Fulling, Felting and Zipper Pulls

I was asked the other day what ‘fulled’ fabric is. Some of the garment patterns are listing it now as suggested fabric for certain designs. So.. most of us are familiar with what felted means; big upsurge in this in the last few years; but rarely do we see real felt which is the result of what happens to a fleece - or a collection of loose fibers. The fibers are treated in such a way as to force them to mesh into a tight, dense ‘fabric’. It’s actually the cuticle of the wool fibers that stand up ( friction ) and lock together. Felt used to be produced by placing a wool fleece under the saddle of the horse until the fibers ‘felted’. Fulling is what happens to a fabric (usually a knit) when the fibers are forced to mesh.

I can’t believe it’s almost October. Remember the July long weekend? It’s the same amount of time to Christmas. This year I’m going to get organized and actually make the drapes for my living room that I have been putting off for two years. The carpenters house is never finished. I’m using a good weight woven cotton, I’m going to use the new soft blackout lining I found recently (and use exclusively now) and I’m going to put a detachable interlining in them as well. The interlining will give a lot more heat loss protection than just the blackout so I’m looking forward to comparing my heating bills this year to last. My living room window isn’t that large but I should still see some change in the heat loss. Now, if I could just get to the three big windows in my workroom, I’m sure I’d see a huge difference.

If you are wondering what sort of heat loss you are experiencing with your windows, you can check my website, connect via the flashing book to the Articles Archive and look at the post from December 2008 ‘ How much does it cost to heat one window’. It’s a re-print of the column that appeared here on December 5.

My favorite new thing right now is reverse zipper pulls. The pull is made so that the zipper teeth are on the reverse side of the pull. Picture this: the zipper teeth face the inside of the cushion cover. The outside, therefore, has only a small strip of zipper tape exposed. Much tidier way to insert a zipper in a cushion or duvet.

Next column is going to be about Unity in design. Some decorators I know swear that this is the single most important part of interior decoration- the make or break element. We’ll see what you think.