How is a fabric created?
in the First part of this series we dealt with what materials are and which there are. These materials in turn can be processed in different ways of fabric and also occur in different mixtures. Often, for example, cotton with a small proportion of elastane content to make the finished fabric more stretchy.
What fabrics are there?
Jersey
Jersey is one of the most common processing methods and belongs to the so called mesh goods. This means, as the name suggests, that the fabric is formed by small mesh. Jersey is knitted and thus gets its high elasticity and the soft skin feeling. The term "Jersey" says nothing about the material. It is available in numerous compositions - so watch out, because Jersey is not just Jersey. In addition, there are also different variants of Jersey, which mostly only become noticeable in the thickness of the material:
Classic Single Jersey Is knitted in a single-style manner and has a right and a left side of the fabric, which means the inside of your T-shirts has a different structure and look than the outside. As a rule, single jersey is bi-elastic, i.e. elastic in the longitudinal and transverse direction. That is why it is often used for T-shirts.
Double Jersey
As the name suggests, it is knitted two-layer and therefore has two identical sides of the fabric inside and outside. It is firmer compared to Single Jersey and a little less compliant. We at MANDALA use it for our yoga pants.
Stretch jersey has its name from the elastane share that makes it even more elastic. It can often be found in the sports segment, for example in leggings.
Sweat
Sweat fabrics are also among the mesh goods. In contrast to other mesh fabrics such as the jersey mentioned above, an additional thread is knitted with a sweat material, which can also be roughened depending on the optics. Sweat is usually thicker and heavier than Jersey and is often made of cotton. This makes it particularly stable, but usually less elastic than Jersey. Sweat fabrics are often used for hoodies, sweaters or jogging pants.
Perfectly equipped to find your next favourite piece
The entire range of fabrics and materials is of course much larger and would probably be too long for a single contribution. Nevertheless, especially for the performance area, where the efficiency and properties of the individual products are really decisive, a large part of the materials are covered. At least so, equipped with the repertoire of fabric science, you can plunge back into the jungle of technical terms, with the knowledge of what to look out for.
