Yarns and Fabric Construction
From fibre to fabric
Spinning converts staple fibres into yarn by opening, carding, combing (optional), drawing, roving and spinning. Filament yarns may be flat or textured. Yarn count expresses fineness: indirect Ne = length per unit weight (higher Ne = finer); direct tex = grams per 1000 m; denier = grams per 9000 m. Twist affects strength, handle and liveliness.
Fabric construction
- Weaving interlaces warp and weft. Plain weave: maximum interlacing, firm; twill: diagonal floats, durable and drapey; satin: long floats, lustrous, snag-prone. Sateen is weft-faced satin.
- Knitting interlocks loops: weft knits stretch crosswise; warp knits are dimensionally stable.
- Nonwovens bond fibres by heat, chemical or mechanical means; no yarn stage.
- GSM (g/m²) indicates fabric weight; cover factor indicates tightness.
Worked example
A cotton yarn is 30 Ne. Convert to tex: tex = 590.5/Ne ≈ 590.5/30 = 19.7 tex. Reasoning: Ne is indirect, so a higher number means finer yarn; tex is direct mass per length. If a fabric is 150 GSM and 1.5 m wide, 1 m length weighs 150 × 1.5 = 225 g.
Traps
Do not say higher Ne is coarser. Do not confuse twill with satin: twill shows diagonal ribs, satin shows float sheen. Sateen is not a fibre. A knitted fabric's stretch is not automatically the same in both directions.