey herringbone tweed exactly like I'm looking for and a plenty big enough bolt for what I need.

Andrew thanks so much for the very kind offer, but I'm really after a darker grey rather than brown. I've just bought a new apartment and the whole colouring is grey/white/black, no brown unfortunately.

Thanks again guys

 

[apropos]

Good luck.

Be sure to check with Howard that the fabric in question is a densely woven tweed, as opposed to a more 'loosely' woven one.

 

[RSS]

A heavy tweed will work. The couch at Richard Anderson is covered in his house tweed ... and it continues to look just fine.