Types of Fabric: Names, Pictures and Uses from A to Z

Fabrics are classified in two ways: by construction, which is how the material is held together, and by fibre, which is what it is made of. By construction there are four groups. A woven fabric has two sets of yarns crossing at right angles. A knitted fabric is made of rows of interlocking loops. A nonwoven is a sheet of fibres bonded directly, with no yarn at all; felt is one. The fourth, smaller group covers everything else: lace, nets, braids and tufted fabrics. By fibre, a fabric is natural (cotton, linen, wool, silk), man-made from a natural polymer (viscose, lyocell, acetate), synthetic (polyester, nylon, acrylic, elastane), or a blend.

Most fabric names describe a construction and a finish, not a fibre. Chiffon is a sheer plain weave of twisted yarns whether it is silk or polyester; jersey is a plain weft knit whether it is cotton or viscose; denim is a twill with a dyed warp. That is why the table below gives construction and fibre in separate columns. It lists 88 fabrics from A to Z, each with its construction, the fibres it is usually made from, its weight or feel, and its uses. A description of most of them follows, with a picture and a note on how to recognise each, and the original list of 87 is in a printable PDF with pictures.

Last verified: 5 October 2026. Sources are linked where they are used and listed at the end.

Types of fabric from A to Z

Each name links to its picture and description further down the page; each construction has a page of its own too, for woven, knitted and non-woven fabrics. In the weight column, sheer means you can see through it, light means a blouse or shirt weight, medium a trouser or furnishing weight, and heavy a coat, bag or upholstery weight. Figures are given only where a mill, a standard or a textile glossary publishes them; silk is sold by the momme, a Japanese unit equal to about 4.3 g/m², and the weight section explains grams per square metre and ounces.

