French Terry Fabric Mills

What French Terry Is

French terry is a weft knit built like a sweatshirt: one face smooth and flat, the other covered in soft, uncut loops. The loops are formed during knitting, where an extra yarn is fed so it stands in loops on the fabric's back while the face stays plain - the same loop principle as woven terry cloth, executed on a circular knitting machine instead of a loom. The construction gives the fabric its character: the looped back traps a layer of air and wicks moisture away from the skin into that air space, so french terry is absorbent and breathable at once, warm without bulk, and soft in the particular way of a surface made of thousands of tiny loops rather than a flat face. It is most often cotton, or cotton with polyester for stability and easy care, and a touch of elastane for stretch; weights run from T-shirt-light summer versions to heavy loopback fleece weights, and the fabric is usually garment-dyed or piece-dyed in the heather greys and soft colors of the loungewear it mostly becomes.

The distinctions around it matter when specifying. Terry cloth proper - the towel fabric, filed in this directory as the Terry Fabric category linked from this page - is looped on both sides and usually woven, built for maximum absorption. French terry is looped on one side only and knitted, built for garments. Fleece, its directory neighbour, starts as a similar knit but brushes the loops apart into a napped pile, which makes fleece warmer and less absorbent; french terry keeps its loops whole, which is why a loopback sweatshirt feels cooler and drier than a brushed one in mild weather, and why the two fabrics divide the sweatshirt market between spring and winter. Brushed-back french terry - loops lightly brushed for extra softness - is the halfway product, and mills commonly offer the same base cloth in all three finishes, which is why several mills below also appear under fleece.

Uses, Specification and Care

French terry is the fabric of the modern casual wardrobe: sweatshirts and hoodies, joggers and shorts, loungewear and robes, children's clothing that must be soft and washable, and summer-weight knit dresses and tops. Specify it by fiber, weight in grams per square metre, loop density and finish: a tighter, denser loopback absorbs more and drapes less fluidly; garment dyeing gives the soft, lived-in color the fabric is known for but must be allowed for in shrinkage, since loopback knits relax in the first washes - the Testing resources frame the checks. Stretch versions should state their elastane content and recovery. Care is straightforward - wash cool, dry without fierce heat - with one caution: loops snag. Open jewellery, rough Velcro and unzipped jackets pull loops into runs, and a snagged loop should be eased back from the reverse rather than cut, which would ladder the knit.

This directory lists ten mills across India, the USA, Turkey, Taiwan and Pakistan, each linked to its own profile in the Fabric Mills by Name section. The Fabric Directory hub indexes the full section for readers comparing french terry against the wider knit family - jersey, interlock and fleece among them. When you enquire, state the weight, the fiber blend and whether the back should be left looped, lightly brushed, or supplied as the base for a brushed fleece; those three facts decide which of a knitter's lines will quote. Thank you for using the Apparel Search Fabric Mill Directory.

French Terry Fabric Mills Listed in This Directory