Fabric Support Group.  

Romo Linara is good and not so pricey alternative to hallingdal, especially if you are looking for a plain fabric. They are from England as far as I know.And they have Quite some off whites.

I REALLY like everything about that fabric. I love the colour selection. I love the weave. I love that it's all natural in that it's a cotton and linen (my favourite fabric) blend.

But I was fairly committed to going down the wool route, just for authenticity I guess? I don't know.

I've ordered some samples already though. And the price is far closer to what I had in mind.

WHOA, really??

spanky: do you really use the word dreck? That's hilarious ...

Yes, I do! It's such a great word. Especially if you kind of spit it out with a healthy level of disdain.

(I may have grown up in the sticks of Illinois but I went to college in NYC and then married into a Jewish family. Yiddish has all the best words. Everyone says so.)

Ah, jiddish. I took it as a German word, and a really nice one, too. German is full of anglicisms nowadays but English doesn't have that many German loan words. Sometimes you read Autobahn, Kindergarten, Zeitgeist, Angst, Kitsch oder Bratwurst, but Dreck really came as a surprise ...

Spanky's a real mensch!

Herringbone, "kindergarten" and "bratwurst" are very common in the English language. American kids have been going to kindergarten since the 1800s. I don't think it's ever been called anything else. Angst and kitsch are pretty common, too.

Some others (which i pulled from a list):

delicatessen

doppelganger

gesundheit

mensch

Oktoberfest

poltergeist

pretzel

sauerbraten

sauerkraut

schadenfreude

schnapps

spritz

seltzer

uber

umlaut

verboten

wanderlust

wunderkind

Yiddish is derived from Hebrew and German and maybe a couple of Eastern European languages--Russian? Polish? So that's where they got "dreck". There's also "schmata" but i think that means "rag" which isn't how I'd describe a lot of the fabric in most mill end shops. It's just...dreck.

Fantastisch!

Thanks Spanky, that website is pure gold. I must speak to them. Yes, I have yet to find a supplier of Kvadrat over here that isn't around

Glad to help. Modern-Fabrics is a great source. Good customer service, too, at least in my experience.

That Savak Gabriel is beautiful! I had never heard of it before and now I'm wondering if I've seen it. One of the fun things about reupholstering certain Danish dining chairs (mostly I'm thinking of Erik Buchs but there are probably others) that have upholstered backrests is that under the fabric on the back of the back is a piece of thin cardboard which masks the bumps and lumps from the fabric edges that are turned under. And under this cardboard there is a strip of scrap fabric that brings the center of the cardboard up flush with the edges so that when you press on it it doesn't cave in. Just a little thing. But that fabric scrap is nearly always a bit of beautiful wool fabric! Usually something that's no longer made. I can't tell you how many times I've wished to have serious yardage of some of them. A lot of them, in fact. But I have to be content with discovering them and enjoying them for a few minutes before covering them over again.

Linen is gorgeous but I have reservations about upholstering with it. Mostly because it creases so easily and the creases stay until you iron them out. I think for a seat that is stretched smooth over minimal padding and stapled tight, then ok---there's not much room for it to shift in any direction. But for cushion covers you are likely to find it creeping forward over time (or downward, in the case of a back cushion) and developing messy-looking creases. I think it's also hard to spot clean, given that it's a cellulose fiber like cotton---not so much an issue for removable covers, definitely an issue for more permanent applications.

Also, even though it's a very strong fiber it will wear over time where it is creased sharply. I can't think offhand how this matters in upholstery but there's probably something somewhere where it might. One example outside of upholstery is table linens and handkerchiefs---if you fold them and iron the folds, which tend to be on the same lines all the time---the fabric will split along those lines eventually.

BUT! Linen makes wonderful covers for throw pillows. And its cool smoothness contrasts beautifully with fuzzy, warm wool fabrics.

Dreck is certainly a word known to me too. It is perhaps not the most common word in American English, but it is used.

I'm yet to have that experience Spanky, re: Upholstered back Danish chairs. But if its anything like looking at the chairs with original fabric on Lauritz then I think I understand! You definitely see Gabriel pop up everywhere, it can alert me to quality designs simetimes too. And quite a famous designer behind it too, in our wheelhouse.

Yes, I have heard the concerns over linen before. I don't intend to use it for this. But I do intend to use it, it's my favourite feeling textile for sure. I have big throw pillows in it and I'd like a bit more!

Nice list, spanky, thanks. It's noticable that many of the words are of bavarian origin. And many of them refer to food. And other strange things. I guess this is what shapes the image of Germany: sauerkraut, volkswagen, blitzkrieg, autobahn. The Danes are better off, imagewise.

kyle: Did I mention that I really like the velvet?

Herringbone, you did not actually. My neighbour is a keen and really very naturally inclined reupholsterer and she occasionally comes round when I've found some interesting design. Aside from referring multiple times over multiple instances to the furniture I collect as Swedish (I don't think it's worth the point being made that I don't think I've ever owned a piece of Swedish design, unless we count IKEA), I think she's really into it. But she is much more into fabric, in fact she is nerdy about fabric in the way we are about design. And it's lovely to have a neighbour like that.

Subsequently you might ask, why would I not talk to her about my fabric situation?

Much like you she came in and turned the cushions over to the non worn/sun bleached sides and said she thinks it's a beautiful colour velvet and if it weren't for the stripes being quite old fashioned it would be something she'd choose. But unlike you and everyone here, she couldn't help me like you guys could because she comes from it from the angle of; I would say an interior designer, almost. She would happily take a piece of design and make it suit her style or make it express her vision. I'm much more interested in picking a textile that is sensitive to the vision of the design itself.

And in that sense, although I love linen (and to a lesser extent velvet), I don't think I should pick them for this job.

On that train of the thought the fabric swatches already arrived and I LOVE the weave on the Romo fabrics. I don't think I'll go for them if I can get a reasonable shipping price at modern-fabrics (though I'll have to wait for the right fabric to pop up there), but they're a really nice back up. I think I could mistake the them for a Hallingdal like wool, in particular the "Porridge" one - the weave is really reminiscent of Hallindgal to the uninitiated . I actually did not like the 100% Linen fabric at all. Very open weave, almost Hessian texture I don't think I'd want to use that on any upholstery at all.

Thank you everyone! Involving my neighbour in this post is somewhat twofold as I intend to meet with her over the Christmas break as she is hopefully going to support me in my first foray into reupholstery on these chairs. Very exciting!

Kyle