Types of Acrylic Coated Tablecloths

The base material and how they are made

The base fabric is woven material - the yarns used in the base fabric can vary; cotton, polyester, pure linen and lots of mixed fibre yarns such as polycotton, cotton and linen.

Printed fabric: the base fabric is woven using natural coloured yarns, typically polycotton or cotton yarns are used. The surface of the fabric is then printed with the design. Printing techniques can either be traditional cylinder printing or for elaborate designs digital print is now used. The underside of the fabric reamins plain.

Yarn dyed fabrics: this means the yarns (mainly cotton and polycotton) are pre-dyed with colour before being woven into fabric. Stripe and check designs often use dyed yarns, this helps create nice straight lines on the design. Always be cautious of stripe and check designs that are printed as opposed to woven designs. It is very difficult to create perfectly straight printed lines in both the weft and warp direction of the fabric. Flat tabletops are not very good at masking bowing on straight lines. The underside of the fabric will be the same colour as the surface.

Jacquard fabrics: these fabrics use dyed yarns that are then woven into creative patterns on the loom. Yarn dyed fabrics are solid colour on the top and bottom, whereas printed fabrics have a plain underside.

The base fabric is then treated to make the fabric stain repellent, refer to our separate blog on Stain Repellent for more information.

There are some exceptions to this overview but we do not want to bore you with too much detail!

There is one important point to explain here regarding longevity - any design that is printed on the surface using ink (wallpaper, curtain fabric, tablecloth, garments etc) with UV protection can be affected by continued exposure to strong sunlight; in this scenario yarn dyed fabrics will hold colour better and longer.