Faux Leather Fabrics

Faux leather (otherwise known as ‘fake leather’ or ‘leatherette’) is ideal for making durable, hard-wearing upholstery and clothing. It’s an incredibly versatile material, one that is both tough and also very easy to cut with scissors. We would recommend this faux leather for upholstery and furnishing projects both at home or in a car, canal boat or motorhome — or pretty much any vehicle or setting that requires a durable material.

Faux leather fabric opens up another world to sewing. It gives you access to a whole wealth of new varieties and sub-varieties of fake leather material, and is ideal for sewing a whole swath of sewing types including shorts, skirts, practical rucksacks, dresses, purses and more.

Please note: we would advise using a leather needle when sewing faux leather fabric, check out our haberdashery page to view our needles.

FAQs

What fabric is faux leather?

Faux leather is made from a plastic base and then treated with other plastics (such as PVC), wax and dyes to give it leather-like characteristics, colour and texture.

 

Is faux leather a good material?

Faux leather is known for its durability and for its resistance to scratches, which is part of the reason why it makes a good upholstery fabric. These qualities and more make it useful for certain situations where it has the upper hand over real leather. For example, if you have pets, or children, fake leather is easier to clean and requires less maintenance, and will keep looking fresh over time — whereas the spills and mess may diminish the quality of real leather
 

Is faux leather cruelty free?

Yes — faux leather fabrics contain no animal products, and for that reason is also sometimes known as ‘vegan leather’.