The fabric guide is an important tool to have when starting your journey to create products for your clothing line. The type of fabric you choose truly matters.
The right fabric plays a crucial role in creating amazing clothes. It affects the finished product’s functionality, quality, and performance, in addition to its overall style and appearance.
With a plethora of fabrics, textiles, and materials available, narrowing down your final option can surely be a daunting task.
You’ve probably heard about various fabrics (such as the ever-popular cotton), but do you know that there are different types of cotton, silk, satin, polyester, wool, linen, or even leather fabrics?
What’s more, cotton can also be used to create knit and woven fabrics or even yarns to be used for knitted items such as cardigans, sweaters, and gloves.
Sounds kind of confusing, huh? That’s why we’ve pieced together this fabric guide with an overview of the different types of fabrics and a couple of personal fabric recommendations for each clothing style and garment type.
We’ve designed it to be broken down into various clothing styles and collections so that it’ll be relevant to whatever type of apparel you are looking to create.
This way, we hope that you’ll better know how to choose your fabrics for your own collection or even when you shop for the latest threads.
But first, to get a better overview and introduction of the various materials, let’s take a look at how fabrics are made.
Fabric Guide Recommendation: The Process
Fiber To Fabric
The beginning of fabrics starts with fibers—raw materials that are first made into textile yarns and then into fabrics.
Fibers can be broken down into three main types: natural, regenerated, and synthetic.
Natural Fibers
List of Animal Fibers
- Alpaca
- Angora
- Cashmere
- Camel hair
- Horsehair
- Llama
- Mohair
- Qiviut
- Silk
- Vicuña
- WoolYak
List of Plant Fibers
- Abaca
- Bamboo
- Cotton
- Coir
- Flax
- Hemp
- Jute
- Ramie
- Sisal
- Kapok
Regenerated (semi-synthetic) Fibers
List of protein fibers
- Soybean Protein
- Milk Casein
List of Manmade Fibers
- Rayon
- Acetate
Synthetic Fibers
Most polymers are similar to compounds that make up plastic, rubber, and coatings. These synthetic fibers are developed through a chemical process combining small molecules into polymers called polymerization.
List of synthetic fibers
- Acrylic
- Aramis
- Nylon
- Olefin
- PVC
- Polyester
- Spandex
Common fabrics made from synthetic fibres are jacquard, denim, damask, velvet, lace, crepe, canvas fabrics, which can be used for fashion, upholstery, home decor, or swimwear.
Other commonly used fabric types:
- Knit fabric
- Woven fabric
- Hides
Knit Fabric
- Single yarn, looped continuously to create a textile with a braided look
- Produces common fabrics such as jerseys knits, rib knits, velour and interlock
Hides
The term hide or skin refers to animal skins that are tanned or dried for human use. Hide includes all leathers, with and without animal hair present on the surface. Hides also sometimes include furs, which are harvested from animals with soft hair.
Leather
Skins of animals with the hair removed, treated for human use
Skins
- From smaller animals such as sheep or goats
- Thinner than hides
Hides
- Skins of larger animals, such as cows
- Skins of animals with a shoulder height of more than 1m
- Thicker than skins
How to Use This Fabric Guide To Choose The Right Fabric
When picking out your desired fabric, it’s important to note the properties of the fabric and how it will correlate with the garment’s design and intended use. Keep in mind the advantages and characteristics of each fabric, like texture and suitability for print, for example, and its relationship to the garment.
For example, you will want to look at fabric materials that offer breathability, stretch, and moisture-wicking properties for an activewear collection.
Likewise, if you are planning to design and launch your collection with a target audience that resides in tropical climates, look out for characteristics that would matter for the clothing. They should be cooler, breathable fabrics that will feel light and airy against the skin in the heat and humidity.
Now that you have a brief understanding and overview of fibers from our fabric guide, let’s get cracking and explore the various materials based on popular styles and collections.
Found this post about fabrics useful?
Check out our other posts on the recommended fabrics for different clothing categories:
