Absorbency
A measure of how much water a fabric can absorb.
Acetate
Acetate is a synthetic fiber.
Acrylic
Acrylic fibers are synthetic fibers made from a polymer (polyacrylonitrile) with an average molecular weight of ~100,000, about 1900 monomer units. To be called acrylic in the U.S, the polymer must contain at least 85% acrylonitrile monomer. Typical comonomers are vinyl acetate or methyl acrylate. The Dupont Corporation created the first acrylic fibers in 1941 and trademarked them under the name "Orlon".
Aida cloth
Aida cloth is a coarse open-weave fabric traditionally used for cross-stitch.
Alnage
Alnage is the official supervision of the shape and quality of manufactured woolen cloth.
Alpaca
Alpaca is a name given to two distinct things. It is primarily a term applied to the wool of the Peruvian alpaca. It is, however, more broadly applied to a style of fabric originally made from alpaca fiber but now frequently made from a similar type of fiber.
Angora
Angora refers to the hair of the Angora rabbit, or the fabric made from Angora rabbit fur.
(Fabric made from angora goat is mohair.)
Applique
Applique is a technique in which pieces of fabric are sewn onto a foundation piece of fabric to create designs.[dubious – discuss]
Aramid
Aramid fiber is a fire-resistant and strong synthetic fiber
Argyle
An argyle pattern is one containing diamonds in a sort of diagonal checkerboard pattern.

B
Backstrap loom
Backstrap looms, as the name implies, are tied around the weaver's waist on one end and around a stationary object such as a tree, post, or door on the other. Tension can be adjusted simply by leaning back. Backstrap looms are very portable, since they can simply be rolled up and carried.
Baize
Baize is a coarse woollen or cotton cloth, often coloured red or green.
Ballistic nylon
Ballistic nylon is a thick, tough synthetic fabric used for a variety of applications.
Batik
Batik is an Indonesian traditional word and refers to a generic wax-resist dyeing technique used on fabric.
Bedford-Cord
Combination of two kinds of Weave, Namely Plain and Drill.
Bias
The bias direction of a piece of woven fabric, usually referred to simply as "the bias", is at 45 degrees to its warp and weft threads. Every piece of woven fabric has two biases, perpendicular to each other.
Binding
In sewing, binding is used as both a noun and a verb to refer to finishing a seam or hem of a garment, usually by rolling or pressing then stitching on an edging or trim.
Blend
A Blend is a fabric or yarn made up of more than one type of fiber.
Bobbin lace
Bobbin lace is a delicate lace that uses wound spools of thread (the bobbins) to weave together the shapes in the lace.
Bobbinet
Bobbinet is a tulle netting with hexagonal shaped holes, traditionally used as a base for embroidery and lingerie.
Bombazine
Bombazine is a fabric originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material.
Braid
To braid is to interweave or twine three or more separate strands of one or more materials in a diagonally overlapping pattern.
Broadcloth
Broadcloth -material of superior quality.
Brocade
Brocade is the term for forming patterns in cloth with a supplementary weft.
Buckram
Buckram is a stiff cloth, made of cotton or linen, which is used to cover, and protect, a book, and although is more expensive than its look-a-like, Brella, is stronger and resistant to cockroaches eating it. Buckram can also be used to stiffen clothes.
Burlap
Burlap is a type of cloth often used for sacks.

C

Calico
Calico is a type of fabric made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. Also referred to a type of Printing.
Cambric
Cambric is a lightweight cotton cloth used as fabric for lace and needlework.
Camel's Hair
Camel's Hair is a natural fiber from the camel. Camel hair can produce a variety of different coarseness of yarn. This fiber is a novelty fiber spun by hand-spinners.
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, and other functions where sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used on fashion handbags.
Canvas work
Canvas work is embroidery on canvas.
Carding
Carding is the processing of brushing raw or washed fibers to prepare them as textiles.
Carpet
A carpet' is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering.
Cashmere
Cashmere is wool from the Cashmere goat.
Cellulose
Cellulose; this fiber processed to make cellophane and rayon, and more recently Modal, a textile derived from beechwood cellulose.
Cheesecloth
Cheesecloth is a loosewoven cotton cloth, such as is used in pressing cheese curds.
Chiffon
Chiffon is a sheer fabric made of silk or rayon.
Chino cloth
Chino cloth is a kind of twill fabric, usually made primarily from cotton.
Chintz
Chintz is calico cloth printed with flowers and other devices in different colors. It was originally of Eastern manufacture.
Coir
Coir is a coarse fibre extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a coconut.
Colorfast
A term used to describe whether the colors bleed or not in washing.
Cord
Cord is twisted fibre, usually intermediate between rope and string. It is also used as a shortened form of corduroy.
Corduroy
Corduroy is a durable cloth.
Cotton
Cotton is a soft fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to the tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old World and the New World. The fibre is most often spun into thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile.
Crepe
Crepe is a silk fabric of a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance.
Crazy quilt
Crazy quilting is often used to refer to the textile art of patchwork and is sometimes used interchangeably with that term.
Crinoline
Crinoline was originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830.
Cross-stitch
Cross-stitch is a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches are used to form a picture.
Crochet
The word crochet describes the process of creating fabric from a length of cord, yarn, or thread with a hooked tool.
Crochet hook
A crochet hook is a type of needle, usually with a hook at one end, used to draw thread through knotted loops.
Cro-hook
The cro-hook is a special double-ended crochet hook used to make double-sided crochet. Because the hook has two ends, two colours of thread can be handled at once and freely interchanged.
D