Fabric	Construction	Typical fibre	Weight or hand	Typical uses
Aertex	Woven, cellular (leno-type)	Cotton	Light, open	Sports and school shirts
Aida cloth	Woven, even-weave grid	Cotton	Stiff, open grid	Cross-stitch embroidery
Baize	Woven, napped	Wool, cotton	Dense, felt-like nap	Card and gaming tables, notice boards
Batiste	Woven, plain, fine	Cotton, polyester-cotton	Sheer, very light, soft	Lingerie, nightwear, linings, handkerchiefs
Bird’s eye	Woven dobby pattern, or a knit backing	Cotton, various	Light to medium	Nappies (historically); patterned knits
Bombazine	Woven, twill	Silk warp, worsted weft	Medium, dull	Historic dress and mourning wear
Broadcloth	Woven, plain, fine crosswise rib	Cotton, polyester-cotton	Light to medium, lustrous	Shirts
Brocade	Woven, Jacquard, raised figures	Silk, metallic yarn, synthetics	Medium to heavy	Saris, evening wear, upholstery
Buckram	Woven, open, stiffened	Cotton, linen	Stiff	Interlinings, hats, bookbinding
Cable knit	Weft knit, loops crossed	Wool, acrylic	Heavy, bulky	Sweaters
Calico	Woven, plain	Cotton	Medium	Dresses, quilts, toiles, bags
Cambric	Woven, plain, calendered	Cotton, linen	Light, smooth, slight gloss	Handkerchiefs, shirts, linings
Canvas and duck	Woven, plain, compact	Cotton, linen, synthetics	Heavy: about 200 to 1,700 g/m² (6 to 50 oz/yd²)	Tents, bags, shoes, sails, artists’ canvas
Casement	A use: curtain cloth	Cotton, blends	Sheer to medium	Curtains
Chambray	Woven, plain, coloured warp, white weft	Cotton	Light; nearly square, e.g. 80 × 76 threads per inch	Shirts, dresses; heavier grades for workwear
Charmeuse	Woven, satin	Silk, polyester	Light, fluid; silk from about 12 momme	Lingerie, blouses, evening wear
Cheesecloth	Woven, low-count plain	Cotton	Very light, loose	Kitchen and dairy use, summer clothes
Chenille	Woven or knitted from chenille yarn	Cotton, viscose, acrylic, polyester	Soft, fuzzy pile	Upholstery, throws, bathrobes
Cheviot	Woven, twill (a tweed)	Wool	Medium to heavy, harsh	Suits, coats
Chiffon	Woven, plain, highly twisted yarns	Silk, polyester, nylon	Sheer; silk about 6 to 10 momme	Evening wear, scarves, overlays
Chino	Woven, twill	Cotton, cotton blends	Medium, smooth	Trousers, summer uniforms
Chintz	Woven, plain, printed and glazed	Cotton	Medium, glazed	Curtains, upholstery
Corduroy	Woven, cut weft pile in lengthwise cords	Cotton	Medium to heavy; 5 to 16 cords per inch	Trousers, jackets
Crepe	Woven or knitted; twisted yarns, crepe weave or finish	Silk, wool, viscose, polyester	Light, pebbly	Dresses, blouses
Crepe de chine	Woven, plain, crepe-twisted weft	Silk, polyester	Light, soft	Blouses, dresses, scarves
Crewel	Wool embroidery on a woven ground	Wool on cotton or linen	Medium to heavy	Curtains, cushions, bedcovers
Damask	Woven, Jacquard, reversible satin figure	Linen, cotton, silk	Medium, flat, glossy	Table linen, furnishings
Denim	Woven, 2/1 or 3/1 twill, coloured warp	Cotton, cotton-elastane	Medium to heavy	Jeans, jackets, workwear
Dimity	Woven, plain, often corded stripes	Cotton	Sheer, thin	Summer dresses, babywear, curtains
Double knit	Weft knit, two needle beds	Polyester, wool, cotton	Medium, stable	Dresses, trousers
Drill	Woven, 2/1 twill	Cotton	Medium to heavy, firm	Uniforms, workwear, pocketing
Felt	Nonwoven (matted or needled); also fulled woven wool	Wool, synthetics	Varies; no grain	Hats, crafts, insulation
Flannel	Woven, plain or twill, napped	Wool, cotton	Medium, soft	Suits, shirts, nightwear, sheets
Fleece	Knitted (sometimes woven), napped or pile	Polyester, cotton	Light to heavy; polar fleece in 100, 200 and 300 weights	Sweatshirts, jackets
Foulard	Woven, 2/2 twill, printed	Silk, polyester, acetate	Light, lustrous	Ties, scarves
French terry	Weft knit, loops on the back	Cotton, cotton-polyester	Medium, soft	Sweatshirts, joggers
Fustian	Woven, heavy, often cut weft pile	Cotton (historically linen warp)	Heavy	Workwear
Gabardine	Woven, warp-faced twill (45° or 63°)	Worsted wool, cotton, polyester	Medium, firm	Suits, trousers, raincoats
Gauze	Woven, gauze (leno) or loose plain	Cotton, silk, synthetics	Very light, open	Dressings, curtains
Georgette	Woven, plain, crepe yarns both ways	Silk, polyester	Sheer, grainy	Saris, blouses, dresses
Gingham	Woven, plain, yarn-dyed checks	Cotton, cotton blends	Light to medium	Shirts, dresses, tablecloths
Glass fabric	Woven from glass filament yarn	Glass	Medium to heavy	Fire blankets, insulation, composites
Intarsia	Weft knit, colour blocks	Wool, acrylic	Medium	Sweaters, socks
Interlock	Weft knit, double (crossed 1×1 rib)	Cotton	Medium, smooth both sides	T-shirts, polo shirts, babywear
Jacquard knit	Weft knit, needle-selected pattern	Wool, acrylic, cotton	Medium	Sweaters
Jersey (single)	Weft knit, plain stitch	Cotton, viscose, polyester, elastane	Light; two common T-shirts use 145 and about 180 g/m²	T-shirts, underwear, dresses
Kashmir silk	Woven, plain, embroidered or printed	Silk	Light	Saris, shirts, stoles
Khadi	Hand-woven from hand-spun yarn	Cotton, silk, wool	Varies, slightly uneven	Shirts, kurtas, furnishings
Khaki	A colour; usually drill or twill	Cotton, wool, blends	Medium	Uniforms, workwear
Lace	Openwork, by hand or machine	Cotton, nylon, polyester	Light, open	Lingerie, bridal wear, trims
Lamé	Woven (or knitted) with flat metallic threads	Metallic yarn with silk or synthetics	Light to medium, metallic	Evening wear, costumes
Lawn	Woven, plain, fine	Cotton, linen	Light, crisp	Blouses, handkerchiefs, nightwear
Leno	Woven, paired twisting warp ends	Cotton, synthetics	Open, stable	Curtains, nets, produce sacks
Linsey-woolsey	Woven	Linen warp, wool weft	Coarse, sturdy	Historic clothing and bed covers
Madras	Woven, plain, yarn-dyed checks and plaids	Cotton	Light	Summer shirts, shorts
Madras muslin	Woven gauze with cut extra-weft figures	Cotton	Sheer	Curtains
Moleskin	Woven, heavy sateen, napped and sheared	Cotton	Heavy, suede-like	Trousers, workwear
Mousseline	Woven, plain, very fine	Silk, wool, cotton	Sheer, light	Dresses, scarves
Muslin	Woven, plain	Cotton, polyester-cotton	Sheer to medium	Dresses, toiles, kitchen use
Net and tulle	Knotted or machine-made mesh; tulle has a hexagonal mesh	Nylon, polyester, silk, cotton	Very light, open	Veils, ballet costumes, curtains
Organdy	Woven, plain, chemically stiffened	Cotton	Sheer, stiff, wiry	Collars, trims, curtains
Organza	Woven, plain, filament	Silk, polyester, nylon	Sheer, stiff; silk about 5 to 7.5 momme	Bridal and evening wear, overlays
Oxford	Woven, modified basket	Cotton, polyester-cotton	Medium, soft	Shirts
Percale	Woven, plain, close	Cotton, polyester-cotton	Crisp, matt; 80 × 80 threads per inch or more	Sheets, dresses
Pointelle	Weft knit with transferred-loop eyelets	Cotton, viscose	Light, lacy	Tops, babywear
Poplin	Woven, plain, more ends than picks	Cotton, polyester-cotton	Light to medium, fine rib	Shirts, dresses
Purl	Weft knit, courses alternate face and back	Wool, acrylic	Thick	Sweaters, children’s wear
Raschel	Warp knit	Nylon, polyester, cotton	Light to heavy, often open	Lace, power mesh, nets
Rib	Weft knit, wales alternate face and back	Cotton, cotton-elastane, wool	Very elastic across the width	Cuffs, collars, waistbands, fitted tops
Sateen	Woven, satin weave	Cotton	Smooth, lustrous	Sheets
Satin	Woven, satin weave	Silk, acetate, polyester	Smooth, lustrous	Evening wear, linings
Seersucker	Woven, plain; slack and tight warp stripes	Cotton, synthetics	Light, crinkled stripes	Summer suits, shirts, dresses
Serge	Woven, 2/2 twill, smooth face	Worsted wool	Medium, firm	Suits, uniforms
Shantung	Woven, plain, slubbed yarn	Silk	Medium, crisp	Bridal and evening wear, furnishings
Sheeting	A use: wide plain or twill cloth	Cotton, polyester-cotton, linen	Medium	Bed sheets
Sliver knit	Weft knit with a fibre-sliver pile	Acrylic, modacrylic	Heavy, long pile	Imitation fur, linings
Taffeta	Woven, plain, fine crosswise rib	Silk, acetate, nylon, polyester	Crisp, rustling	Evening wear, linings
Tartan	Woven, usually 2/2 twill, coloured sett	Wool	Medium	Kilts, scarves, skirts
Terry	Woven, uncut loop pile	Cotton, cotton blends	Medium to heavy, absorbent	Towels, bathrobes
Ticking	Woven, close (plain, twill or satin)	Cotton, linen	Heavy, dense	Mattress and pillow covers
Tissue	Woven, plain, with zari	Silk, synthetics, metallic yarn	Light, metallic sheen	Saris
Tricot	Warp knit	Nylon, polyester, acetate	Light, smooth	Lingerie, linings, sportswear
Tweed	Woven, 2/2 twill, woollen yarns	Wool, wool blends	Heavy, rough	Jackets, coats, suits
Velour	Woven or knitted, short thick pile	Cotton, wool, polyester	Soft, plush	Coats, upholstery, leisurewear
Velvet	Woven, cut warp pile	Silk, viscose, cotton, polyester	Medium, dense pile	Evening wear, upholstery
Velveteen	Woven, short cut weft pile	Cotton	Medium, low pile	Jackets, trousers, dresses
Voile	Woven, plain	Cotton, polyester	Sheer, light, soft	Blouses, sheer curtains
Whipcord	Woven, very steep twill with cords	Worsted, wool blends, cotton	Heavy, firm	Uniforms, riding breeches

