Purple has never been a favorite color of mine by any stretch of the imagination… sorry to all of you that LOVE it like my daughter… But I have been spending a whole lot of time with it over the last little while.  A couple weeks ago I spent some time inspecting 44 yards of light purple velvet for a project, and there is 44 more yards of it in transit.

As those that have been following the blog know, I am working on a commercial project that is a historical Victorian remodel. We have custom made some slipper chairs and they are being upholstered in this light purple, silk velvet fabric that the client loves. We try to stay away from silk generally, but after the persistence of the client we, we ordered the 88 yards of fabric needed and had the material backed with a fabric backer to strengthen the weave and applied a top coat sealer.

The fabric was stored for a number of months in the Owners warehouse before the customer chairs were ready for the material. But once the chair manufacturer received and opened the product, we found out we had a big problem.

 

The rolls of fabric were shipped on rolls that were being held on roll stands within their boxes, so the fabric wouldn’t crush and obtain seams. Unfortunately the rolls had fallen off their stands and while sitting in storage, the fabric was crushed.

The upholsterer first did a study to see if the damaged areas could be cut around and there would be enough material to compete the work… Unfortunately that wasn’t going to work! Next we started to contact other companies that might be able to steam the back of the fabric or fix the problems. No one would touch it. And then we found out the fabric had been discontinued and there was no more in stock anywhere…the joys of upholstery!

While we were talking to upholsterer, we began conversations with the original supplier of the fabric to find out what they could do. Though we knew that whether it was their packaging fault or not, they wouldn’t be responsible for it since the Owner’s warehousing had signed off on the rolls when they had been received. But after some discussions with their company that added the finish – top coat treatment- to the material, they agreed to take the fabric back and see what they could do. Today I received this word:

Hello,

 I just received word that Schneider Banks is finishing up the steaming, back ironing of the fabric and is expecting to ship it back to Edward                   Ferrell/Lewis Mittman either tomorrow or Monday.

I will forward tracking as soon as I get it.

After weeks of worry,  the is was GREAT news… unfortunately though… not good enough news to change my feelings towards the color purple…especially the light colored, velvet kind!