Fabric 101: How to ID Fabric by Fiber, Weave, and Fire

What is the difference between a silk taffeta and a silk satin? Is wool twill the same as herringbone? How do you know what a fabric will be like when shopping textiles online? In this video, Nicole explains all the different things that go into making a fabric, and how to identify various fabrics by fiber, weave, finish, and weight, as well as demonstrating and explaining burn and bleach testing for those mystery fabrics.

If you've ever been frustrated trying to pick out fabrics for your project online, or been at the fabric store with an unmarked bolt of mystery fabric, this video will help you learn how to ID and understand what you're buying. Is that cotton or rayon? silk or polyester? wool or acrylic? Nicole has the answers!

This video is part of the inaugural #cocovid2020 . We hope you enjoy iy!
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Images & Video Credits -
..... Mt. Holyoke, Massachusetts - Silk. William Skinner and Sons. Quilling rayon, 1936
U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 69-RP-24
Photographer: Hine, Lewis
..... Elementary treatise on the finishing of white, dyed, and printed cotton goods, 1889.
Depierre, Joseph, George Thomas & Co.

[beagleissleeping]

Bleach eats wool. I've always read not to bleach wool. No reason given. Just, "don't." Now I KNOW why!😳👍

[lizcademy]

Excellent information!

One clarification ... in traditional indigo denim, one set of yarns, the indigo ones, are yarn dyed before weaving. The reason you get fading is that the dye is not colorfast. Fastness is not related to whether the item is yarn or piece dyed, but to the chemical nature of the dye and its interaction with the specific fiber.

[elfenhexchen]

Yes yes yes! Great video! I'm a trained seamstress and it makes me crazy that so many people mislabel fabrics, weaves and so on. I know, not everyone can have my knowledge but satin is not always silk and silk is not always satin and next time I'm going to refer to this video :D So thanks for making it!
I know the video is already made (lol) but next time you should make a category for each, natural man made fibers and synthentic man made fibers. This is (at leastin europe) the official classification since those categories have different starting materials (cellulose or petroleum) and it's also easier for people to understand that viscose is way better than things like polyamid.
It's also probably important for us europeans, that it's kind of forbidden to name fabrics 'rayon' and you won't really find it here. You need to search for Viscose, Modal or Tencel.
Also a very big thumbs up to show the burn test!

[meamela]

My usual way to determine fiber if my hands can't decide is to look how the fabric reacts to water. The most obvious thing is when a fabric feels kind of like cotton but don't soak up any water, there is some plastic based fibers in it. (Cotton soaks up a lot of water, polyester can feel nearly dry after you take it out of the washing mashine.)
I have no evidence for this to be true in every case, but this is how I learn fibers myself.

[argusfleibeit]

Very helpful. At some point in my life, I found I was able to just touch silk or rayon, and be able to "know" what it was. Can't do it with a lot of others. I would go through racks of clothing and guess, and then look at the labelled fiber content. I think it's a good learning experience to try to see if you can learn the "feel" of different fabrics.

I was hoping for a little more information about the many (MANY) different sub-types of fabrics, but that would probably take ages. Like, what is "lawn"? "Gabardine"? "Velveteen" vs. "velvet"? I look up many of these terms on Wikipedia, but if they could be shown and handled on video, I might get a better understanding, rather than just a verbal description.

[SkyHarmon-eq]

I always wondered where the phrase "on tenterhooks" came from! Great video!

[sarahbeth]

Bleach test is fascinating. I’ve got to try that on my mystery “silk” 👍🏻

[chickenleg]

Thank you for mentioning a satin weave. For some reason it irks me to hear satin referred to as a fiber. It is so weird how we can assume others know what we know!

[margaretkaraba]

Velvet (and corderoy - which is textured velvet) isn't a surface cut-tuft fabric (though velveteen is) - it's a complex weave with two fabrics woven with either one or two shuttles ( 1 or 2 wefts) depending on the finish wanted) facing in parallel and cut apart after weaving.

[theosis]

Thank you. I am a stereotypical "guy" who does nothing with fabric, and I needed to find some natural plant based cloth for a particular project. I had a pile of old cloth in a box, and wondered if I had what I needed already, or if I needed to go ask for help at a fabric store. Your advice saved me money (and bonus: I like burning things). I now know it is cotton or linen (or something like it) and I can glue it to wood. Again, Thanks. Great video, I am less stereotypical now.

[meghanmcgowan]

This is exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for! I recently decided to try to start making my own clothes out of natural fiber materials, and the learning process has been daunting because it's hard to find a comprehensive source that explains all of these things well, so thank you! (Also the face you made for silk chiffon was the best 😂)

[serefina]

Please do more videos like these. I was in a fashion program that got completely shut down because of covid and this was an incredible way to reconnect with the information I should be learning.

[Brienna]

I don't even use fabrics and sew stuff. I do however crochet, knit and have looked into weaving so it was still very interesting and informative! I also imagine that the methods for figuring out what kind of fabric you might be dealing with will be applicable to yarn as well. Enjoyed this very much!

[hobknobcreations]

This is exactly what I needed! I've been trying to understand how to choose fabrics, this is perfect! Thank you!

[purpleicicles]

I thought I had a decent knowledge of fabric, but boy did I learn a lot just now! I'll be referring back to this video a lot, I think - thank you!

[SwitchelSweets]

This is super helpful! My main source of fabric, due to cost, is an overstock outlet where the bolts may often be dubiously labeled, if labeled at all. I suspect this has affected my historical projects in odd ways as I try to use something like a “wool blend” as though it’s all natural 😂 Now I can go back into my stash and see if my guesses on what was a natural blend and what wasn’t were correct!

[emilytopham]

I've know about the bleach and flame tests for years, but having a visual resource is really helpful!

[hayleyvonbose]

Holy smokes. Thank you so much. Not only do I have a more concrete understanding of fabrics now, but I can share with my friends and family who are budding in their sewing interest!

[sjfiet]

This was very informative. Thank you. I’d love to see a video on historic fabric terminology and when applicable their modern equivalents.

[AnnaCMeyer]

I found out about acetate the hard way when I was in my teens: I grabbed a random rag from my cabbage pile to remove nail polish!