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A glossary of weaving
The world of weaving and fabric production has an extremely rich technical vocabulary. Below you will find a few terms and definitions to ensure you don’t lose the thread...
Needles
A needle is a metal rod tapered at one end (point) and with an opening at the other end (eye) through which the thread is passed.
Sizing and treatments
Sizing and treatments are processes used to give new properties to yarns or fabrics, or to correct their defects or make them look good for sale.
Weave of a fabric
Method of interweaving warp and weft yarns (plain, satin, twill, basket, louisine, taffeta, chevron, gros de tour, double face).
Embroidery
Decorative stitching using a thread that conceals the fabric to a varying degree.
Lace
Light, openwork fabrics in which neither warp nor weft can be distinguished. Lace is made up of a background and patterns created by interweaving, winding, hanging or braiding threads. Lace can be made from linen, cotton, ramie, silk, rayon, wool, metallic and synthetic threads.
Finishing
All the treatments carried out on unbleached fabric (bleaching, dyeing, sizing, printing, etc.), which contribute to increasing its value.
Weft and warp yarn
On a loom, the warp yarns are arranged according to the length of the fabric. The weft yarn is a continuous yarn that is always perpendicular to the warp yarns.
Silk
Silk is of animal origin. It is a secretion of caterpillars, the most common of which is the "silkworm", the caterpillar of the Bombyx mori moth.
Hemp
Hemp is of plant origin. The textile fibres are located in the stem of an herbaceous plant that grows in our regions as well as in warmer climates.
Cotton
Cotton is of plant origin. Its fibres surround the seeds of the fruit of a shrub that grows in hot, humid regions.
Jute
Jute is of plant origin. The fibres are located in the stem of a plant that grows to about 3m high, particularly in India.
Linen (flax)
Linen is of plant origin. The textile fibres are located in the stem of an herbaceous plant. The flax stalks are picked, dried, hulled and then subjected to several treatments. In the flax stem, the usable fibres are close to the non-textile parts from which they must be separated.
Union fabric
Fabric made up of a mix of 50% linen and 50% cotton.
Organdy
Stiff finish on cotton voile.
Textile dyeing
Dyeing a textile means giving it a colour that is different from its natural shade. Dyeing follows bleaching and can be carried out on wadding, yarns, fabrics or spinnable pulp.
Fabrics
Surface resulting from the perpendicular interweaving of yarns.
Rayon and fibranne viscose
The term viscose refers to cellulose textile yarns and fibres obtained by the viscose process.
Voile
100% polyester, lightweight sheer fabric. Linder produces voile under the Plein Jour brand.
Armored
It is a simple embroidery done mainly on tergal & linen or sandblasted.
Black-out
This fabric has a darkening effect or blocks out the light.
Café or tier curtains
Low-height sheer curtains that fit across the window.
Cornely
It is a simple embroidery done mainly on tergal & linen or sandblasted.
Adhesive coating
A temporary coating or finish to reinforce the warp yarns and thus give them better resistance during the weaving process.
Cheesecloth
Taffeta fabric with a natural and rustic look.
Yarn
A set of parallel fibres held together by a twist.
Traditional spun yarns
Yarns that are twisted at one or more ends.
Textured yarns
Texturing is an operation that consists of deforming the individual strands of a continuous yarn to modify its physical characteristics: swelling, elasticity.
Spinning
When they come straight from the mill, continuous yarns are untwisted (flat yarns). The spinning process consists of twisting one or more threads.
Knotting
The knotting process is carried out when a completed warp is replaced by an identical or at least compatible warp (number of threads, material, title, neighbouring threads).
Organza
Very sheer fabric woven on a 20-denier warp.
Warping
Process consisting of winding the yarns that will make up the warp onto the beam trolley, which will be placed at the back of the loom.
Threading the comb
Process consisting of passing the threads that have already been drawn into the heddles, individually or in groups (2, 3, 4 or more threads), between the teeth of the comb.
Polyester
Polyester yarns and fibres were created in England in 1950 and sold under the name TERYLENE, then in the US under the DACRON brand, and then in France under the brand name: TERGAL
Pre-pleated
Pre-pleating is non-removable for the length of the curtain rod. The length of the rod is therefore required for such an order to be made.
Principle of weaving
Weaving is the joining together of two elements of a fabric – the warp and the weft – on a machine called a loom (with shuttle) or a weaving machine (without shuttle).
Tucking or drawing in
Process consisting of passing the warp threads one by one through the heddle eyelets using a heddle hook.
Sablé
Basic type of sheer fabric with a fancy weave giving it the sablé (grainy) effect.
Weaving
Transformation of yarns into fabrics.
Twisting
Twisting means winding several elementary strands of the same thread or several threads together into spirals. The twist of a yarn is characterised by the direction of the twist and the number of turns per metre (twist rate).
Transfer or sublimation
First we print on paper, then by raising the temperature of the paper the design is transferred to fabric. This is the decalcomania system.