Plain language
Fabric glossary
The words on a bolt tag, without the mystique. The live site already publishes a glossary; this is the same idea, kept to the terms that actually change what you buy.
| Bolt | The roll a fabric is wound on. A full bolt is what you buy when you buy 'by the roll'. |
| Selvedge | The finished, non-fraying edge that runs down both sides of a woven fabric, parallel to the warp. |
| Warp | The threads that run the length of the roll, held under tension on the loom. |
| Weft | The threads that cross the warp, side to side, from selvedge to selvedge. |
| Plain weave | One over, one under. The simplest and most stable interlacing. |
| Twill | A staggered interlacing that makes a diagonal rib. Denim is a 3×1 twill — three warps over, one under. |
| Pile | An extra set of raised loops or cut fibres standing off the base cloth. Velvet, chenille and terry are pile cloths. |
| Jacquard | A pattern woven into the cloth on a jacquard loom rather than printed onto it. Reads on both faces. |
| Dobby | A small geometric woven pattern from a dobby loom — jacquard's simpler cousin. |
| Hand | How a cloth behaves in the hand — how it falls, how it resists. The one thing a photograph cannot show you. |
| Nap | A pile that lies in one direction. Nap fabrics must be cut all facing the same way or the colour shifts. |
| gsm | Grams per square metre. The honest way to compare two weights of the same cloth. |
| Repeat | The distance before a pattern starts again. Long repeats need extra yardage to match at the seams. |
| Voile | A soft, sheer plain weave, lighter than muslin — curtains and summer clothes. |
| Georgette | A sheer crepe with a grainy hand and a dull face; heavier than chiffon. |
| Melton | A heavily milled wool with a felted face that barely frays. Coats and outerwear. |
| Seersucker | A puckered cotton woven with alternating slack and tight warps — the pucker is structural, not pressed in. |