How to tell woven, knitted and nonwoven fabric apart

Four checks settle the construction of almost any piece of cloth in a minute, with nothing more than a pair of scissors and a magnifier. A counting glass, the small folding lens sold for counting threads, makes the third check easier. Each construction has its own page on this site: woven fabric types, knitted fabric types and non-woven fabrics. When the fibre matters too, the fibre identification tests, including the burn test, are the next step.

Check	Woven	Knitted	Nonwoven
Pull a thread from a cut edge	Straight yarns pull out in two directions at right angles, and the edge frays	A weft knit unravels as one crinkled, looped yarn; a cut edge may curl or ladder	There is no yarn to pull; the edge shows loose fibres or fused filaments
Stretch it	Little give along or across the cloth, more on the diagonal, unless the yarn contains elastane	Stretches readily, most of all across the width, and recovers	Usually little stretch; it tears or distorts rather than springing back
Look through a magnifier	A grid of yarns passing over and under one another	Columns of V-shaped loops on the face and rows of arcs on the back	A random web of fibres, often with a pattern of small bond points
Check the edges of the roll	A firm selvedge on both edges	A tube from a circular machine, or slit edges	Slit edges

Woven fabrics

A woven fabric is made on a loom from two sets of yarns: the warp, which runs along the length of the cloth, and the weft, which crosses it. The order in which they pass over and under each other is the weave. ISO 3572 defines the general terms and the three basic weaves. In a plain weave every weft passes over one warp and under the next, which gives the firmest interlacing: poplin, voile, chiffon, taffeta and canvas are plain weaves. A twill steps the interlacing along by one thread on each pick, which draws diagonal lines across the face: denim, drill, gabardine and serge are twills. A satin spaces the interlacings so far apart that long floats of one set of yarns cover the face, which gives the lustre of satin and sateen. Almost every other woven fabric is one of these three with something added: a pile (velvet, corduroy, terry), a figure woven by a Jacquard or dobby mechanism (damask, brocade), crossed warp ends (leno and gauze), or a coloured pattern from dyed yarns (gingham, madras, tartan). The classification of weave patterns covers the derived weaves, and woven fabric types shows the common woven fabrics with pictures.

Knitted fabrics

A knitted fabric is made of loops pulled through loops. The vertical columns of loops are wales and the horizontal rows are courses. In weft knitting, the kind used for most T-shirts, sweaters and sportswear, each course is formed by a yarn running across the fabric, so one yarn can make the whole piece. Its four basic structures are single jersey, rib, interlock and purl. In warp knitting each wale has its own yarn, fed from a beam, and the yarns zigzag between neighbouring wales; tricot and raschel are the two main families, used for lingerie, sportswear linings, lace and nets. A warp knit does not unravel the way a weft knit does. The terms are standardised in ISO 8388, the vocabulary of knitted fabric types. Knitted fabric types describes each structure, from single jersey to raschel, with pictures; the principles of weft and warp knitting and warp knitting have their own articles.

Nonwoven fabrics

A nonwoven skips the yarn altogether: fibres or continuous filaments are laid into a web and bonded by heat, by entangling them with needles or water jets, or with a binder. ISO 9092 sets the definition. Most nonwovens are named after the process that made them: spunbond, meltblown, needle-punched, spunlace (hydroentangled), thermal-bonded, airlaid and wet-laid. Wool felt, made by matting wool fibres with heat, moisture and agitation, is a nonwoven too, and so is flash-spun Tyvek. The non-woven fabrics page explains each process, with worked calculators.

Other constructions

A few fabrics are made in none of the three ways. Lace is an openwork of twisted, looped or knotted threads, made by hand with bobbins or needles, or by machine; much machine lace is now warp-knitted on raschel machines. Nets are knotted, twisted (bobbinet) or warp-knitted. Braids are made by interlacing yarns diagonally, and narrow braids, tapes and webbings have their own article, narrow fabrics. Tufted fabrics, which include many carpets, are made by needling pile yarn into a backing that already exists. Coated and laminated fabrics join a fabric to a film, foam or second fabric, and are covered in coated and laminated textile fabrics.

