Made-Ups and Home Furnishing Products
This domain covers the design, construction and quality of made-ups and home furnishing products. The exam tests product categories, standard sizes, fabric selection, seam and finish choices, and calculation of fabric requirements.
Core concepts
- Product groups include bed linen (sheets, pillow covers, duvet covers), bathroom textiles (towels, bath mats), kitchen textiles (aprons, oven gloves), table linen, curtains, cushions, upholstery, rugs and wall coverings.
- Standard sizes guide production, but custom sizes are common in home furnishing. Always confirm finished dimensions before cutting.
- Fabric selection depends on use: absorbency for towels, durability for upholstery, light control for curtains, and washability for kitchen linen.
- Seams and hems must suit the product. Bed linen needs strong, flat seams; curtains need deep hems and even heading; cushions need secure openings.
- Quality checks include size, seam strength, colourfastness, shrinkage, skew, matching, and freedom from oil spots or loose threads.
- Curtain fullness is usually 1.5–2.5 times the window width; more fullness gives deeper gathers.
Worked example
A window is 120 cm wide. For a gathered curtain with 2:1 fullness, the flat fabric width needed is 120 × 2 = 240 cm. If the fabric is 112 cm wide, one panel cannot be cut as a single width, so two widths are joined per panel or the panel is split. Hem and heading allowances are added after calculating the flat width. The reasoning separates finished window coverage from the fabric actually purchased.
Traps
- Forgetting seam and hem allowances when calculating fabric.
- Ignoring shrinkage and pattern repeat.
- Using a weak seam for heavy upholstery or a bulky seam for fine bed linen.
- Measuring the window frame instead of the intended finished curtain coverage.