Top 8 cushion fabric choices: upholstery fabric 101

A comprehensive guide on choosing couch and floor cushion fabrics and maake's top 8 fabric cushion covers for your home.

One of the easiest ways to update your home is to add new cushions. Why not start with the best upholstery fabric for projects when covering pillows? With the variety of relatively cheap fabrics for home pillows on offer, you can shop till you drop!

Let's face it – it doesn't matter whether you want to invigorate a piece of furniture with new fabrics, create a nook to match your bedding or make your living room stand out with funky pillow fabrics.

All you need to do is make some new cushions and perhaps match the upholstery fabric to the curtain with your fabric favourites and transform the space from drab to gorgeous in seconds.

There is a variety of plain and printed upholstery for a curtain or cushion available per metre on the market. Indeed, there's a wide collection of upholstery fabrics to choose from for upholstery projects when you shop. 

If you’d like an in-depth look at choosing fabric suitable for design, check out the informative guide we’ve put together for you, entitled The best fabrics to use for decorating and design. We also feature a Full Guide on Upholstery Fabric that offers invaluable information before you shop.

Ready-made pillow fabric or make your own cushions

 Durability is as important as the design when it comes to upholstery and curtain material – and that’s where maake comes in as a cushion and curtain seller. Do you love the ready-made options and want to skip the sewing? 

We've solved your sewing problem. Why not get ready-made pillows from maakeHome? (View here.) They are sold with gorgeous prints on the upholstery for you to choose from – and no hassle. No sewing involved at all!

We not only offer a versatile and magnificent selection of over 10,000 unique patterns, we also offer a wide collection of magnificent fabrics, much of which is sustainable.

What upholstery fabric should I choose for a cushion?

There are decorative cushions that sit around and look fabulous, and others that are great to look at but also have a purpose.

And there are fabrics that we use daily for covering furniture, outdoor furnishing upholstery or fabrics to cover dining-room, kitchen and home office chairs or for a fabric curtain in the kitchen, office, etc. Let's not forget those we prop ourselves up in bed with while binge-watching Netflix. A pillow cover for the home needs to be durable and long lasting.

Cover these accessories that you use constantly in a long-lasting upholstery or curtain fabrics. That way, they will withstand wear and tear. 

Upholstery like this includes Cotton Drill, Eco Canvas, Tentex and Organic Cotton Panama

Let's talk about those embellished pillows you've adorned the sofa with in your formal living-room! Indeed, you can cover those in a luxurious upholstery or curtain fabrics, because you only look at them; you don't ever sit on them. Instead of copying your curtain fabric, you can even choose dress fabrics or fur for upholstery in that case.

Luxury upholstery fabric that will elevate your room include Velvet upholstery, Eco velvet, Melino Linen and Bayeux 

Top 8 cushion fabrics - maake's choice

maake offers over 74 different types of quality fabrics as well as curtain fabrics for decorating. From those, we have chosen 8 exceptional, durable fabrics that we suggest you use for pillows.

We have also given some details of each material to give you an idea of the type of décor accessories you should use each upholstery material for.

Here is a list of our top 8 fabric cushion, curtain and upholstery materials for pillows and curtain material that will elevate your home from gorgeous to breathtaking. 

1. Organic Panama Natural

This 100% GOTS cotton homeware upholstery fabric is a viable choice. The fabric is 140cm in width. It is a heavyweight canvas fabric and has a natural base colour with natural cotton seed flecks giving it a rustic feel.

As the fabric is printed with pigment inks that meet GOTS requirements, it has a sustainable finish for the eco-conscious as well as a high light fastness rating for brighter environments. Makes exceptional pillow covers and curtain material.

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2. Organic Leve Panama Natural 

3. Cotton Drill

This 140cm wide classic fabric is 100% cotton. It’s extremely popular, versatile, strong and durable.

Now, cotton drill fabric has a tight diagonal twill weave which is prominent on the face of the fabric. This printed fabric can give an item a unique appeal. And it offers excellent print clarity.

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4. Satin 

5. Melino Linen 

6. Velvet and Eco Velvet 

A sensuous 100% polyester fabric, velvet fabric makes exquisite soft furnishings including curtain fabrics and blinds. The standard plush velvet material recommended above is luxurious, and Eco Velvet is its more sustainable variant – made from recycled polyester.

They are extremely soft with some stretch and a short pile. The reverse of the fabric features a smooth off-white backing.  