Types of fabric by fibre

The second way to classify a fabric is by the fibre it is made from. Fibres come from plants, from animals, from natural polymers that are dissolved and spun again, from synthetic polymers, or from minerals. A few fabrics are named after their fibre (linen, silk, wool, cotton), but most fabric names say nothing about it, which is why the law in many countries requires a separate fibre label. In the European Union, Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 allows only the fibre names in its Annex I on labels and requires each fibre to be listed with its percentage by weight; the generic names of man-made fibres are standardised in ISO 2076. Two fibres dominate by volume: Textile Exchange’s Materials Market Report 2025 put polyester at 59% of all fibre produced in 2024 and cotton at 19%. The full list of fibres, with their sources, is in types of textile fibres.

Fibre group	Main fibres	Fabrics often made from them
Plant (cellulose)	Cotton, linen (flax), hemp, jute, ramie	Calico, poplin, denim, lawn, voile, canvas, terry, damask table linen, hessian
Animal (protein)	Wool, cashmere, mohair, alpaca, silk	Flannel, gabardine, serge, tweed, baize, felt; chiffon, organza, taffeta, charmeuse, shantung
Man-made from natural polymers	Viscose (rayon), modal and lyocell, acetate	Crepe, linings, satin, velvet, jersey
Synthetic	Polyester, nylon (polyamide), acrylic, elastane (spandex), polypropylene	Georgette, satin, taffeta, fleece, tricot, knitwear, stretch denim, spunbond nonwovens
Mineral and other inorganic	Glass, carbon, metal	Glass and carbon fabrics for composites, filtration and insulation; metallic yarn in lamé and zari
Blends	Two or more of the above	Polyester-cotton shirting and sheeting, cotton-elastane denim, wool-polyester suiting; see blended fabrics

Measuring a fabric: weight, threads and cover

Two fabrics with the same name can differ a great deal, so a mill specification gives numbers as well: the weight, the number of threads per unit length, and the yarn counts. Several of this site’s calculators work with exactly those numbers. Each link below opens the calculator with the example’s figures already entered.

Fabric weight: GSM and ounces

Fabric weight is the mass per unit area, given in grams per square metre (g/m², usually called GSM) or, in the United States, in ounces per square yard. It is measured by cutting specimens of known area and weighing them, by the methods in ISO 3801 and ASTM D3776. The two units are linked by one exact constant: an ounce is 28.349523 g and a square yard is 0.83612736 m², so 1 oz/yd² is 33.906 g/m². Weight per square metre does not depend on width, but the weight of a running metre does, and that is the figure that sets the price of a roll. A 180 g/m² fabric is 5.31 oz/yd², and at 150 cm wide every running metre weighs 270 g. Open the fabric weight converter with these figures; it is also below, live.

Ends and picks, and the weight they predict

In a woven fabric the warp threads are called ends and the weft threads picks. Counting them per inch or per centimetre, as ISO 7211-2 describes, is the first step in describing a construction. A construction is written as yarn counts and thread counts: 40s × 40s, 133 × 72, for example, means warp and weft yarns of 40 English cotton count (Ne), with 133 ends and 72 picks per inch. Take that as a cotton poplin, a cloth with many more ends than picks, which is what gives poplin its fine crosswise rib. Entered with 6% warp crimp and 4% weft crimp, which are assumptions rather than measurements, the fabric GSM calculator gives a loom-state weight of 125.5 g/m². Loom state means as it comes off the loom: finishing shrinks, washes and sometimes coats the cloth, so the finished weight is different. To go the other way, from a swatch you have weighed and counted to the yarn counts that must have made it, use woven fabric reverse engineering.

Cover factor: how closely a cloth is woven

The thread count alone does not say how closely woven a fabric is, because a thick yarn covers more area than a thin one. Peirce’s cover factor corrects for that: in English units it divides the threads per inch by the square root of the cotton count, and a value of 28 means the yarns touch. For the same 40s poplin the cover factor calculator gives a warp cover of 21.0, a weft cover of 11.4 and a fabric cover of 23.9, so yarn covers about 85% of the area. Weave the same yarn at 60 ends and 56 picks, an open cheesecloth-like sett chosen here only for comparison, and the fabric cover falls to 15.3, about 55%. That is the difference you see when you hold a cheesecloth and a poplin up to the light. The maximum sett calculator gives the other limit: the most ends or picks per inch a weave can take at a given count before the cloth jams.

The weight of a knitted fabric

A knitted fabric has no ends and picks. Its weight follows from the number of loops in a square metre (courses times wales) and the length of yarn in each loop, the stitch length. The knitted GSM calculator opens here with its own default case: 42 courses and 32 wales per inch, a 2.9 mm stitch and a 30s cotton yarn, which give 118.9 g/m². That is about 2.08 million loops and 6 km of yarn in every square metre. The article on calculating GSM for knit fabrics works through the same arithmetic by hand, and the stitch length calculator starts from the machine side.

Pictures of fabric types, A to Z

The pictures show examples, and the note with each says how to recognise the fabric. Weaves are easiest to see with a magnifier on the reverse side, where finishes and prints do not hide them.

Aertex

A cellular cotton cloth: an open, leno-type weave whose small cells trap air. Harmuth’s 1915 dictionary describes English cellular cloth as an open cotton leno used for underwear. Aertex is the brand name of the Cellular Clothing Company, set up in Britain in 1888, and the cloth is still used for sports and school shirts.

Aida cloth

An even-weave cotton in which groups of warp and weft threads are woven together to leave a stiff grid of regular holes. Embroiderers work cross stitch over the squares, and Aida is sold by the number of squares per inch.

