Canvas vs. Acrylic Awning Fabric: What a Custom Awning Is Made Of

100%

Solution-dyed acrylic in Sunbrella performance fabrics

1954

Year this shop started sewing awnings in Portland

5

Steps from fabric to finished awning, all under one roof

Customers often ask for a “canvas awning,” and we know what they mean: a fabric awning with color, maybe stripes, maybe the business name on the valance. What actually goes on the frame has changed a lot since this shop opened in 1954. Here’s what it is now, and why.

What “canvas” means now

Canvas traditionally meant a heavy woven cotton fabric, and for decades that’s what awnings were made of. The name stuck. Today, when people say “canvas awning,” they almost always mean a woven fabric awning, as opposed to aluminum or metal, and the fabric itself is usually acrylic.

Why most fabric awnings are acrylic now

The difference is how the color gets in. According to Sunbrella, its fibers are “saturated with color and UV-stabilized pigments before they’re spun into yarn,” so “the pigment goes all the way through the fibers and the color stays true over time.” Sunbrella also says its fibers are mold and mildew resistant and stain and water resistant. On an awning that sits through a Portland winter, that’s the point.

The retractable awnings we install use Sunbrella or Tempotest fabric. Our fixed and commercial awnings use Sunbrella and other proven awning fabrics, and our lettering is welded to Sunbrella. We keep the reasons simple: color that lasts, fabric that cleans, and covers we can match years later.

Side by side

Choosing color and pattern

Fabric is the part of an awning you look at every day, so choose it in daylight. Bring a photo of the house or storefront to the showroom and hold samples up against it. A few things we suggest:

• Match the house, not the sample book. Pull a color from the trim, the door or the brick.
• Stripes read traditional; solids read modern. Both work on most houses.
• Think about lettering early. If a business name goes on the valance, choose fabric and lettering colors together.
• Plan for the future. When the cover eventually wears, a recover can match it, or change it.

If you’re replacing a cover, our awning fabric replacement guide covers recovers, matching discontinued patterns, and cleaning.

How a custom fabric awning is made

1. Measure and designWe measure the wall or the existing frame and agree the shape: traditional, dome, concave or convex.
2. Weld the frameAluminum frames are welded and shaped in our shop to fit the building.
3. Cut the fabricThe cover is laid out and cut on the long table.
4. Sew the coverSeams and valance are sewn in the shop, some of it on Betsy, the shop’s Singer.
5. Letter and installGraphics are cut on our SGS 100 and welded to the fabric, then our own crew installs the awning.

That’s the whole reason the work stays in one building: fewer hand-offs, quicker turnaround, and your specs on file for the next recover. See window and door awnings for frames and shapes, or our story since 1954.