Vinyl

Your Guide To Vinyl Fabric And Crafting Materials

Vinyl is a material that most beginners are not familiar with, this since the fabric is only discovered once someone becomes more proficient at crafting. That being said, vinyl does have interesting properties that make it a desirable fabric for crafters, this includes durability, easy maintenance, and even waterproof properties.

Since you will encounter vinyl in your crafting projects, let us take a closer look at this material. From the history of vinyl to its advantages, disadvantages, and different types of vinyl, you can find it all in our useful guide below.

Where Did Vinyl Come From?

Opposed to some other fabrics, vinyl has not been around for that long. Vinyl, also known under the name polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was invented in Germany in 1872. It was invented by a German chemist Eugen Baumann, yet he would never patent his invention.

Vinyl was patented by another German citizen called Friedrich Klatte in 1913. He put his patent in when he found a new method to polymerize vinyl through the use of direct sunlight. However, the material would be considered useless until 1926, when a researcher accidently plasticised the material.

What Are The Benefits Of Vinyl?

There are a bunch of benefits associated with vinyl, so it is certainly easy to see why many people use this kind of material in their crafting projects.

One of the biggest benefits of vinyl is that the material is weatherproof, this means it can be used for outdoor applications that encounter rain or direct sunlight. Vinyl is waterproof, but also has excellent resistance against UV light.

Vinyl is also an incredibly durable material. Not only is it resistant to fading and abrasions, it also has incredible strength and stretch. Top that off with the fact that the material is easy to clean, and you have one of the most desirable crafting materials in existence.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Vinyl?

A material that has so many benefits is bound to have some disadvantages. One major disadvantage of this material is that it can be difficult to sew, this is also one of the reasons why many beginners are not familiar with vinyl until they become more proficient at their craft.

When you make a mistake while sewing with vinyl, it is more difficult to correct your mistake. When you remove the stitching from vinyl fabric, some of the stitching holes can still remain visible. Naturally, this can make it a lot harder to correct mistakes in vinyl crafting projects.

The final disadvantage to vinyl is that it can have a rather plastic feel to it, which can be rather undesirable for some applications. However, we must mention that this does depend somewhat on the quality of the vinyl. If you have a higher-quality fabric, some of the undesirable qualities of vinyl will be less obvious.

What Are The Different Types Of Vinyl?

Since the day of its invention, there have been a number of applications for vinyl. Below, we have listed the various grades of vinyl and their common applications, this will help you to get even more familiar with the material in question.

One type of vinyl is the so-called marine-grade vinyl. As the name suggests, this kind of vinyl is used in a marine environment. Therefore, it is used for boat upholstery. Of course, the water-resistant properties of marine-grade vinyl also make it suitable for outdoor furniture.

Another type of vinyl is the automotive-grade vinyl. While this type of vinyl shares some properties with marine-grade vinyl, it is made to simulate the properties of leather and decorator vinyl. So, automotive vinyl is often available in prints such as snakeskin, leather, and more.

Automotive vinyl is commonly used in vehicles, but it has other applications too. In fact, this type of leather is popular for handbags and all sorts of products that provide protection against the rain.

Why Should I Obtain Vinyl From Spotlight?

Spotlight has an incredible collection of vinyl, this goes from vinyl fabrics with stunning patterns to samplers. If you need some vinyl for an upcoming project, why not choose a product from our catalogue and save big on your crafting supplies order?