Baize

A coarse woollen cloth with a nap on one side, later also made in cotton, so the weave is hidden under a felt-like surface. It is used chiefly to cover card and gaming tables, and for notice boards.

Batiste

A sheer, very fine plain weave, usually of mercerised combed cotton or polyester-cotton, soft to the touch. It is used for lingerie, nightwear, christening gowns, handkerchiefs and linings. The name is traditionally said to come from Baptiste, a weaver of Cambrai, but that is a legend, not a record.

Bird’s eye

The name has two meanings. In weaving, birdseye is a small dobby pattern of diamonds with a dot in the centre, once the standard absorbent cotton for nappies. In knitting, it is the speckled effect on the back of a patterned double knit, produced by the different colours used in the face design. Ask a supplier which one is meant.

Bombazine

A twilled or corded dress fabric made with a silk warp and a worsted wool weft, dull rather than lustrous. Black bombazine was widely used for mourning dress in the nineteenth century.

Brocade

A rich Jacquard-woven fabric with raised figures or flowers over its whole surface, often with gold or silver threads, on a satin or twill ground. The Banarasi saris of Varanasi, India, are among the best-known brocades. See also brocade for upholstery.

Buckram

A coarse, open cotton or linen cloth stiffened with glue or heavy size. It is used as an interlining in collars, cuffs and waistbands, in bookbinding, for hat shapes and to stiffen curtain headings.

Cable knit

A weft knit in which groups of loops are moved across one another so that the wales twist like ropes. Cables are typical of heavy sweaters, usually in wool or acrylic.

Calico

A plain, closely woven, inexpensive cotton. In the United States calico usually means a cotton printed with small figures on a plain background, used for dresses, aprons and quilts; in Britain the name is also used for plain, unbleached cotton. It is named after Calicut, now Kozhikode, in India.

Cambric

A soft, closely woven white cotton or cotton blend, originally linen, calendered on the face to give it a slight gloss. It is used for handkerchiefs, shirts and linings. The name comes from Cambrai in France, where the cloth is said to have been first made.

Canvas and duck

Compact, firm, heavy plain weaves, usually cotton, often from plied yarns; the trade treats canvas and duck as one family, which ranges from about 6 to 50 oz/yd². Numbered duck is graded by a rule set in a 1924 US Bureau of Standards specification: the number is 19 minus the weight in ounces of one yard of 22-inch-wide cloth. No. 10 duck is therefore 14.7 oz/yd², about 499 g/m². Canvas is used for tents, bags, shoes, sails and as artists’ canvas.

Casement

A curtain fabric, named after the casement window. In American usage casement cloth means light, sheer curtain and screening fabrics; the name is also used for heavier cotton and blended curtain cloths like the one pictured. It describes a use, not a construction.

Charmeuse

A light, fluid satin-weave fabric with a lustrous face and a dull back, traditionally silk and now often polyester. Silk charmeuse is sold in weights from about 12 momme upwards. It is used for lingerie, blouses and evening dresses.

Cheesecloth

A soft, low-count plain weave of cotton, so loosely woven that it is also called gauze. It was first used for wrapping and draining cheese, and is still used in kitchens and dairies and for light summer clothing.

Chenille

A fabric woven, or knitted, from chenille yarn, which has a fuzzy pile standing out on all sides. The yarn itself is cut from a specially woven fabric. Chenille is French for a caterpillar, a name given for the yarn’s furry look. It is used for upholstery, throws, cushions and bathrobes.

Cheviot

A rugged tweed made from uneven yarn, with a rather harsh hand. It was originally an all-wool twill made from the wool of Cheviot sheep and is used for suits and coats. The picture shows a herringbone twill.

Chiffon

A sheer, transparent, very light plain weave made from fine, highly twisted yarns, usually with about the same number and count of threads in warp and weft. Silk chiffon is the original and is sold at about 6 to 10 momme; polyester and nylon chiffon are now more common. The name comes from the French chiffe, a rag or piece of cloth.

Chino

A cotton or cotton-blend twill, long used by armies for summer-weight uniforms and often dyed khaki. Today it is mainly a trouser fabric, lighter and smoother than drill or denim.

Chintz

A plain-woven cotton printed with bold patterns, usually flowers, and glazed by friction calendering, which gives it a shine; unglazed, the same cloth is called cretonne. It is a furnishing fabric for curtains and upholstery. The name comes from the Hindi chint, from a Sanskrit word for variegated or bright.

Corduroy

A weft-pile fabric with ridges of cut pile (cords, or wales) running along its length. Extra weft yarns float over the ground and are cut after weaving, and the cut ends are brushed into rounded cords. It is graded by cords per inch: one British mill’s range runs from 5-wale cord to 16-wale needlecord. The story that the name comes from French corde du roi, the king’s cord, is a folk etymology: the phrase is not found in French.

Crepe

A light fabric with a crinkled, pebbly surface, produced in one of four ways: hard-twisted yarns, a chemical treatment, a crepe weave or embossing. In crepe de chine the crepe-twisted yarns are in the weft only; in georgette they are in both directions. The picture shows Japanese chirimen woven from rayon.

Crewel

Crewel is embroidery, not a weave: designs worked in loosely twisted wool yarn on a cotton or linen ground. Crewel work from Kashmir is made for curtains, cushions and bedcovers.

Damask

A firm, glossy Jacquard fabric, flatter than brocade and reversible: the figure is woven in satin of one face on a ground of the opposite face, so the pattern shows by the way it catches the light. Linen and cotton damask are the classic table linens; silk and blended damasks are used for furnishings. It is named after Damascus.

Denim

A firm 2/1 or 3/1 twill with a coloured warp, traditionally indigo, and a white weft, which is why the inside of a pair of jeans is paler. Heavier denims go into jeans and workwear and lighter ones into shirts and dresses; stretch denim adds elastane. The name comes from serge de Nîmes, a cloth from Nîmes in France. The site’s denim fabrics article covers its types.

