Textile Structure
how cloth is put together
Theme

The thread: Measured, not claimed

Thread count, breathability, the strength of satin: the trade is full of numbers that do not mean what they are taken to mean. Where a claim is refuted here, it is refuted by a computation.
100 ends and 100 picks per inch in bothfine yarncover 78%coarser yarncover 97%cover from diameter and spacing, circular sections Setting and geometry

Thread count is not quality

It counts threads. It says nothing about how much of the cloth they cover, it can be inflated by counting plies, and it ranks fabrics in nearly the wrong order. The quantity it is mistaken for is cover factor, and that one is computable.

 shear 30°bias +22.5%across -29.3%area 87%locks at 60°every segment checked against its own lengthno thread stretches Mechanics and drape

The bias is a mechanism

Cloth cut at forty-five degrees stretches by a third and springs back, while the threads in it stretch by nothing at all. Almost every explanation given for this is wrong, and the right one is not about elasticity.

 5-end satinwarp floats of 4weft floats of 120 markedruns measured round the repeatfloat 4 Weaves

The float decides

How far a thread runs on the face before it goes under is one number, and it sits behind lustre, drape, snagging, abrasion, tear strength and how densely the cloth can be set. Almost nothing else in the subject has that reach.

 as wovenwarp crimp 8.0% · weft 4.0%pulled 3% along the warpwarp crimp 4.9% · weft 7.1%warp thread 108.0 and weft 104.0 — unchanged in bothboth thread lengths checked, not assumed3% pull Setting and geometry

Crimp, and why cloth narrows when it is pulled

A thread in cloth is longer than the cloth it crosses. Pull the fabric one way and that extra length is taken out of one direction and put into the other, so the cloth gets narrower without a single fibre stretching.

 0%10%20%30%40%0°15°30°45°60°cover 40%locks at 66°, +38%cover 60%locks at 53°, +34%cover 80%locks at 37°, +26%extension along the biasshear anglethe yarns never stretch; the net changes shape Mechanics and drape

The locking angle

The bias runs out at an angle that yarn diameter and thread spacing decide between them. It is the number behind whether a cloth will go round a curve, and it has nothing to do with how strong the fabric is.

 only the order the coloured threads are put in changesthe weave2/2 twillfour dark, four light▪▪▪▪▫▫▫▫two dark, two light▪▪▫▫the face colour computed, not designed2/2 twill Pattern and colour

Colour and weave

Thread the same weave with a different order of coloured ends and a pattern appears that is nowhere in the draft. Houndstooth is an ordinary two-and-two twill, and nothing about its interlacement is unusual at all.

 weaveinterlacingsdensest settingplain1.0020 per inch2/2 basket0.5027 per inch2/1 twill0.6724 per inch2/2 twill0.5027 per inch3/1 twill0.5027 per inch5-end satin0.4029 per inch8-end satin0.2532 per incha geometric jamming model, circular sections, yarn diameter 1/40 inch Setting and geometry

How close can threads be set

There is a maximum. Push more threads into a cloth than the geometry allows and they simply will not go, and the limit depends on the weave as much as on the yarn.

 a sphereworst shear 22.2°cells closelocks at 57°nothing jamsthe fishnet construction, every segment checkeddoubly curved Mechanics and drape

Why clothes need darts

A flat cloth goes round a cylinder for nothing and cannot go round a sphere at all without shearing. The amount of shear is decided by the curvature, and when it exceeds what the threads allow, something has to be cut out.

 2/2 twilllongest float 216 interlacings per repeat1 separable clothrepeat 4 × 4generated, then counted4×4 Pattern and colour

The diagonal is not a thread

A twill's diagonal is the most looked-at feature in weaving and the most misdescribed. No thread in the cloth runs diagonally. What runs diagonally is a pattern of which thread is on top, which is a different sort of object.

 weaveinterlacingsdensest settingplain1.0020 per inch2/2 basket0.5027 per inch2/1 twill0.6724 per inch2/2 twill0.5027 per inch3/1 twill0.5027 per inch5-end satin0.4029 per inch8-end satin0.2532 per incha geometric jamming model, circular sections, yarn diameter 1/40 inch Weaves

Interlacings and firmness

Every time a thread changes face it has to bend, and a bend takes room. That one sentence decides how densely a cloth can be set, how firm it feels, and why the two run in opposite directions.

All themes