What’s Leather Fabric?
Leather fabric is popularly known in two ways: first, like genuine leather, most frequently used for furniture upholstery; and second, as a man-made textile that’s designed to look like leather (also referred to as faux leather cloth ). In actuality, the term itself is a contradiction as”leather” comes from the skin of an animal, and”fabric” is a sort of woven cloth. For our purposes, we’ll be talking genuine leather from cowhides.
How is Leather Fabric Sold – In Feet, Not sheets!
Leather skins or hides are measured and sold in square feet. As a natural solution, the leather mask takes the form of the creature and is not found in rolls or sheets. Especially, the hide is laid out flat and the complete surface area of the mask is measured in square feet. A normal cowhide averages 50 square feet, but conceal sizes vary depending upon the breed of cow. Thus you will always purchase leather as gifts, not as leather rolls or sheets. Watch our Leather Cowhides: Shapes and Sizes to have a clearer idea of what your hide will look like.
“My Upholsterer Says I Want 8 Yards?”
We get this call constantly and it goes something like”my upholsterer says I want 8 meters of leather to reupholster my seats, the number of hides should I buy?” Upholsterers almost always quote jobs in yards rather than square feet because cloth, which can be sold in yards, is just what they know best! The estimate is provided in cloth yards (36″ long x 54″ wide) meaning you’ll have to convert to square feet. Our Leather Fabric Calculator can do this for you but the general guideline is 1 cloth lawn = 18 square feet of leather. As soon as you do the easy conversion to square feet, you can choose the size and amount of hides you’ll have to buy.
Another source is our Furniture Reupholstery Guide which includes almost 200 pieces of furniture, with an estimate of the square feet of leather you’ll need (see examples below). Working in an automotive upholstery job? Make certain to check out our Automotive Reupholstery Guide!
Your estimate may look like a great deal of leather, but it’s important to bear in mind that leather may have some imperfections. This yards to square feet conversion involves the industry standard 30% waste factor as a result of variations in conceal shapes, and the potential existence of natural markers . Markings might incorporate bug bites, stretch marks, scars, or there might be a hump hole if it’s a Brazilian hide. This is not a indication of a low quality hide, but a reminder that leather is a natural substance, with a narrative of its own.
So, How Many Hides Do I Want?
As soon as you’ve settled on the number of square feet you’ll need for a job, you can determine the number of hides you’ll need. This will be based on the size of the hides available. By way of instance, if you want 110 square feet of leather, you can combine a 50 square foot conceal, and a 60 square foot conceal. If you want 140 square feet, you may wind up using (2) 55 square foot hides and a 30 square foot half conceal. We specialize in helping clients put together orders that get just the perfect amount of leather they need- don’t hesitate to contact us.