Dimity

A sheer, thin cotton, sometimes with cords or stripes woven in by grouping threads together at intervals. It is used for summer dresses, blouses, babywear and curtains.

Double knit

A weft knit made on two needle beds, so both faces show plain loops and the fabric is thicker and more stable than single jersey. It does not curl at the edges. Rib and interlock are both double knits.

Drill

A strong cotton 2/1 twill, much like denim but usually dyed in the piece. It is used for uniforms, workwear and pocketing, and is often called khaki when it is dyed that colour.

Felt

Felt is usually a nonwoven: a sheet of wool, hair or fur, sometimes with synthetic fibres, matted together by moisture, heat, pressure and mechanical action. Needle felt, made by entangling synthetic fibres with barbed needles, is a nonwoven too. A woollen cloth woven and then shrunk so heavily that the weave disappears is also called felt. See non-woven fabrics.

Flannel

A medium-weight plain or twill weave, slightly napped on one or both sides, usually wool or cotton. Wool flannel is a suiting cloth; cotton flannel is used for shirts, nightwear and sheets.

Fleece

A fabric with a thick, soft surface like a sheep’s fleece, made by napping a knitted (or, less often, woven) fabric or by giving it a pile. Sweatshirt fleece is knitted with an extra, thicker yarn on the back that is brushed up. Polar fleece is polyester and is sold in weight classes: Polartec names its own 100 (lightweight), 200 (mid-weight) and 300 (heavyweight).

Foulard

A lightweight, lustrous 2/2 twill, usually printed with small figures on a plain ground, in silk, filament polyester or acetate. It is the classic necktie and scarf fabric.

Fustian

Originally a cloth with a linen warp and a cotton weft; now a family of heavy cottons with a cut weft pile or a stout weft face, including velveteen, moleskin and corduroy. It was a workwear cloth for centuries.

Gabardine

A firm, durable, warp-faced twill with a distinct diagonal line at about 45° or 63°, in worsted wool, cotton or polyester. It is used for suits, trousers, uniforms and raincoats. Burberry developed its weatherproof gabardine around 1880.

Gauze

A thin, sheer fabric. In a true gauze weave each weft yarn is gripped by two warp yarns twisted around each other, as in leno, which keeps the open cloth from slipping; cotton surgical gauze is a similar loose cloth. It is used for dressings, curtains and light clothing.

Georgette

A sheer plain-weave crepe with right- and left-twisted crepe yarns in both warp and weft, which gives it a grainy, matt surface and a springy drape. It was first made in silk; most is now polyester. It is a staple sari, blouse and dress fabric.

Gingham

A plain-woven cotton or cotton blend with checks or stripes made by weaving dyed yarns at fixed intervals in both warp and weft, usually one colour and white, so the pattern is the same on both sides. The name came through Dutch from a Malay word usually glossed as striped.

Glass fabric

Fabric woven from yarns of fine glass filaments. Glass does not burn, so it is used for fire blankets and insulation, and as the reinforcement in glass-fibre composites such as boat hulls.

Intarsia

A weft knit with blocks of colour, each knitted from its own yarn, so there are no floats of unused yarn across the back. Argyle socks and picture sweaters are often intarsia.

Interlock

A double weft knit in which long and short needles knit alternately on two beds, giving the effect of two 1×1 ribs crossed into each other. Both faces look like the face of single jersey. It is smooth, stable and does not curl, and is used for T-shirts, polo shirts and babywear.

Jacquard knit

A weft knit patterned by selecting needles individually, so each yarn colour is knitted only where the design needs it. In a single jersey jacquard the unused yarn floats across the back; in a double jersey jacquard it is knitted into the back as a bird’s eye or striped backing.

Kashmir silk

A regional name for silk fabrics from Kashmir, India, usually plain-woven and embroidered or printed with Kashmiri motifs, used for saris, shirts and stoles.

Khadi

Cloth hand-spun and hand-woven in India, in cotton, silk or wool. Its slightly uneven yarns give it a textured surface. See khadi: hand spinning and weaving.

Khaki

Khaki is a colour, a light yellowish brown, and by extension the cotton or wool cloth dyed that colour for military uniforms and workwear, usually a drill or twill. The word is Urdu for dusty, from a Persian word for dust.

Knitted terry and French terry

A weft knit with a second yarn that forms loops on one side. Knitted terry is softer and stretchier than woven terry; French terry has small, unbrushed loops on the back and is used for sweatshirts and joggers.

Lamé

A fabric in which flat metallic threads, usually silver or gold, form either the ground or the pattern. It is usually woven, though knitted lamé is also made, and is used for evening wear and stage costumes.

Lawn

A light, thin plain weave of carded or combed cotton, originally linen, with a crisp finish: crisper than voile but not as stiff as organdy. It is used for blouses, handkerchiefs and nightwear. The name probably comes from Laon, in France.

Leno

A weave in which the warp yarns work in pairs, one twisted around the other between picks, locking the weft in place. That gives an open fabric firmness and stops the threads sliding. It is used for curtains, mosquito netting and produce sacks, and to bind the edges of cloth on shuttleless looms.

Linsey-woolsey

A coarse, sturdy cloth woven with a linen warp and a woollen weft, once common in Britain and North America for clothing and bed covers.

Madras

A lightweight plain-woven cotton with stripes, checks or plaids in dyed yarns, named after the city of Madras, now Chennai. The Celanese glossary records the trade saying that true madras is guaranteed to bleed: its colours run in the wash and soften with age.

