Complex Weaves

Complex Weaves - 10/05/2022

Fancy Fabrics

  • Design produced at the same time as the fabric is woven

  • More expensive

  • More permanent design than applied designs

  • Specialized looms required

  • Examples:

  • Dobby weaves

  • Jacquard weaves

  • Leno weaves

  • Double cloth weaves

  • Pile weaves

  • True tapestry weaves

Dobby Fabrics

  • Less than 25 different warp yarn arrangements

  • Design contains simple geometric forms or motifs

  • Use of computer or punch cards

  • Examples:

  • Generic dobby fabrics

  • Waffle cloth (honeycomb)

Extra Yarn Weave

  • Additional warp or filling yarns of different colors or types to create a pattern

  • Examples:

  • Eyelash = most common

  • Dotted swiss aka swivel dot

Pique Weave

  • From the French word meaning “quilted”

  • Use of stuffer yarn

  • Fabric with ridges, wales, or cords held up by floats on back

  • Examples:

  • Bedford cord, pique (pinwale, wide-wale, etc.), birdseye and bullseye pique

Momie Weave

  • Also known as crepe or granite weave
  • Made with dobby attachment
  • Irregular interlacing pattern
  • Examples: sand crepe, granite cloth, moss crepe, bark cloth, crepe

Jacquard Weave

  • Large-figured and elaborate designs

  • More than 25 arrangements of warp to produce design

  • Use computers or punched cards combines basic weaves: plain, twill, satin

  • Examples:

  • Damask, brocade, tapestry

  • Have control of each independent warp yarn

  • Inventor of Jacquard Loom: Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801

Double Cloth Weaves

  • Fabrics woven with 3, 4, or 5 different sets of yarns

  • Double cloth

  • 5 sets of yarns

  • 2 fabrics woven together w/ a 5th binder yarn (2 warp + 2 weft + 1 binder)

  • Face and back can differ

  • CAN separate!

  • Double weave

  • 4 sets of yarn

  • 2 cloths INTERWOVEN (2 warp + 2 weft)

  • CANNOT separate!

  • Examples:

  • Pocket cloth and matelasse

Leno Weave

  • 2 warps twisted in figure 8 shape to lock the filling yarns in place

  • Creates chenille yarn

  • Examples:

  • Leno, marquisette, casement cloth

  • Uses: mosquito netting, fruit packaging and lightweight summer apparel

Pile Weave

  • Three dimensional woven fabric made with an additional warp or filling yarn set that creates the pile

  • Pile: raised surface

  • Filling pile (weft pile)

  • Fabrics:

  • Corduroy

  • Velveteen

  • Warp pile: third (pile) yarn set is warp; cut, uncut, or combination of cut and uncut

  • Fabrics:

  • Velvet

  • Frieze

  • Terrycloth

Slack Tension Weave

  • Warp is slack in bands to give puckered area in stripes
  • Seersucker
  • Slack tension warp yarns are longer in the unraveled portion

True Tapestry Weave

  • Discontinuous filling yarns create pattern with color or texture
  • Same structure

Narrow Fancy Weave Fabrics

  • Woven elastics and trims
  • Used for apparel, interiors, and technical goods