Weaving techniques of our fabrics

An essential component of a shirt, the fabric is a reliable indicator of its overall quality . It also represents the major cost of its manufacture. But not all fabrics are the same...

THE Textiles can be woven or knitted. At Howard's we 'split' the fabric into fibres, such as cotton, linen or wool, which are obviously organic fabrics. This action of separate the fibers is called spinning . If it is woven , the textile forms a fabric . Otherwise, it forms a cloth used for padding and decoration.

Our fabrics are of natural origin (organic) that is to say that they come from plant origin . To tell you a little more:

• Wool : of animal origin , it is obtained from the fleece of sheep. This material stands out for its softness and its lightness , but also by its comfort and its ability to keep warm .

• Silk : also of animal origin , silk comes from cocoon produced by the caterpillar of the mulberry silkworm commonly called silkworm .

• Cotton : of plant origin , cotton is a fiber that covers the seeds of the cotton plant . Very soft to the touch, it is generally pleasant to wear and benefits from good robustness and flexibility. It tends to crease easily and is not a good insulator.

• Linen : Linen is a textile material extracted from the fibers of the plant of the same name. This very resistant material of plant origin has a strong absorbent power and a certain freshness to wear, which makes it ideal for summer.

The history of fabrics

Over the course of historical developments, spinning mills have developed a multitude of fabrics , with varied properties and appearances. It is therefore important to know the main families in order to choose them well according to your use .

The manufacture of a thread requires the shelling and the cleaning of the raw material (ginning), the loosening and the parallelization fibers (carding, combing) and finally the spinning .

The production of a thread is a succession of steps depending on the quality of the thread. First of all, several filaments are drawn from the tow And gathered into a wick ; this same wick is rolled into yarn by twisting , which yarn is put on a reel to be woven .

We will analyze the fabrics according to their weaving technique: the armor.

Canvas armor

"Plain" armor is distinguished by warp threads (vertical) raised alternately to let the weft threads (horizontal). The main tissues resulting from this process are the poplin , the thread-to-thread , oxford , chambray , the linen , the dobby and the seersucker .

Diagram of a plain weave

THE warp thread (black) passes over a weft thread (blue), then below the next one, and so on.

The 'twill' armors

The so-called "twill" armor is characterized by a weft thread which passes under one or more warp threads. For the warp the process is shifted at each weft pass.

The pattern is biased and allows to identify all the tissues of this family as THE twill , the chevron or the denim .

Diagram of a twill weave

The warp thread (black) passes under a weft thread (blue), then over the next two or three warp threads, and so on.

The last type of armor in existence is the satin .

A weft thread pass above a warp thread Then below three or four following warp threads.

This technique creates a particularly shiny appearance but satin fabrics are fragile : floating threads can be snagged. Satin is rarely used in men's shirts, so we will not discuss it.

Satin armor

Satin weave pattern

THE weft thread (blue) pass above of a warp thread (black), then below the next three or four warp threads, and so on.