Madras muslin

A sheer gauze-woven cotton with figures made by extra weft yarns; after weaving, the floats between the figures are cut away, leaving shorn ends at the edge of each motif. It is a curtain fabric.

Mousseline

French for muslin: a very fine, light, semi-sheer fabric in silk, wool or cotton. Mousseline de laine is a soft, light, open plain weave of fine worsted, often printed.

Muslin

A broad name for plain-weave cotton or polyester-cotton fabrics, from fine sheers to heavier shirting and sheeting weights. In the United States it is also the plain cotton used to make toiles. The name comes from Mosul, in Iraq, through the Italian mussolina.

Organdy

A very thin, transparent, stiff, wiry cotton muslin. Swiss organdy is chemically treated so that it keeps its crisp, transparent finish through many washes; untreated organdy loses its crispness and has to be starched again. It is used for collars, trims, curtains and bridal wear.

Organza

A stiff, thin, sheer plain weave of silk or of nylon, acrylic or polyester filament, used mainly for evening and bridal wear and for overlays. Silk organza is sold at about 5 to 7.5 momme.

Oxford

A soft but stout shirting in a modified basket weave: a thick, soft weft yarn passes under and over two fine warp yarns together, which gives a slightly textured, two-tone surface. It is usually cotton or polyester-cotton and is the classic button-down shirt fabric.

Percale

A closely woven plain weave of spun yarns, crisp and matt, used for sheets and dresses. The Celanese glossary gives percale as generally 80 × 80 threads per inch or better, a thread count of 160 or more.

Pointelle

A weft knit with a pattern of small holes made by transferring loops to neighbouring needles, which gives a light, lacy effect. It is used for tops, cardigans and babywear. The picture shows embroidered eyelet work, which looks similar; in pointelle the holes are formed by the knitting itself.

Poplin

A plain weave with many more ends than picks, so the fine warp crowds together and the cloth shows a fine rib across its width. Broadcloth is similar, with a finer rib. Cotton and polyester-cotton poplin are standard shirting fabrics, and the ends and picks example above works out the weight of one.

Purl

A weft knit in which alternate courses are drawn through to opposite sides of the fabric, giving horizontal ridges and the same look on both faces. It is thick, stretches lengthwise, and is used for sweaters and children’s wear.

Raschel

One of the main families of warp knits, with tricot. Raschel machines make lace, nets, power mesh and many other open or textured warp-knitted fabrics.

Rib

A double weft knit in which alternate wales intermesh on the face and the back, so both sides show vertical ribs. It is very elastic across its width and is used for cuffs, collars and waistbands, and for close-fitting tops.

Satin and sateen

Both are satin weaves: the face is almost entirely long floats of one set of yarns, with the interlacings spread as far apart as possible, which gives a smooth, lustrous surface. Satin is usually made from filament silk, acetate or polyester; sateen is a satin weave in cotton, common in bed sheets. See also bedsheet fabric types.

Shantung

A plain-woven silk with an unevenly ribbed, slubbed surface and a crisp texture, from irregular yarns such as wild silk or douppioni, which is reeled from double cocoons. It is named after Shandong (Shantung) province in China and is used for bridal and evening wear and furnishings.

Sheeting

Sheeting is a use: medium-weight, closely woven plain or twill fabrics in cotton, polyester-cotton or linen, made wide enough for bed sheets. Percale and sateen are both sheetings.

Single jersey

The simplest weft knit, made with a plain stitch on one set of needles, so the loops intermesh in one direction only and the face and back look completely different: V-shaped loops on the face, rows of arcs on the back. It stretches well across its width, curls at cut edges and can ladder. T-shirts, underwear and hosiery are jersey; Two widely sold T-shirts, for example, are knitted from jersey of 145 g/m² and about 180 g/m² (5.3 oz/yd²). The name comes from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands. Its variations are in knitted fabric types.

Sliver knit (high pile)

A weft knit in which a loose, untwisted rope of fibre (a sliver) is fed to the needles with the ground yarn, so the fibres stand up as a long pile. Imitation fur and many coat linings are made this way, usually from acrylic or modacrylic.

Taffeta

A crisp, smooth plain weave, usually lustrous, with a fine crosswise rib from a weft slightly heavier than the warp. Silk taffeta is the original; acetate, nylon and polyester are now common. Shot (changeable) and moiré finishes are often applied to it, which is why taffeta is sometimes wrongly described as always having a watered pattern. The name comes from the Persian taftah.

Tartan

A woollen cloth usually woven in a 2/2 twill, with stripes of coloured yarn crossing at right angles. The repeating pattern is called the sett, and the twill is what gives the colours their hatched look where they cross. Tartans are recorded in the Scottish Register of Tartans.

Terry cloth

A woven cotton or cotton-blend fabric with uncut loops on one or both sides, made by an extra warp on a dobby or Jacquard loom. The loops give it a large surface for absorbing water. The site’s terry towels article explains how the loops are made.

Ticking

A durable, closely woven fabric, usually cotton, for covering mattresses, box springs and pillows. It may be plain, twill or satin woven, usually with strong warp and soft weft yarns, and is often striped.

Tissue

In Indian usage, a light silk or synthetic fabric woven with gold or silver zari in the weft, which gives it a metallic sheen; it is used for saris. Elsewhere, tissue means any very fine, sheer fabric.

Tricot

The most common type of warp knit, with fine wales on the face and crosswise ribs on the back, usually made from nylon, polyester or acetate filament. It does not ladder, and is used for lingerie, linings and sportswear.

Velour

A fabric with a short, thick pile. Woven velour, in cotton or wool, is used for coats, curtains and upholstery; knitted velour is made like knitted terry with the loops then sheared and brushed, and is used for leisurewear and babywear.

