Fabric Guide
Two translucent curtain fabric categories that look almost identical on the sample card — but perform very differently once installed. Here's how to pick the right opacity for your project, your floor level, and your client's privacy expectations.
Most curtain makers treat "sheer" and "semi-sheer" as interchangeable terms. They're not. And the confusion costs real money — especially on high-rise condo projects where your client moves in, switches on the lights at night, and immediately calls to complain about privacy.
Here's the simple version. Sheer fabric weighs between 30 and 60 gsm. You can read a newspaper through it. Semi-sheer sits at 60 to 110 gsm — you can tell someone is standing behind it, but you can't make out their face. That gap matters more than you'd think.
Both categories fall under translucent curtain fabric, but their behaviour under real lighting conditions is quite different. A sheer voile at 42 gsm lets through roughly 80% of daylight. A semi-sheer linen-blend at 95 gsm cuts that to about 50%. During daytime, the privacy difference is minimal because outdoor light overpowers interior visibility. But come evening? Night privacy is where semi-sheer pulls ahead by a wide margin.
| Property | Sheer | Semi-Sheer |
|---|---|---|
| Typical weight | 30–60 gsm | 60–110 gsm |
| Light transmission | 70–90% | 40–65% |
| UV blocked | 10–25% | 30–50% |
| Daytime privacy | Low | Moderate |
| Night privacy (lights on) | Very low — silhouette visible | Low — blurred outline only |
| Typical width (bolt) | 110" / 280 cm or 118" / 300 cm | 110" / 280 cm or 118" / 300 cm |
| Price range (per metre) | RM6–15 | RM9–22 |
Notice the overlap in the RM9–15 range — that's where the two categories actually compete on price. Below RM9, you're almost certainly looking at pure polyester sheer. Above RM15, semi-sheer in linen blends or textured weaves.
Theory is fine, but you need to know what to ask for when you visit our showroom in Taman Desaria or flip through a sample book.
Voile — the workhorse. Polyester voile at 38–50 gsm is what 70% of the kedai kain in the Jalan Ipoh fabric district stock. It's cheap (RM6–9 per metre for 110" width), it drapes well, and it comes in roughly 187 colours across our current stock. Plain white voile outsells everything else by a factor of three.
Organza — crisp and structured. Organza has body. It doesn't drape soft like voile — it holds shape, which means it creases more easily too. Popular for decorative panels and event installations, less so for daily-use langsir. Typically 35–55 gsm, priced at RM8–14 per metre. Most tukang jahit avoid it for pleated curtains because the stiffness fights the fold.
Leno weave — open and geometric. A twisted-yarn construction that creates tiny grid-like openings in the fabric. It's the most transparent sheer type, sometimes called "gauze weave." Leno sheer provides almost no privacy but creates an interesting visual texture. We carry 23 SKUs in leno, mostly for commercial hospitality projects.
Semi-sheer voile — same construction as regular voile, but denser. The yarn count is higher, or the thread is thicker, pushing weight into the 65–85 gsm range. This is the simplest upgrade from sheer to semi-sheer. Most clients can't tell the difference on a swatch card, but they see it immediately at the window.
Linen-look semi-sheer — the one everyone wants right now. A polyester-linen blend (usually 70/30 or 80/20) that gives the organic texture of linen curtain fabric with semi-sheer opacity. Weight runs 80–110 gsm. Price is RM14–22 per metre. Stock runs low before Raya every single year because every designer in KL specifies it simultaneously.
Burnout / devoré semi-sheer — patterned transparency. Chemical treatment removes some fibres to create a pattern, leaving sheer areas within a semi-sheer base. Beautiful for feature windows. Not practical for full-wall curtain runs because the pattern repeat creates cutting waste. Budget an extra 12–15% on fabric quantity.
This is the part most fabric pembekal skip. They show you a swatch and let you decide. But the right pick depends on where the curtain is going — and in Malaysian high-rises, that means floor level and which direction the window faces.
Below level 10, facing another block: semi-sheer minimum. Better yet, pair it with a dimout or blackout layer. Your client's neighbour is 15 metres away at the same height. Sheer is a non-starter unless your client genuinely doesn't care about privacy.
Levels 10–20, no direct facing: either works. Semi-sheer is the safer recommendation. If the unit faces open sky or a highway, sheer voile is perfectly fine for daytime. At night, both categories show silhouettes — semi-sheer just makes them blurrier.
Above level 20, penthouse or clear view: sheer voile is excellent here. Nobody is looking in. The view is the feature, and you want maximum light transmission. A 42 gsm voile in off-white makes a Mont Kiara penthouse feel like it's floating.
West-facing windows are a different animal altogether. The afternoon sun in KL is brutal from about 1 pm to 6 pm, and neither sheer nor semi-sheer does much to block heat. Most suppliers won't tell you this, but a semi-sheer on its own won't solve glare on a west-facing wall. You need a functional layer behind it — a roller blind in solar screen fabric or a dimout curtain track. The semi-sheer handles the look; the backing does the work.
Different rules apply. Hotels need FR-rated fabric (flame retardant) that can survive commercial laundering. That narrows your options considerably. For hotel curtains in KLCC or Bukit Bintang, we typically recommend polyester semi-sheer voile at 75–90 gsm, 118" (300 cm) width, with factory-applied FR treatment. It launders without shrinkage, hangs consistently across 200+ rooms, and meets BOMBA requirements.
The 118" width is critical for hotel work. Floor-to-ceiling windows in modern hotels run 270–290 cm. A 110" (280 cm) fabric leaves you short after hemming. And nobody wants a horizontal seam on a sheer curtain — it catches light and looks terrible from inside and out.
