Fabric glossary
Short definitions of home textile fabric terms: thread count, yarn count, weight, finish, ranforce, percale, sateen, duck, flannel and more.
- Finish
- A treatment applied after weaving and dyeing, such as softening, water-repellent, stain-resistant or crease-resistant finishing.
- Weft
- The yarn that runs across the fabric. It is passed between the warp yarns during weaving.
- Plain weave
- The simplest weave: the weft goes over one warp yarn and under the next. Ranforce, poplin and percale are plain weaves.
- Byaz (бязь)
- The Russian name for the most common cotton bedding fabric: a plain weave with coarser yarn and a looser structure than ranforce. Sold raw, bleached, solid-dyed and printed.
- Warp
- The yarns that run along the length of the fabric, held under tension on the loom.
- Duck
- A dense, heavy, tightly woven fabric. The duck in our catalog is 65% cotton, 35% polyester and 180 cm wide.
- Digital print
- Printing a design onto fabric by inkjet directly from a computer file. No screens are needed, so it suits multi-colour designs and small runs.
- Width
- The width of the fabric from selvedge to selvedge, in centimetres. Bedding fabrics are usually 220–280 cm wide.
- Contract manufacturing
- Making products at another workshop to the customer's specification and under the customer's brand.
- Flannel
- A soft fabric with a brushed, napped surface. Flannel for home textiles is mostly cotton.
- Weight (GSM)
- The mass of one square metre of fabric in g/m². At the same thread count, thicker yarn gives a higher weight.
- Terry
- An absorbent cotton fabric with loops on the surface, used for towels and bathrobes.
- Yarn count (Ne)
- The fineness of cotton yarn; the higher the number, the finer the yarn. 30/1 means single-ply Ne 30 yarn.
- Carded yarn
- Ring-spun yarn made from carded fibres without removing the short fibres. It costs less than combed yarn.
- Luxe ranforce
- A trade name used on Russian marketplaces, not a standard. Compare the fabric by thread count, yarn count and weight.
- Mako sateen
- Sateen woven from combed long-staple cotton (often called Egyptian), frequently mercerised. There is no official definition; ask for fibre and yarn details.
- Mercerised
- Cotton yarn or fabric treated with caustic soda under tension, which adds lustre and improves dye uptake.
- MOQ
- Minimum order quantity: the smallest order accepted for a product, in metres, pieces or kilograms.
- Sample
- A small piece of fabric sent before an order so you can check the colour and hand feel.
- Open-end yarn
- Yarn spun on rotor machines. It costs less than ring-spun yarn and feels slightly coarser.
- Pazen
- The Turkish name for brushed cotton fabric, often used interchangeably with flannel.
- Combed yarn
- Ring-spun yarn with the short fibres combed out. It is smoother and shinier than carded yarn.
- Percale
- A dense (70–80 threads) plain-weave cotton bedding fabric made from fine yarn. It feels cool and crisp.
- Piqué
- A light summer cotton blanket in a waffle or jacquard weave, and the fabric used for it.
- Polysatin
- A polyester fabric in a satin weave. It looks like cotton sateen but absorbs less moisture; it creases little and keeps its colour.
- Poplin
- A plain-weave cotton fabric with a finer warp than weft. In Türkiye it is often sold as ranforce.
- Ranforce
- A 100% cotton plain-weave bedding fabric, usually 57–63 threads per cm² in Turkish specs.
- Reactive print
- Printing with dyes that bond chemically with cotton fibre, giving wash-fast colour.
- Sanforised
- Fabric that has been mechanically pre-shrunk, which reduces shrinkage after the finished item is washed.
- Cotton sateen
- A cotton fabric in a satin weave, 82 threads or more, with a smooth, shiny face.
- Satin weave
- A weave where the warp yarn floats over several weft yarns, giving a smooth, shiny face.
- Stripe sateen
- Sateen with shiny and matte bands formed during weaving. Even a single-colour fabric shows tone-on-tone stripes; stripe width is quoted as 1, 2 or 3 cm.
- Thread count (tel)
- The total of warp and weft yarns per square centimetre. The same count per square inch is called thread count (TC) and is about 2.54 times higher.
- Roll
- The wound bolt in which fabric is sold. Roll length is given in metres and depends on the product.
- Twill sateen
- A trade name used in Russian retail. Twill is a diagonal weave, but fabrics sold under this name vary; ask for the weave and composition.