#textile basics

TIME FOR INFODUMP

Okay I have a LOT of information in my head about textiles and it drives me nuts when people are laboring under certain misconceptions (misconceptions that oh boy do manufacturers and retailers encourage) so I’ve decided to use this sideblog to rant about textiles. 

Most textiles start with a raw fiber, either natural (like cotton or wool) or manufactured (like polyester or nylon).  These are spun into yarn- sometimes multiple kinds of fibers are mixed together.  The yarn is then either woven or knit into fabric.  In some cases, like felt, the fiber is directly matted into the finished fabric, but this is much less common. 

When we’re describing textiles, we can describe their fiber content- the material they’re made of- or we can describe how they are woven or knit- how they’re put together. 

Cotton is a fiber.  Silk is a fiber.  Polyester is a fiber. 

Twill is a weave.  Satin is a weave.  Jersey is a knit. 

Some words are used to describe a combination of attributes. For example, denim is traditionally a heavy twill made of cotton, specifically with a white warp (the vertical yarns) and an indigo blue weft (the horizontal yarns.)  These days, manufacturers often add spandex to the yarn, giving it a greater stretch so that it can be used for super-tight jeans (and also to make me cry when I’m re-hemming said jeans because it’s SO much harder to sew with).   If they’re being cheap, they might blend it with polyester.  So there’s some wiggle-room in the definitions, and definitions change over time.