Abrasion Resistance
A technical term used to describe resistance of fabric against damage caused by wear and tear. It is usually expressed in rubs (see “Martindale”).

ASTM
American Society for Testing and Materials. Bleeding Colour loss from coloured cloth when in contact with a liquid.

Blending
Blending is the mixing process of various fibres. It normally mixes fibres of different physical properties to ensure a consistent finished product.

Cockle
The wrinkle effect visible on a fabric resulting from inconsistent shrinkage.

Composition
The quantity of each fibre used to make a fabric.

Crepe Fabric
A fabric characterized by a crinkled or puckered surface.

Crocking
An alternative phrase for rubbing as in the fastness to rubbing.

Dobby
A mechanism that controls the head shaft movement of a loom.

End
1. (Spinning) An individual strand
2. (Weaving) AN individual warp thread

Fibre
The basic raw materials in textiles which can be natural or man-made.

Finishing
A collection of processes taking place after weaving which fabrics undergo before they are ready for dispatch.

Flame Retardant
The ability of fabric to resist burning.

Foam Backing
Foam adhered to the bank of a fabric to enhance its resilience.

Hue
A characteristic of colour that denotes it being predominantly yellow, green, red or blue.

ISO
International Standards Organization.

Jackquard (Weaving)
A shedding mechanism attached to the loom that gives individual control of up to several hundred warp threads and thus enables large complex designs to be produced.

Light Fastness
Resistance to the fading effect of light or sunshine.

Martindale
An abrasion test used to measure the durability of fabric. The warp and weft threads are abraded simultaneously.

NFPA
National Fire Protection Association.

Pick
A weft thread passing through the warp in weaving.

Piling
Small bobbles of fabric that develop on fabric surface due to general wear and tear.

Slippage
Open spaces in the fabric resulting from sliding of weft threads or shifting of warp threads.

Synthetic Fibres
Man-made fibres produced using petrochemicals.

Tensile Strength
The breaking strength of a fabric, usually expressed in Newtons.

Textured Yarns
Man-made filament yarns which have been treated by heat and/or mechanical action to imitate the appearance and properties of natural fibre yarns.

Twill
A diagonal weave effect created by the passing of weft threads over two or more warp ends.

Warp
The lengthways threads in a woven fabric.

Weave
Formation of fabric by interlacing the warm and weft threads.

Weft
The horizontal yarns that interlace at right angles with the vertical warm threads.

Width
This is the width of the fabric measured from within the selvedges.