Learning About Fabrics

Learning About Fabrics

Playlist: Fabric - YouTube

The Who, What, and How

There is no limit where we can go with fiber technology

What is Fabric

• Fiber Content + Construction

Fiber Content

• Natural or Man-made
• Staple or Filament
  • Staple: Short; Like Cotton
  • Filament: One long skinny strand intact; Like Silk

How to Create Blends

Typical Example: Wool Rayon and Wool Polyster

• How to blend a staple and a filament?
  • Have your filament fiber core and then warp staple fibers around it.

Supply Chain

Greige Goods

• Not recognized as suitable for final garments

• Typical Example: Muslin

PFD or PFP

• Prepared For Dyeing or Painting

Converters

• Buying Greige Goods

Vertical Mills

• Vertical in any kind of production capacity

Distributers

• Help Converters and Mills to get their product out into the world

Jobbers

• Buying leftover and slightly damaged fabric

Fabric Orientation Terminology

Yarn

• It is made from a variety of natural and man-made fibers
• It can also be referred to as Thread

Swatch

• Sample

Piece

• The Minimum for Production from the Converters is one piece
  • One Piece equals One Roll
  • You should ask how many yards in a piece
• Usually you can't split a piece up
• Usually, if a piece is 50 yards, you can't order 70. You have to order 100

Straight-Grain

• Run parallel to the selvage

• In woven fabrics, it called the Wrap

Cross-Grain

• Run perpendicular to the fabric's selvage

• In woven fabrics, it called the Weft

Bias

• Diagonal Cut of the fabric
• Always 45 Degrees
• Do not cut at any other angle

Face & Back

• The Front and the back of the fabric

Selvedge

• The finished edge of the fabric

Botton & Top Weight

• Pants & Dress Weight

Basic Categories of Material

Wovens

• Have wrap yarns running along the length and weft yarns running along the cross

Knits

• Loops looped on top of each other; Like Sweater

Nonwovens

• Fibers are tangled together
• Typical Example: Felt, Interfacing

Hides

• Like Leathers where one side is smooth and finished