Stretch Fabric Directory

Two Ways Fabric Stretches

The first way is elastane - the segmented polyurethane fiber sold under names such as spandex and Lycra - which can stretch to five times its length and snap back. It is never used alone: a few percent, core-spun or intermingled with cotton, polyester, nylon or wool, turns a rigid cloth into a comfort-stretch fabric, and 15-40 percent builds the power stretch of activewear and swimwear. The second way needs no elastane at all. Mechanical stretch comes from the structure - every knit stretches because its loops deform - and from yarn engineering: textured and false-twist polyester yarns, bicomponent fibers that crimp as they cool, and weave constructions that build give into a woven cloth.

The distinction matters commercially. Elastane gives the strongest, most reliable recovery but degrades with chlorine, heat and time, and it complicates recycling. Mechanical-stretch fabrics cost more to engineer but wear longer and recycle with mono-material programs, which is why denim, trousering and suiting brands have invested heavily in them.

Stretch in Knits and Wovens

In knits, stretch is measured by how far the fabric extends under a standard load and how completely it recovers; two-way stretch extends across the width, four-way in both directions, and the jersey, interlock and warp-knit pages of this directory lead to mills working in all of them. In wovens, stretch is usually weft-wise only - the direction a pair of jeans or a fitted shirt needs to give - though bi-stretch suiting and shirting exist. Woven stretch quality is judged on growth: how much the fabric bags after wear. Good mills keep residual growth to a few percent through yarn choice, weave density and heat-setting.

Buyers should specify stretch and recovery numbers, not just elastane percentage, and should test after washing and tumble drying, since elastane loses power fastest in the dryer. Chlorine-resistant elastane is standard for swimwear programs, and black elastane is preferred for dark fabrics because standard elastane can grin through - showing pale at the surface when the fabric is stretched.

The Mills on This Page

The original stretch fabric directory listed ten mills, and all ten are kept below with their profiles: Ahmed Fine Textile Mills of Pakistan, Alok Textile Industries of India, Best Textiles International of China, Beximco Group of Bangladesh, Ceyteks Tekstil of Turkey, Gulshan Weaving Mills of Pakistan, Kuanging Industrial of Taiwan, PT. Frans Putratex of Indonesia, Safer Textile Processing Corp. of the USA and Shahtex (Leicester) Limited of the United Kingdom - a genuinely global list, reflecting how completely stretch has spread through every fabric-producing region.

Care and garment engineering decide whether stretch performs in the field. Elastane should never meet chlorine bleach, high dryer heat or prolonged hot pressing, all of which break the polymer chains that provide recovery; care labels on elastane garments exist for chemical reasons, not caution. Pattern makers must cut stretch garments differently - negative ease in four-way knits, reduced ease in comfort-stretch wovens - and factories need walking-foot or differential-feed machines so seams extend with the cloth instead of popping. Mills support this end of the chain by supplying stretch test data with each lot: extension under load, recovery after a set rest, and growth after repeated cycling. A quotation that includes those figures is worth more than a cheaper one that leaves the garment factory to discover them.

The category keeps widening: stretch has moved from jeans and activewear into suiting, shirting, footwear uppers and even tailored coats, and each new use pushes mills to deliver give without the rubbery hand that early stretch fabrics had. Modern stretch cloth is engineered to feel like the fabric it replaces, only kinder.

Fabric Mills and Factories in This Directory

The mills below are the listings the original Apparel Search directory carried on this page. Each name opens that company's profile in the Fabric Mills by Name directory.