Damask is a fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Today, it generally denotes a linen texture richly figured in the weaving with flowers, fruit, forms of animal life, and other types of ornament.
Darning mushroom
A darning mushroom is a tool which can be used for darning clothes, particularly socks. The sock can be stretched over the top of the (curved) mushroom, and gathered-tightly-around the stalk.
Denim
Denim denotes a rugged cotton twill textile.
Dimity
Dimity is a lightweight, sheer cotton fabric having at least two warp threads thrown into relief to form fine cords.
Dobby loom
Dobby loom is a loom in which each harness can be manipulated individually. This is in contrast to a treadle loom, where the harnesses are attached to a number of different treadles depending on the weave structure.
Double weave
Double weave is a type of advanced weave. It is done by interlacing two or more sets of warps with two or more sets of filling yarns.
Dowlas
Dowlas is the name given to a plain cloth, similar to sheeting, but usually coarser.
Durability
how durable a fabric or yarn is.
Dyes
Dye is used to color fabric. There are two main types: Natural dyes, and synthetic dyes. The process is called Dyeing.
Dye lot
Dye lot is a number that identifies yarns dyed in the same vat at the same time. Subtle differences can appear between different batches of the same color yarn from the same manufacturer.
E
Embroidery
Embroidery is an ancient variety of decorative needlework in which designs and pictures are created by stitching strands of some material on to a layer of another material. See also: Machine embroidery.
Epinglé fabric
A type of velvet fabric woven on a wire loom or épinglé loom. The épinglé velvet is specific by the fact that both loop pile and cut pile can be integrated into the same fabric. The art of épinglé weaving in Europe originates from Lucca (Italy) and later Venice and Genua. Actually the term 'Genua velvet' is still in use. The Flemish region of Kortrijk and Waregem (Belgium) is the area whereupon today the technique of épinglé weaving is still very actual. The fabric finds it application mostly in upholstery, although in medieval times is was used as apparel for princes and kings as well as for bishops, cardinals and the pope.
Even-weave
Even-weave or evenweave fabric is used in counted-thread embroidery and is characterized by Warp and weft threads of the same size.
Eyelet
Grommets and eyelets are metal, plastic, or rubber rings that are inserted into a hole made through another material. They may be used to reinforce the hole, to shield something from the sharp edges of the hole, or both.
F
Facing
Felt
Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers. The fibers form the structure of the fabric.
Felting
The process of making felt is called felting.
Fiber
Fiber or fibre (see spelling differences) is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. They can be spun into filaments, thread, or rope. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt.
Filament
A filament is a fine, thinly spun thread, fiber, or wire.
Filling
See weft
Fishnet
Fishnet is a material with an open, diamond shaped knit.
Flannel
Flannel is a cloth that is commonly used to make clothing and bedsheets. It is usually made from either wool, wool and cotton, or wool and synthetic fabric.
Flax
Flax fiber is soft, lustrous and flexible. It is stronger than cotton fiber but less elastic. The best grades are used for linen fabrics such as damasks, lace and sheeting. Coarser grades are used for the manufacturing of twine and rope.
Frieze
Frieze is a coarse woollen cloth with a nap on one side, that was raised by scrubbing it to raise curls of fibre (French: frisé). In the 19th century rough cheap frieze was made of wool mixed with shoddy (see Shoddy).
Fulling
Fulling is a step in clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to get rid of oils, dirt, and other impurities.
Fustian
Fustian is a term for a variety of heavy twilled woven cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for menswear. Usually dyed in a dark shade. Declined in popularity from 1813, being replaced by harder wearing and better quality wool cloths.

G

Gabardine
Gabardine is a tough, tightly woven fabric often used to make suits, overcoats and trousers. The fibre used to make the fabric is traditionally worsted (a woolen yarn), but may also be cotton, synthetic or mixed. The fabric is smooth on one side and has a diagonally ribbed surface on the other.
Gauge
A gauge is a set number of rows per inch (in knitting) or the thread-count of a woven fabric that helps the knitter determine whether they have the right size knitting needles or a weaver if the cloth is tight enough.
Gante
Gante is a cloth made from cotton or tow warp and jute weft. It is largely used for bags for sugar and similar material, and has the appearance of a fine hessian cloth.
Gauze
A very light, sheer, fine woven fabric.

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