MOQ for hotel projects is typically 50 metres per colourway. We keep ready stock on the 14 most common hotel sheers and semi-sheers. Custom dye lots run 300-metre minimums with a 35–45 day lead time — longer during CNY when the Chinese mills shut down for three weeks.
Why It Matters
Sheer curtain privacy level drops sharply after sunset. Interior lights create a fishbowl effect. Semi-sheer softens this — outlines are blurred rather than defined. Neither replaces a blackout layer, though.
Sheer gives you that soft, diffused glow designers love. Semi-sheer adds a warmer, slightly amber filter — especially in linen blends. Both eliminate harsh shadows from direct sun without making the room feel dark.
A semi-sheer voile blocks roughly 35–45% of UV. Enough to slow fading on a leather sofa, not enough to stop it. For serious protection, add a UV-filter interlining. Sheer blocks even less — around 15% on average.
Polyester sheers are the easiest fabric to maintain. Machine wash cold, hang dry, barely any ironing. Linen-blend semi-sheers need more care — they wrinkle, and aggressive washing causes shrinkage up to 3–5% on the length.
For a standard 320 cm wide sliding door, you need about 6.4 metres of fabric at 2x fullness. Sheer voile at RM8/m = RM51.20. Semi-sheer linen at RM17/m = RM108.80. The fabric cost roughly doubles, but making charges stay the same.
Plain white and off-white sheers are always in stock. Always. Semi-sheer in trendy colours — dusty pink, sage green, warm taupe — sells out fast and restock from China takes 4–6 weeks if container shipping is smooth.
We've been supplying curtain fabric from our warehouse on Jalan Klang Lama for over 18 years. A few things we've learned the hard way.
Always check the swatch against a window, not on a table. A semi-sheer fabric looks almost opaque lying flat on a counter. Hold it up to daylight and you'll see its true transparency. We keep a backlit frame in our showroom specifically for this — walk in and test before you commit to 80 metres.
Colour matters more than you'd expect. White sheer and off-white sheer look identical on a swatch. Installed at a window, off-white reads warmer and slightly more opaque. Charcoal and dark grey semi-sheers provide better daytime privacy than white at the same weight because the dark colour absorbs rather than transmits light. A 75 gsm charcoal voile outperforms a 95 gsm white voile for privacy. Counterintuitive, but true.
And here's a pricing reality. The curtain fabric price range for sheers in Malaysia has barely moved in five years. Polyester voile from Chinese mills is so competitive that local pricing is essentially flat. The margin pressure is real — which is why many kedai kain push clients toward semi-sheer or velvet curtain fabric where margins are healthier. Not necessarily wrong for the project, but know why the recommendation is being made.
For tukang jahit making up sheer curtains: use a size 70/10 sharp needle, not a universal. Sheer fabric snags easily on blunt needle tips, and those tiny pulls become visible pinpricks of light once the curtain hangs. Reduce presser foot pressure too. And trim your thread tails — every loose end shows through on sheer.
One more thing. If a client wants privacy and a sheer look, the answer isn't a thicker semi-sheer. It's a double-track system — sheer voile on the front track for the aesthetic, blackout curtain fabric on the back track for function. This is standard in every 4- and 5-star hotel room in Malaysia, and it's becoming the norm for condos in Bangsar, TTDI, and Damansara Heights too.
Need help picking the right opacity? Bring your floor plan to our showroom — we'll check the facing direction, floor level, and neighbouring buildings on Google Earth right there at the counter. Takes five minutes and saves a lot of grief after installation.
Common Questions
On floors above level 15, sheer curtains offer reasonable daytime privacy because no neighbouring buildings are at direct eye level. Below level 10, especially facing another block or main road, semi-sheer fabric is the better choice. At night with interior lights on, neither sheer nor semi-sheer blocks silhouettes completely — you'll still need a blackout or dimout layer behind them.
Sheer fabric typically weighs 30–60 gsm and allows 70–90% light through, making objects behind it clearly visible. Semi-sheer fabric sits at 60–110 gsm and transmits roughly 40–65% of light, so you get a blurred view rather than a clear one. Semi-sheer gives noticeably more privacy while still keeping the room bright.
For hotel projects, voile in polyester is the standard pick because it handles commercial laundering without shrinkage, holds FR treatment well, and comes in 118-inch (300 cm) widths that suit floor-to-ceiling windows. Most 4-star and 5-star hotels in KL use a semi-sheer voile paired with a blackout lining behind it.
Sheer curtain fabric ranges from RM6 to RM22 per metre depending on composition and width. Basic polyester voile starts around RM6–9 per metre for 110-inch width. Semi-sheer linen blends sit higher at RM14–22 per metre. For wholesale or bulk orders above 50 metres, pricing drops further — contact us for a project quotation.
Semi-sheer fabric blocks roughly 30–50% of UV, depending on weave density and fibre type. This is better than sheer (which blocks only 10–25%), but nowhere near enough to protect furniture from fading on its own. For serious UV protection, you need a dedicated UV-filtering interlining or a dimout layer paired with your sheer or semi-sheer.
You can, but be realistic about what it will do. West-facing windows in KL get direct afternoon sun from around 1 pm to 6 pm, and semi-sheer alone won't stop heat gain or glare. Most curtain contractors pair semi-sheer with a dimout or solar screen roller behind it for west-facing installations. The semi-sheer handles the aesthetics; the backing layer does the heavy lifting.
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Tell us your project details — floor level, facing direction, window dimensions — and we'll send you the right swatches. Walk-in to our Jalan Klang Lama showroom or WhatsApp us for a sample pack.