Expert: Mark H. Miller - 10/1/2008

Question
I have dining room chairs with a seat, front and back of  the chair. I need to lay out the 3 pieces, match the pattern on the fabric and work out how much I will need to cover 10 oak chairs.  I just want to confirm that when laying out the pieces on the fabric, should the front part of the seat of the chair be parallel to the selfedge of the fabric.  I have been told that the seat will form creases if cut otherwise.

Answer
Hi Annamarie,

The direction in which you cut the fabric has absolutely no bearing on whether the fabric will crease or not.  The reason fabric creases is that it has not been pulled tight enough and the direction of the grain of the fabric has no effect on that.

I hope this answers your question,  have fun upholstering.

Mark Miller.