Fabric Mills Directory - Page 4

What This Page of the Directory Covers

This fourth page of the Fabric Mill Directory carries the alphabet from R to T: Raschel, Reflective and Rib open it, followed by Sateen and Satin, the Scents of Fabric page built alongside this one, Seersucker, Silk Fabric and Single Jersey, Smart Fabrics, Stretch and Suede, then the T run - Taffeta, Tassars, Terry, Thermal, Tricot, Tulle, Tweed and Twill. The category listings below are the page's complete set, and the navigation to pages 1, 2, 3 and 5 is in the menu at the foot of the page. This page also carries more of the directory's supporting resources than its neighbours: the waterproof system page, the registered trademarks page for the textile industry, retail antique textiles, the fabric finishes page and the conversion charts are all linked from here, and they are all preserved in the menu below.

The R-to-T run holds the directory's most storied cloths. Satin and sateen are weave structures before they are fabrics - float-faced constructions whose lustre comes from yarns lying long on the surface - and silk, the fiber that named a trade route, sits between them in the list as if to make the point that this alphabet mixes fibers, weaves and finishes impartially, exactly as buyers think of them. Terry, thermal, tricot and raschel are loop and warp-knit constructions; reflective and smart fabrics are the page's technical wing, cloths defined by a function - returning light, sensing, heating, shielding - rather than a structure. Tweed and twill close the page with two wool-and-diagonal classics whose mills are often small, regional and proud of it, a different sourcing world from the commodity jersey and stretch mills listed a few lines above them.

How to Use the Directory Pages

Because this page mixes fibers, structures and functions, read each category's explanation with its own specification in mind: for satin and taffeta, the yarn and the finish; for terry and thermal, the loop and cell structure that traps air; for reflective and smart fabrics, the test data - retroreflectivity figures, wash durability, the standard the cloth is certified against. Then follow the mills to their Fabric Mills by Name profiles. The supporting resources linked from this page reward a detour: the fabric finishes page explains the treatments - including the scenting covered by the Scents of Fabric category - that turn these greige categories into finished cloth, and the registered trademarks page is a useful first check before naming a fabric in a product line, since several everyday fabric words began life as brands.

Page 5 completes the directory alphabet from Ultrasuede to Yarn Dyed, and pages 1 to 3 behind this one run from the opening categories through Q. No category and no resource link has been added or removed from this page. A word on how the mills behind this page's categories differ: the silk, tweed and tassars trades still include small regional mills weaving short runs to order, while the stretch, single jersey and smart fabric categories are served by large integrated knitters and finishers whose minimums are set by machine capacity. The category pages reflect that difference - their listings and explanations point a small designer and a volume importer toward different doors - and a reader who notes a mill's scale from its profile before enquiring will save both sides time. On these pages, as on every page of the directory, you will find information about textile and fabric mills from around the world. Thank you for using the Apparel Search Fabric Mill Directory.

Fabric Categories Listed on Directory Page 4