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Glossary Of Fabric Terms [61]

T Tabby Tabby weave (also called plain weave, linen weave or taffeta weave) is the most basic of three fundamental types of textile weaves. It is strong and hard-wearing, used for fashion and furnishing fabrics. Using this weave, the cloth comes out as having a simple criss-cross pattern with the weft thread going under the warp thread up and down in an alternating matter.
Tablet weaving Also called card weaving in the US, it is a weaving technique where tablets or cards are used to create the shed through which the weft is passed. As the materials and tools are relatively cheap and easy to obtain, tablet weaving is popular with hobbyist weavers.
Tactel A trademarked brand of synthetic fiber produced by Invista.
Tactile Properties A fabric property perceived by touch, such as softness.
Taffeta A crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk or cuprammonium rayons. The word is Persian in origin and means "twisted woven". It is considered to be a "high-end" fabric, suitable for use in ball gowns, wedding dresses, and in interior decoration for curtains or wall coverings. It is also widely used in the manufacture of corsets.
Tais Form of traditional weaving created by the women of East Timor. An essential part of the nation's cultural heritage, tais weavings are used for ceremonial adornment, sign of respect and appreciation towards guests, friends, relatives, home decor, and personal apparel. Using mostly cotton threads, the cloth is created during the island's dry season, almost entirely by hand.
Take-up system (Yarn in Fabric) Take-up system includes a clamping device for holding a plurality of layers of warp yarns, the clamping device being movable at least in a direction corresponding to the advance direction of the warp yarns. The clamping device includes a bottom clamp, a top clamp, and at least one intermediate clamping element present between the bottom clamp and the top clamp.
Tambour lace Family of lace made by stretching a fine net over a frame and creating a chain stitch using a fine hook to reach through the net and draw the working thread through it. In the second half of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth, tambouring was a fashionable pastime for ladies of the French and English courts.
Tammana Indian brand known for its ornate silk collection, which uses the richest of silks sourced from Banaras, Gujarat and South India.
Tape A continuous narrow, flexible strip of cloth, metal, paper, or plastic, such as adhesive tape, magnetic tape, or ticker tape.
Tapestry A form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike cloth weaving where both the warp and the weft threads may be visible. In tapestry weaving, weft yarns are typically discontinuous; the artisan interlaces each coloured weft back and forth in its own small pattern area. Most weavers use a natural warp thread, such as linen or cotton. The weft threads are usually wool or cotton, but may include silk, gold, silver, or other alternatives.
Tarlatan An open-weave cotton fabric, used for stiffening garments.
Tarpaulin Also called tarp, it is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with urethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. Tarpaulins have multiple uses, such as sheltering from wind, rain, or sunlight. Tarpaulins are often used during the build process to protect brickwork and masonry from weather damage.
Tartan Pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. It is particularly associated with Scotland.
Tassel A tuft of loosely hanging threads, cords, or other material knotted at one end and attached for decoration to home furnishings, clothing, or other items. It is a universal ornament that is seen in varying versions in many cultures around the globe.
Tatting A technique for handcrafting a particularly durable lace from a series of knots and loops. Tatting can be used to make lace edging as well as doilies, collars, accessories such as earrings and necklaces, and other decorative pieces.
Tear Strength Also called tear resistance, it is a measure of how well a material can withstand the effects of tearing. It is usually measured in kN/m.
Technical textiles Products manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes, where function is the primary criterion. Technical textiles include textiles for automotive applications, medical textiles, geotextiles, agrotextiles, and protective clothing.
Tencel A natural, man-made fiber, and the trade name for the generic fiber Lyocell, which is a form of rayon consisting of cellulose fiber made from dissolving pulp using dry jet-wet spinning.
Teneriffe lace Needle lace from the island of Tenerife, consisting of wheel-like motifs.
Tensile Strength The capacity of a material or structure to withstand loads tending to elongate, as opposed to compressive strength, which withstands loads tending to reduce size.
Tensile Test A fundamental materials science test in which a sample is subjected to a controlled tension until failure. The results from the test are commonly used to select a material for an application, for quality control, and to predict how a material will react under other types of forces. Properties that are directly measured via a tensile test are ultimate tensile strength, maximum elongation and reduction in area.
Tenter Frame Large wooden frames which were used as far back as the 14th century in the process of making woolen cloth in order to prevent the shrinking of processed wool.
Terry Cloth Also called towelling, it is a fabric with loops that can absorb large amounts of water. It can be manufactured by weaving or knitting. Towelling is woven on special looms that have two beams of longitudinal warp through which the filler or weft is fired laterally.
Terrysilk it is a mixture of 80% terylene and 20% of silk.
Terrywool Mixture of wood and terylene.
Tex Unit of measure for the linear mass density of fibers, yarns and thread and is defined as the mass in grams per 1000 meters. It is used for measuring fiber size in many products, including cigarette filters, optical cable, yarn and fabric.
Textile A textile or cloth is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres (yarn or thread). Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands. Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting. Fabric is a material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods. Cloth is a finished piece of fabric used for a specific purpose.
Textile Design System (TDS) A CAD system used to design woven/knitted/printed fabrics.
Textiles Designer A professional who creates two-dimensional designs that can be used, often as a repeat design, in the production of knit, weave and printed fabrics or textile products.
Texture Mapping A method for defining high frequency detail, surface texture, or color information on a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Edwin Catmull in 1974.
Textured Yarns Synthetic uninterrupted filaments whose characteristics have been modified in order to improve their look and touch, and boost warmness and absorbency.
Thermal Shrinkage The process in which a fabric becomes smaller than its original size, usually when applying heat.
Thermoplastic A plastic material, a polymer, that becomes pliable or moldable above a specific temperature and solidifies upon cooling. Nylon, Teflon, and Plexiglas are thermoplastic materials.
Thermoset Materials that are made by polymers joined together by chemical bonds, acquiring a highly crosslinked polymer structure, which is is directly responsible for the high mechanical and physical strength compared with thermoplastics or elastomers materials. On the other hand, thermoset materials have poor elasticity.
Thimble A small hard pitted cup worn for protection on the finger that pushes the needle in sewing.
Thread A tightly twisted ply yarn having a circular cross section and used in commercial and home sewing machines and for hand sewing. Thread is usually wound on spools, with thread size, or degree of fineness, indicated on the spool end.
Thread Count The number of threads – lengthwise and widthwise – which are woven into one square inch of fabric.
Threads per inch (TPI) A measure used with threaded fasteners and woven fabrics. This is simply a count of the number of threads per inch measured along the length of a fastener.
Three-dimensional Weaving The weaving of cloths that have pre-designed three-dimensional shapes, or can be directly manipulated into a 3D shape immediately after being woven. The term is also used to describe the weaving of fabrics with substantial thicknesses, many times greater than the diameters of the yarns used to produce the fabrics.
Throwing Also known as English knitting and right-hand knitting. It is a style of Western knitting where the yarn to be knit into the fabric is carried in the right hand. This style is prevalent throughout the English-speaking world, though it is by no means universal.
Throwster One who twists or spins silk to prepare it for weaving.
Ticking A cotton or linen textile that is tightly woven for durability and to prevent down feathers from poking through the fabric, and used to cover mattresses and bed pillows. It commonly has a striped design, in muted colors such as brown, grey or blue, and occasionally red or yellow, against a plain, neutral background.
Tie-Dye A modern term invented in the mid-1960s in the United States for a set of ancient resist-dyeing techniques, and for the products of these processes. The process of tie-dye typically consists of folding, twisting, pleating, or crumpling fabric or a garment and binding with string or rubber bands, followed by the application of dye(s). Tie-dye is characterized by the usage of bright, saturated primary colors and bold patterns.
Tissue A soft, thin piece of paper used for wiping noses and tear drops.
Toile A fabric, from the French word meaning "linen cloth" or "canvas", particularly cloth or canvas for painting on. The word "toile" can refer to the fabric itself, a test garment sewn from the same material, or a type of repeated surface decoration (traditionally) printed on the same fabric.
Tolerances Tolerances are a plus or minus measurement used on a tech pack to determine whether a product meets a specified quality standard.
Total Denier The denier of a tow before it is crimped. It is the product of the denier per filament and the number of filaments in the tow. The total denier after crimping (called crimped total denier) is higher because of the resultant increase in weight per unit length.
Transition Temperature The temperature at which a material changes from one crystal state (allotrope) to another.
Traveler curtain The most common type of front curtain used in theaters. Traveler curtains remain at a fixed elevation and open and close horizontally, breaking in the middle, and consequently require a minimum of fly space. The curtains are typically made of velvet and decorated with a series of vertical box pleats along the top edge.
Trend Boards Presentation boards used by the members of fashion industry to make fashion relevant presentations. The boards can be presented internally, within a company, or to other businesses and clients. They usually provide an aesthetic display of upcoming colors, themes, shapes, materials, textures, silhouettes and moods.
Tricot knit Special case of warp knitting, in which the yarn zigzags vertically, following a single column of knitting, rather than a single row, as it is customary. Tricot and its relatives are very resistant to runs, and are commonly used in lingerie.
Trim In clothing and home decorating, trim or trimming is applied ornament, such as gimp, passementerie, ribbon, and ruffles.
Tulle A thin, fine, machine-made net of acetate, nylon, rayon, or silk.
Tussar silk Silk type produced from larvae of several species of silkworms belonging to the moth genus Antheraea. Tussar silk is valued for its rich texture and natural deep gold colour, and varieties are produced in many countries, including China, India, Japan, and Sri Lanka.
Tweed A rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained by mixing dyed wool before it is spun. Tweeds are an icon of traditional Irish and British country clothing, being desirable for informal outerwear, due to the material being moisture-resistant and durable. Tweeds are made to withstand harsh climate and are commonly worn for outdoor activities such as shooting and hunting, in both Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Twill A type of textile weave with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs (in contrast with a satin and plain weave). This is done by passing the weft thread over one or more warp threads then under two or more warp threads and so on, with a "step," or offset, between rows to create the characteristic diagonal pattern.
Twist Multiplier The ratio of turns per inch to the square root of the yarn count.
Twisting In yarn and rope production, process that binds fibres or yarns together in a continuous strand, accomplished in spinning or playing operations. The direction of the twist may be to the right, described as Z twist, or to the left, described as S twist.
Twistless In fabric, a yarn prepared without a twist.
Two-For-One Twister A textile machine used for yarn doubling.