# The Fabric Decision Hewn Shop Notes · https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-fabric-decision AI-drafted, not yet checked: Drafted by Chip, the writing system Hewn runs on Claude, from Hewn's craft corpus. Jonathan Salomons has not read this note yet, and no outside reader has checked it. Read it as a shop note: check a number before you cut to it. Cite as: "The Fabric Decision." Hewn Shop Notes, hewn.build/shop-notes/the-fabric-decision. Drafted 2026-05-01; AI-drafted, not yet checked. --- The first question a client asks about upholstery fabric is the wrong question. "What color works?" The right question is whether it will last. Color is the last thing you decide. Start over. There are four factors in any fabric decision. Durability comes first. It's measured in double rubs — the Wyzenbeek test, where a weighted cotton duck pad is dragged back and forth across the fabric until it fails. Residential light use requires 15,000+ double rubs. A family sofa used every day needs 25,000 to 30,000 minimum. Heavy residential or commercial use pushes past 30,000. A fabric at 12,000 double rubs isn't a bad fabric. It's specified for the wrong job. It'll show visible wear in a high-traffic room inside two years, and the conversation that follows is not one you want to have. Second: actual use pattern. Not imagined use pattern. Clients often describe their household as "light use" while mentioning, in the same breath, three children under eight and two large dogs. There's no shame in that household. There's a lot of shame in the fabric choice that follows if you don't ask the follow-up. Get them to describe a Tuesday afternoon. That's the couch you're building. Third: construction type. Cut pile fabrics — velvet, chenille, microfiber — read soft and inviting. They also show directional wear. Flip a cut pile cushion and you'll see it: the pile runs one direction, reverse the cushion and the color shifts visibly. Loop pile at equivalent double rubs outperforms cut pile because the loop structure resists abrasion differently. Flat woven fabric (canvas, linen blends, most standard upholstery goods) is the most reliable baseline. Patterns align consistently, durability is uniform, no directional surprises. Fourth: color and pattern. When durability, use, and construction are settled, then color. --- ## The Pattern Repeat Problem A client falls in love with a large-scale print. It looks right. Before the order goes in, show them the math. For every cut in the layout, you add one full repeat to the cut length to guarantee alignment. A 24-inch repeat adds two yards per cut. On a complex piece with twelve cuts, that's 24 yards before you've started the baseline estimate. Large patterns on complex pieces routinely push total yardage 40 to 60 percent over a comparable solid. The per-yard price is the number the client sees. The total cost is the number that matters. Show it before the order is placed. --- ## COM Customer's Own Material: the client sources fabric themselves. An estate find, an imported textile, a specialty piece they've had for years. You have no Wyzenbeek data. No performance guarantee. That's manageable with the right protocol. Four steps. Inspect the fabric for construction concerns and fiber content. Calculate yardage conservatively, because coming up short mid-project on a COM piece is a serious problem. Advise on what you know and what you don't. Confirm in writing that the client understands the performance limitations before you cut a single inch. And photograph the full fabric before cutting. That documentation is your record if questions come up later. --- ## Leather vs. Fabric Different products. Different life profiles. Leather ages into the piece. Full-grain and top-grain leather develop patina with use — contact areas darken, the surface builds character over time. Conditioned every six to twelve months, a quality leather piece outlasts any fabric. Fabric ages out. Even high-performance upholstery fabric wears through. Ten to fifteen years at everyday residential use, less in pet-heavy or high-traffic households. When it's done, the piece gets recovered. For a client asking "which lasts longer?" — leather, with maintenance, wins on time horizon. Fabric wins on lower daily maintenance and design flexibility. Both answers are right for different households. --- One practical note for BC Interior winters: below 10°C, fabric holds static charge and loses flexibility. Pattern matching on cold fabric drifts. Warm the shop before you lay out and cut. Not optional for pattern work. --- The client sees the fabric first. You decide it last. Durability, use, construction, color — in that order, every time. Everything else is working backward from the wrong end.