Both are 140cm wide. This fabric has a white polyester base, which prints strong vibrant colours and have excellent rub fastness with a martindale rating over 100,000 rubs.

Choose from 15,800+ designs

7. Bayeux

8. Tentex Water-repellant

A medium-weight fabric, it’s perfect for covering outdoor furniture and ideal if you have kids and pets.

Made from 100% polyester and 140cm in width, it’s a very hard-working fabric and will withstand lots of wear and tear with a very high tensile strength. And the fabric has an excellent lightfastness rating of 7.

Because cotton fabric is so durable, it's ideal for décor accessories that are regularly used such as pillow covers and a curtain.

maake's cotton fabrics are all printed with pigment inks which have exceptional quality lightfastness. These cotton fabrics are great for window seats and other summer cushions. We recommend using our cotton fabrics indoors only, as they are not resistant to damp.

Although this type of textile is lightfast for upholstery, its colour will fade if you leave it on a sunny window-seat or chair. 

maake recommends 4 of our 100% cotton fabrics in total. They include Organic Panama Natural as well as Organic Leve Panama Natural, Cotton Drill and Cotton Satin.  

Digital printing is the printing method we use for cotton fabric. It is an extremely eco-friendly method using digital pigment inks.

This printing process involves no water. And it uses about 95% less energy than traditional screen printing.

Linen

Often used for furniture coverings, linen is very hard wearing.

Made of natural fibres, linen fabric is a great choice for people who have sensitive skins, as it’s hyper allergenic.

This fabric is lightweight, heat resistant and cool to the touch, making them ideal for use as cushion upholstery fabric in the warmer months.

We use linen widely as upholstery and curtain fabric. It’s more resistant to mildew, which makes it the perfect choice for fabric for damper climates. 

At maake we use digital printing to print on all our natural fabric, including cotton and linen. Our choice of linen fabric for covering a cushion is Melino Linen. 

For more information on printing on linen fabrics, read our guide here.

Velvet - categories

Velvet is not only an extremely luxurious fabric, it's also hard-wearing.

This plush fabric has a medium knit pile and is very soft and indulgent. The fabric is often used to create ornamental cushions, although it’s also great as a covering for more frequently used cushions.

maake recommends Velvet  which is 100% polyester and Eco Velvet, its recycled polyester variant.

Both fabrics use sublimation printing. This process doesn’t use any water and all the inks used to print on the fabric meet Oeko-tex requirements and pass EN71-3 certification.

You can purchase ready-made fabric products covered with velvet fabrics in our Living and Décor section at maakeHome.

How maake prints on synthetics

All of maake's synthetic fabric uses the sublimation printing method. This process does not use any water. All the inks we use meet Oeko-tex requirements and pass EN71-3 certification.

A lot of the fabric we use serves a more technical purpose. This is mainly to meet fire regulations in commercial interiors. 

These include our faux fur fabric material Water-resistant Suede FR fabric as well as Eco Upholstery FR fabric, which both meet Crib 5 FR ratings.

Additionally, fabric like our Eco Basketweave fabric and Heavy Satin FR fabric are popular for the home, more durable versions of Cotton Panama fabric and Cotton Satin fabric or higher traffic areas.

Match your base fabric with the right design

Cushions, like curtain materials, are part of the fabric tapestry you’re creating when you put a room in your home together. That involves painting the walls a particular colour or covering them in wallpaper with a stunning design. The fabric for furniture coverings, or even blinds or curtains are also part of the bigger picture.

At maake we offer an extensive range of fabrics to choose from for all sorts of home interior crafts, including crafts fabric, curtains, a pillow cover and other items. We also provide exquisite patterns you can use in a variety of hues to update a look for your curtain or pillow or transform the fabric. If you like, you can also design your own fabric. The possibilities are as endless as the opportunities we offer.

Select a pattern

Before you shop for a base material or design to print on fabrics, why not browse our extensive, exclusive design library. You’ll find great inspiration for your pillows (you can even include a matching curtain!). And browsing the library is absolutely free, so why not take a look today!

Another important note: textile samples are a great idea! Don’t forget to order our Sample Book which offers you a sample of all the fabrics maake offers. View samples of the curtain fabrics you plan to order, so that you will have a good idea of the texture as well as what it will look like when it’s printed. That’s the intelligent way to shop!

Remember: if you’re keen to design your own fabrics, our in-house studio is happy to assist you free of charge.