Velvet

A warp-pile fabric with a short, dense, cut pile. It is woven either as two cloths face to face, with the pile yarns running between them and cut apart by a knife, or over wires that cut the pile loops as they are drawn out. Silk velvet is the original; viscose, cotton and polyester velvets are common. Velveteen, by contrast, has a weft pile. See the complete guide to velvet.

Voile

A sheer, light, soft plain weave, usually of combed cotton or polyester. It is used for blouses, children’s wear and sheer curtains. Voile is French for veil.

Warp knit

In a warp knit the yarns run along the fabric, fed from beams with one or more yarns for each needle, and each yarn forms loops in neighbouring wales in turn. Warp knits do not ladder and are stable. Tricot and raschel, above, are the main families. See warp knitting and knitted fabric types.

Whipcord

A woven cloth, not a knit: a compact, very steep twill with pronounced round cords running diagonally, in worsted, wool blends or cotton. It is very hard-wearing and is used for uniforms and riding breeches.

Names for a use, a finish or a state, not a type

Some names in fabric lists, including earlier versions of this page, describe what a fabric is for, what has been done to it or how far it has been processed, rather than how it is made. Any of the constructions above can carry them.

Filter fabric

A filter fabric is chosen for a job, not made in one way. Filter media are woven, knitted, needle-felted or meltblown, from fibres matched to the temperature and chemicals of the process.

Grey (greige) fabric

Grey or greige is a state, not a type: any fabric as it comes off the loom or knitting machine, before scouring, bleaching, dyeing or finishing. The word has nothing to do with colour. Mills sell and price much of their cloth in the greige state.

Industrial fabric

An older term for fabrics made for performance rather than appearance, often from glass, carbon, aramid or high-tenacity polyester and nylon. They are now called technical textiles; see types of technical textiles.

Laminated fabric

A laminated fabric is a fabric bonded to a film, a foam or a second fabric, or a reinforcing scrim sealed between two layers of plastic film. A waterproof breathable membrane laminated to a shell fabric is a common example. See coated and laminated textile fabrics.

Narrow fabric

Narrow fabrics are woven, knitted or braided fabrics made in narrow widths: tapes, ribbons, labels, webbing, elastic and zip tapes. See narrow fabrics.

Plain weave

Plain describes a weave, not a fabric: each weft passes over one warp and under the next, and the next weft does the reverse. Poplin, voile, chiffon, taffeta and canvas are all plain weaves. See plain weaves.

Quilted fabric

Quilting is a construction of layers: a padding such as down or fibrefill between two fabrics, held in place by stitching or by sealing in a regular pattern. It is used for quilts, jackets, mattress tops and bags.

Reflective fabric

A fabric coated or laminated with retroreflective glass beads or microprisms, which send light back towards its source. It is used on high-visibility workwear and safety clothing.

Stretch fabric

A stretch fabric is any woven or knitted fabric made with elastane (spandex) or textured yarns so that it stretches and recovers in one direction or both. See spandex fabric.

Download the list as a PDF

The printable version, 87 types of fabric and their patterns (PDF, 1 MB), has a picture and a description of each fabric, one or two to a page, for classrooms and offline reading. It was first published in 2010. Where it and this page differ, this page is the corrected version.

Sources

Every source below was read on 5 October 2026. Standards are cited to their catalogue entries and to the records on this site, which give scope and context but never reproduce a standard’s text. Definitions are this site’s own wording, checked against the glossaries and dictionaries listed.

• Definitions: Celanese Acetate, Complete Textile Glossary (2001, archived copy); L. Harmuth, Dictionary of Textiles (1915); Denny, Fabrics and How to Know Them (1923); the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica on Wikisource for bombazine, baize and buckram.
• Name origins: Online Etymology Dictionary, entries for each fabric named; Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, Cellular Clothing Co and Burberrys; Scottish Register of Tartans, FAQ.
• Standards and law: ISO 3572 (weaves), ISO 8388:1998 (knitted fabric types), ISO 9092 (nonwovens), ASTM D123 (textile terminology), ISO 2076 (man-made fibre names), ISO 3801 and ASTM D3776 (mass per unit area), ISO 7211-2 (threads per unit length); Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and labelling.
• Weights from mills and makers: US Bureau of Standards, C. W. Schoffstall and R. T. Fisher, Development of the standard numbered cotton duck specification, Technologic Paper 264 (26 September 1924); Brisbane Moss, corduroy range; Polartec, fleece series; Next Level Apparel, 3600 T-shirt (145 g); Gildan 5000 T-shirt, 5.3 oz/yd², as published by a distributor; silk momme weights from the Thai Silks and Dharma Trading catalogues, and Dharma Trading, what momme means.
• Fibre production: Textile Exchange, Materials Market Report 2025 (September 2025).

Change log. 5 October 2026: rewritten in full, with the fibre classification that was on a separate page added. Corrected from the previous version: whipcord is a woven twill, not a knit; tartan is usually a 2/2 twill, not a plain weave; damask is a flat, reversible Jacquard, not a heavy, rough fabric; in denim the dyed warp shows on the face; cambric is named after Cambrai, not Cambria; the Aertex company dates from 1888, and no 1886 patent could be found; baize is a napped woollen, later also cotton, cloth rather than a wool-cotton blend; satin is woven, not knitted; the watered (moiré) look is a finish sometimes given to taffeta, not a feature of all taffeta; the claim that red reflects light best was removed; and nine names that describe a use, a finish or a state (filter, greige, industrial, laminated, narrow, plain, quilted, reflective and stretch) are now listed separately from the fabric types. The worked examples use this site’s calculators as they stood on this date.

Found an error? Please tell us through the contact page, naming the fabric and the source that disagrees.