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The choice of quilt cover fabric by quilt manufacturers is an important decision relative to appearance, softness, handle and the overall performance of the finished quilt.
Unfortunately, cost is all too often a major factor in fabric choice for lower quality quilts. The use of a poor quality or inappropriate cover fabric can have a major effect on the performance of quilt. In over twenty years in the quilt business I have seen some very poor quality quilt fabrics.
Kelly & Windsor only uses the finest premium quality cover fabrics in the manufacture of our luxury alpaca and wool quilts. To compliment the quality of the alpaca fleece fillings in our quilts, we use a selection of specifically designed fabrics which are exclusive to Kelly & Windsor.
The quilt doona cover fabric used by Kelly & Windsor are an essential element in our quilt collections and are manufactured with very fine yarn counts, high thread counts and sateen constructions. We design our fabrics to create the ultimate softness to compliment the exclusivity of the alpaca fleece fillings in our quilts. Our cover fabrics are silky smooth with an appealing shiny lustre that perfectly matches the luxury of alpaca fillings.
All quilts have a quilt cover fabric which is usually woven using cotton, bamboo, viscose or polyester blend yarns. What separates a low quality from a high quality quilt apart from the quilt's filling is the cover fabric.
There are two basic weave types, plain and sateen constructions that are used in bed quilts which we would like to further explain below.
This is the oldest and simplest weave style with each end, warp and weft alternating over the other. Plain weave fabrics are commonly used in bed quilts.
In the Australia bedding industry, a commonly used quilt cover fabric is called a "Japara", a term unique to Australia.This is a plain woven cotton fabric made with medium fine yarn counts and woven into a thread count (often referred to as t/c) construction of approximately 230 ends per inch ie the sum of the number of warp and weft yarns in one square inch
Japara is commonly used in lower to mid-price point end quality quilts, primarily due to its lower cost compared to higher quality fabrics.
Unfortunately, a quilt which has a japara cover fabric is often over promoted as being export quality, premium grade, superfine or similar connotations, implying that it has as a higher quality than other fabrics. This is a highly inaccurate marketing spin, to be polite.
To offer a balanced article, we regard most (but certainly not all) japara fabrics as being of an acceptable quality quilt fabric. I am not being critical of quilts made with japara fabrics, they do have their place in the lower to mid end of the bedding market, but with over twenty years in the business, I just don’t believe that a japara fabric is of sufficient quality for a luxury alpaca quilt collection.
A higher quality fabric construction style, with the outer face of the fabric being weft filling floats usually in a 4:1 ratio. Sateen (also known as satin) weave fabrics have a smooth characteristic, lustrous surface with a considerably higher number of threads in the weft that forms the fabric face.
All of the Kelly & Windsor alpaca quilt collections are designed and manufactured using a premium quality sateen fabrics which have different fibre blends for our special collections -
We hope that you have found this article useful. Sorry that it is quite detailed and long, but if you have read this far at least give us a review and credit for being passionate and knowledgeable about our products and business.
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We are very proud to have been advised that Kelly & Windsor is a finalist in the 2021 Hume City Business Awards, Small Manufacturing category.
We have previously won several awards under the Hume Business awards program, Export Award and finalist in the Small business category in 2016.
We are donating a day's production to make wool quilts and pillows for the Father Bob Maguire Foundation so that they can help and support those who are in need in our local community.
We are very proud to support such a great cause and look forward to another Father Bob day.
As part of our giving back philosophy, we are excited to announce that Kelly & Windsor Australia and the Alpaca Bedding Company has recently partnered with The Lung Foundation of Australia in a cause related marketing program.
Our goal is to contribute to a very worthy cause by donating to their Hope Research Fund program.
