I went shopping with a friend today to the wholesale silk market. Silk brocade fabrics for about $1.50-$3.00 US /meter... I got the silver/purple ones to have chinese dresses made for the girls, and the black one for a dress for me. The red was just too great with the beautiful dragons so I bought some. They have all colors, royal blues, olive greens, turquoise, pink, lavender, orange...and solids too. These are very light weight but they also have some that are quite heavy that you could use for upholstry- still others have metalic threads woven in. Oh the things I could decorate :) . . .