The types of fabrics you see in your everyday life all have different names and purposes. Many types of clothing rely on these different fabrics. The same goes for furniture, curtains, carpets, and other daily necessities we need in our life. Knowledge of fabrics is useful, whether you’re looking into making a dress of your own, or trying out a new hobby. The durability of a type of fabric also matters depending on its use.
Definition of Fabric
Fabric is a woven or knitted material, which you can do a lot with. It means that you can use it for upholstery, clothing, buildings, and many more. Fabric materials can come from vegetables, plants, and even animal skin.
Cloth and Textiles
What is textile? Textiles are made through interlaced fibers. You can see them on your carpets or in medical equipment (textile fabrics). On the other hand, geotextiles are textiles used for construction, specifically, around the soil. Meanwhile, some textiles have a fishnet texture, making them rough.
While fabric made of felt, or from weaving or knitting, is cloth. Cloth material is usually used for wool, cotton, and small fibers, by definition. Cloths aren’t that different from fabric and textiles, though. The only difference is the manner of their creation.
Canvas
A lot of painters use canvas as a medium to create their artwork. This is because people make a canvas out of durable cotton and linen yarn. With the right procedures, canvas fabric can even become waterproof. While it is mostly associated with painters, the canvas can also be used for outdoor upholstery or picnic blankets.
Chantilly
Tulle and Chantilly go hand in hand in many formal attires. The word Chantilly is French, which means to whip or be flavored. Still, they named it Chantilly for the town it was created in, and not the word. In modern times, it is still quite an expensive fabric despite it being mass-produced globally.
Chenille
Chenille fabric is a type of cotton that has pieces of fibers protruding from it. It’s a fuzzy fabric that designers use to make sweaters and beddings. Chenille upholstery fabric is a popular fabric which artists use for covering chairs, couches, and other items with a thicker version of velvet.
It’s also one of the strongest fabrics out there. This makes using chenille fabric a wonderful choice if you want the project you’re making to have both a very solid shade, as well as good durability.
Consumers around the world have used cotton as a fabric more than others. People have made cotton using miscellaneous lengths of fiber for centuries. Our T-shirts, bedsheets, and even some dresses are often in cotton fabric. This is because there are many types of cotton fabric. Despite its usefulness, cotton fabric has a dark past. In the 1800s, slave owners forced their slaves to work in cotton fields, and often abused them as well. Southerners had many slaves back in the day, and it is still a common debate in modern society.
Crepe
Crepe is one of those fashion fabrics that immediately catches your eye. Many fashion designers use it for expensive suits. They consider it a dress fabric that weighs less than it looks. Interior designers also use crepe for upholstery of furniture and cover pillows. People can make it out of wool, synthetic fabric, or cotton. The most noticeable feature of crepe fabric is that it wrinkles easily, which is why it’s best to steam most clothes made from it.
Deco Mesh
Deco mesh has the fishnet texture of what looks like burlap. They usually come in solid colors. Its durability makes it weather-resistant. It is often used for outdoor designs or flower arrangements. The fabric is often sealed using heat, unlike the other fabrics listed here. Deco mesh has many subtypes, such as poly burlap mesh, metallic mesh, basic mesh, and so on.
Denim is one of the most famous of the different types of fabrics you can see listed here. It is commonly used as apparel fabric, and is popular in making jeans, jackets, bags, and even dresses. The word denim actually means “from Nimes”, since having been invented in Nimes, France. It became popular in the 1930s thanks to western movies featuring cowboys wearing denim jeans.
Gingham
This is a type of fabric that was once purely made of cotton until the introduction of synthetic fibers. Gingham’s name is derived from the word genggam, which is a Malay word meaning stripe. They make it so the patterns can range from sizes and be visible from the inside out.
Manufacturers usually make gingham with two combined colors. Most of the time those colors are a mix of red, blue, and white. You can see it on tablecloths, casual button-downs, and t-shirts. Because gingham is easy to make, it’s often a favorite of mass-producing fabric stores.
