Fabric construction

Yarn is made by spinning fibres into it, which involves straightening the twisted fibres together to create a thickness. To create fibres such as linen and cotton you have to staple fibres; by cleaning to remove dirt and waste, untangling fibres to align them to be parallel as well as getting it ready for spinning.

To stop the fibres have to be twisted together tightly and by spinning these continuously it creates a less complicated process for very fine and sheer results, which have a strong consistency.

To add texture to fibres it’s important to add bulk. This can be done by a long process of chapping long filaments to staple fibres and then by spinning them, this is particularly used for synthetic fibres, and is a cheaper process. By tradition spinning was done manually by fingers or on a spinning wheel. Today however, it’s done machine for the mass market, so it can be spun quicker.

By spinning yarn too loosely or tightly the different types of texture can be archived. Yarn is wool that is spun tightly to make it fine and spun less tightly will make it fine and spun less tightly makes it not as hardwearing. When a yarn is twisted it helps with the complexity clockwise or anticlockwise. A single thread of yarn is made by twisting a group of fibres together (also known as multiple play yarn) and Corded yarn is two piled yarns twisted together. Pied and yarns are made by the same fibres, so they can be more widely produced.

Woven fabrics are the most popular and are held together by friction of how the yarns cross over. It’s created on large scale and can mass produce at high speeds. Woven cloth has a grain or direction in whatever way the yarn travels; by changing the order of how the yarn runs it also changes the texture of the fabric.

A plain weave is one of the most simplest and used to make calico. A twill weave is recognised by diagonal lines across the fabric and used to make hardwearing fabrics such as denim. Sateen weave is known for its shiny right side and is a sheer but delicate fabric, this makes satin.

Knitted fabric is the second most popular method to produce fabrics, the two ways to dot his include weft knitting and warp knitting. Weft knitting is based on loops along a length of yarn which all interlock to keep the fabric together; all hand knitting is weft knitting. Warp knitting is where yarn interlocks vertically down the length of the fabric, which can’t be done by hand.

Non woven fabrics are fibres without the yarn process and are bond together by other means such as; punching fibres with hot needles, stitching a web of fibres, heating to fuse together by thermoplastic fibres, or sticking with adhesive. These unwoven fabrics do not have a structure, they are also stiff, don’t drape well and are not very stong.

 

By Abigail Stephenson
Photographs provided by fashion Capital

.For other articles in the learning about textiles technology, click below:

Part one: what are textiles?
Part two: The inspiration behind the ideas of design
Part three: drawing and modelling
Part four: planning
Part five: influences on design
Part six: fibres
Part seven: construction
Part eight: properties of fabrics
Part nine: care of fabrics
Part ten: components
Part eleven: disassembly
Part twelve: application of colour
Part thirteen: measuring and marketing
Part fourteen: assembly
Part fifteen: industrial production techniques
Part sixteen: systems in production
Part seventeen: aesthetics and ergonomics
Part eighteen: evaluation and quality
Part nineteen: marketing