| | Dye Lot
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| | Is a number that identifies yarns dyed in the same vat at the same time. Subtle differences can appear between different batches of the same color yarn from the same manufacturer.
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| | Carding
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| | Is the processing of brushing raw or washed fibres to prepare them as textiles.
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| | Damask
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| | Is a fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Today, it generally denotes a woven pattern of flowers, foliage, paisleys and other types of ornament. The different types and directions of weave within the design reflect light differently give damask fabric a rich, textured appearance. | |
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| | Egyptian Cotton
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| | Is usually applied to the extra long staple cotton produced in Giza, Egypt and used by luxury and up market brands worldwide. | |
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| | Fibre
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| | Is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. They can be spun into filaments, thread, or rope. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. | |
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| | Flannelette
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| | Is a light, napped cotton the texture of flannel. The weft is generally coarser than the warp. The flannel-like appearance is created by creating a nap from the weft; scratching it and raising it up.
Flannelette can either have long or short nap, and can be napped on only one or two sides. It comes in many colours, both solid and patterned.
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| | Jacquard
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| | Is a raised design or pattern woven into the fabric as opposed to being printed on the fabric. The woven pattern is created by a Jacquard loom, named after its inventor Joseph Jacquard. The loom simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with complex patterns such as brocade and damask. The 1801 loom was controlled by punch cards with punched holes, each row of which corresponds to one row of the design. Each hole in the card corresponds to a ‘Bolus’ hook. This hook raises or lowers the harness which carries and guides the warp thread so that the weft will either lay above or below it. The sequence of raised or lowered thread is what creates the pattern. Modern jacquard looms are computer controlled and can have thousands of hooks. | |
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| | Mercerized Cotton
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| | ‘Mercerized cotton’ Is a treatment for cotton fabric and thread mostly employed to give cotton a lustrous appearance. The cotton thread that has been treated with caustic soda to shrink it and increase its luster and affinity for dye. | | |
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| | Moire
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| | Moire and Moire taffeta [mwaah-ray’] means watered. Obtained by passing through engraving rollers, producing crushed “watermark” patterns that reflect light differently. Used most often on ribbed fabrics made with cotton, acetate, rayon, silk and some manufactured fabrics. Moire taffeta is taffeta with a moire finish that has been heat set. | |
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| | Organza
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| | Is a thin, plain weave, sheer fabric traditionally made from silk, the continuous filament of silkworms. Nowadays, though many organzas are woven with synthetic filament fibers such as polyester or nylon, the most luxurious organzas are still woven in silk. | | | |
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| | Egyptian Cotton
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| | Is usually applied to the extra long staple cotton produced in Giza, Egypt and used by luxury and up market brands worldwide. | | | |
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| | Percale
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| | Refers to a closely woven, high thread count, cotton fabric often used for sheets and clothing. Percale is astraight weave, that is one over and one under. | 
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| | Piece Dyed
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| | Fabric that is dyed after it is woven, in full piece form. The greige goods for piece dying can be cotton, polyester, or blends. | | | |
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| | Pilling
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| | Is a small ball of fibers that forms on a piece of cloth from wear. Pill is also a verb for the formation of such balls. All fabrics pill to some extent.
With weaker fibers the pills fall off, but with stronger fibers the pills become attached to the fabric. Whether a fabric pills or not depends both on the fiber and the preparation. Some fibers, such as cotton, acrylic and wool have a high tendency to pill, whereas other fibers such as polyester, linen and silk do not. In general longer fibers pill less than short ones because there are fewer ends of fibers, and because it is harder for the longer fibers to work themselves out of the cloth. Techniques used to avoid pilling include singeing the loose fibers protruding on the surface of textile, and spinning the yarn with a high number of twists per inch. Fabrics with a large number of loose fibers have a higher tendency to pill. Also, knitted fabrics tend to pill more than woven fabrics. This is because of the greater distance between yarn crossings in knitted fabrics than in woven ones. For the same reason, a tightly knitted object will pill less than a loosely knitted one. When a fabric is made of a blend of fibers where one fiber is significantly stronger than the other, pills tend to form as the weaker fiber wears and breaks, and the stronger fiber holds the pills onto the cloth. | |
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| | Pima Cotton
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| | A very strong, high-grade cotton of medium to long staple developed from Sea Island cotton from Carolina and Egyptian cotton strains.
It is named after Pima Indians of Arizona and Pima County, Arizona, the location of the experimental farm on which it was developed in the early 1900s. Improvements in Pima cotton have continued since its introduction in 1908 resulting in a high yield cotton with superior luster and silkiness.
Today Pima cotton is grown in United States, Australia and Peru. | |
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| | Polyester
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| | Is a synthetic fibre. Any polymer whose monomers are linked together by ester bonds. A material or fabric made from polyester polymer.
Polyester fabric is light, strong and weather resistant, has good stain and fade, shrink, stretch and abrasion resistance. Low absorbency allows the fiber to dry quickly. | |
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| | Sateen Weave
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| | Sateen, not to be confused with the material satin. Sateen is a type of weave, with a satin-like finish, often found in bed sheets. The sateen structure is four over, one under, placing the most threads on the surface, making it extremely soft, though slightly less durable than other weaves. | 
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| | Selvage or Selvedge
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| | The woven edge portion of a fabric parallel to the warp is called selvage. | | | |
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| | Singeing
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| | Passing a fabric over heated plates or gas flames during finishing to remove lint or loose threads from the surface. This results in a smoother surface and less pilling. | | |
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| | Staple
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| | The fiber of cotton, wool, or flax, graded as to length and fineness.
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| | Supima Cotton
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| | The name “Supima”® is a licensed trademark owned by Supima and its members. It is used to promote textile and apparel products made of 100% American Pima cotton. The name “Supima” is an abbreviation for Superior Pima.
See Pima Cotton. | | |
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| | Thread Count
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| | The thread count is the number of warp threads plus the number of weft threads in one square inch of fabric. An alternative measurement is threads per 10 square centimetre.
Divide the 10 square centimetre by 1.25 to get the per square inch (it is a little generous on the threads, but it is always better to be over than under).
Thread count is often used as a measure of fabric quality, specifically fabric used to make cotton bed linen. ‘Standard’ cotton thread counts are around 150 while good-quality sheets start at 180 up to 1000. | 
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| | For marketing purposes, a fabric with 250 two-ply yarns in both the vertical and horizontal direction could have the component threads counted to a 1000 thread count. | |
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| | Twill
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| | Is a type of fabric woven with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs. It is made by passing the weft threads over one warp thread and then under two or more warp threads. Examples of twill fabric are gabardine, tweed and serge. | 
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| | Warp
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| | Is the set of lengthwise threads attached toa loom before weaving begins, and through which the weft is woven.
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| | Weft
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| | Is the yarn that is woven back and forth through the warp to make cloth. | | |
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