Collection of Advantages and Disadvantages of Common Textile Fabrics

★  Cotton

1 Pure Cotton

All woven from cotton, it is mostly used to make fashion wear, casual wear, underwear, and shirts.
Advantages: easy to keep warm, soft fit, moisture absorption, breathability, heat and alkali resistance, clean and hygienic.
Disadvantages: easy to shrink easy to wrinkle easy to pilling, the appearance is not very straight and beautiful, wear must often ironing.

2 Polyester Cotton

Compared with cotton, is a blend, that is, polyester and cotton blend.
Advantages: soft and, not easy to wrinkle.
Disadvantages: moisture absorption is poor, compared to the “combed cotton”, it is easy to pilling.

3 Ice Cotton

It is an excellent fabric to fight against the summer. There is a coating on the cotton fabric, the color is mainly in a single tone, white, army green, light pink, light brown, etc., suitable for women to make dresses, seven pants, shirts, etc.

Advantages: touch smooth and cool, the fabric is thin but opaque, cool and comfortable, soft and breathable, will not shrink, the surface has a natural pleat, wears a unique style.
Disadvantages: ice cotton and pure cotton, are the same, afraid of insects, and in a humid environment prone to mildew, these shortcomings will seriously affect the appearance of the fabric, so we should pay attention to the daily care and maintenance of ice cotton fabric.

4 Combed Cotton

Pure cotton products are woven better, and have better treatment.

Advantages: This type of fabric can prevent pilling to the maximum extent.
Disadvantages: darker color combed cotton may fade after washing, another disadvantage is that its price will be much higher than pure cotton.

5 Washed Cotton

Cotton cloth as raw material, there is a uniform layer of plush on the surface of high-quality washed cotton fabric, a unique style.

Advantages: soft feel, luster tone, don’t need to iron, washing has the characteristics of not easy to deformation and fading.
Disadvantages: washed cotton manufacturing textile finished products over time is easy to disperse, and also easy to deform.

6 Lycra Cotton

Lycra is added to the cotton fabric. Lycra is an artificial elastic fiber invented and produced exclusively by DuPont, which can be freely stretched 4 to 7 times, and after the release of external forces, quickly return to the original length. It cannot be used alone but can be interwoven with any other man-made or natural fiber.  Its extraordinary stretch and recovery properties make all fabrics better.

Advantages: comfortable to wear, comfortable movement, unique super crease recovery ability, clothing for a long time without deformation.
Disadvantages: there are certain harmful effects on the human body. Due to the addition of chemical fiber material, breathable in general.

7 Mercerized Cotton

Selected from high-grade cotton raw materials, using sophisticated technology, is the best of cotton.

Advantages: soft and comfortable, moisture-absorbing and breathable, shiny and translucent, good dyeing, woven products are not easy to break.
Disadvantages: often stretched easily to deform.

8 mesh Cotton

Pure cotton, special weave.

Advantages: sweat absorption, not easy to deform.
Disadvantages: accompanied by a certain degree of abrasion and pilling.

★  Hemp

The fabric is made of various hemp plant fibers such as flax, ramie, jute, sisal, and banana hemp. It is generally used to make casual wear, work wear, and women’s wear, and is also used to make ordinary summer wear.

Advantages: strong moisture absorption, alkali, and heat resistant, good breathable, does not stick to the body after sweat, wear a straight and stylish.
Disadvantages: wearing comfort is poor, and the appearance is more rough and hard.

Cotton and hemp blend

Generally use 55% hemp and 45% cotton or use hemp, cotton 50% of each ratio for blending.

Advantages: the appearance is rough and brave, soft fabric is not easy to pilling. Cotton and hemp interwoven fabrics, a firm and smooth texture, and feel soft than pure hemp; hemp and cotton blend interwoven fabrics, have a light texture, suitable for summer clothing.
Disadvantages: the luster is dull, the feel of the worsted type is weak, and the feel of the coarse spinning type is loose. The elasticity and stiffness of these fabrics are not as good as pure wool and wool-polyester and wool-acrylic blended fabrics.

★  Wool

1 Cashmere

Advantages: light and soft texture, good warmth, comfortable to wear, a high-grade clothing fabric.

2 Wool

Advantages: good elasticity, not easy to wrinkle, soft and bright colors, acid-resistant.
Disadvantages: poor elasticity after washing, poor shape retention, not suitable for dry cleaning and wet cleaning.

Sheep’s wool	Full and fluffy, soft but not delicate, with good luster and elasticity, with a rough style.
Goat’s wool	Smooth surface, very little curl, long and coarse, with silk-like softness and excellent resilience. With abrasion resistance and high strength, it is the ideal raw material for weaving jacquard wool blankets, long wool piles, smooth wool coat tweed, artificial fur, and other advanced fabrics.
Alpaca wool	Alpaca fiber has more than 17 natural colors: from white to black, and a range of different shades of brown and grey, it is the most naturally colored of the special animal fibers. The “Suli” fibers we see on the market are alpaca wool, with longer fibers, beautiful colors, and better warmth than wool, cashmere, and mohair. The “Bebe” is the young alpaca wool, which is relatively fine and soft. Mohair, on the other hand, refers to Angora goat hair, mainly produced in South Africa, which is characterized by coarse fibers, small curls, and good luster. The mohair fabric has a smooth feel and a lustrous surface. Mohair, like alpaca wool, is mostly a short, smooth style.

3 pure wool worsted fabric

Advantages: mostly thin texture, smooth surface, clear grain. Natural and soft luster, with floating light. Texture stiff feels soft and elastic rich. Release the fabric after holding the fabric tightly, there is basically no wrinkle, and even if there is a slight crease, it can disappear in a short time.

4 pure wool coarse spinning fabric

Advantages: mostly thick texture, rich surface, soft color light, and floating light enough. The weave pattern of the grain surface type is clear and rich. Feel mild, stiff, and elastic.

5 Wool and polyester blend

Advantages: there are shiny spots on the surface in the sunlight, the fabric is stiff, elasticity is better than pure wool fabric, loose after holding the tweed tightly, almost no crease.
Disadvantages: there is a board-hard feeling, a lack of a soft feeling to pure wool fabric, and with the increase of polyester content and prominent, hand feel is not as pure wool and wool clear blended fabric.

6 Wool and viscose blend

The luster is dull, the worsted class feels weaker, the coarse spinning class feels loose, and the elasticity and bracing feeling of this kind of fabric are not as good as pure wool and wool polyester blend, wool clear blend fabric, if the viscose content is high, the fabric is easy to wrinkle.

7 Artificial fiber faux wool

Traditional faux wool fabrics, viscose, and artificial wool fibers as raw materials, dull luster, feel weak, and lack of brace feeling. Due to the poor elasticity, it is very easy to wrinkle, and it is not easy to fade. The strength of the yarn in the fabric after wetting is significantly lower than in the dry state, which is an effective way to identify viscose fabrics. In addition, this kind of faux wool fabric becomes hardened and thickened after wetting. With the progress of science and technology, faux wool fabrics have also made great progress in color, feel, and durability. High-tech textile products are constantly being introduced, decorating our world more diverse.

8 Pure chemical fiber faux wool

Advantages: natural style, bright color and luster after dyeing, good luster, stiff and elastic, suitable for ordinary people to consume.
Disadvantages: dull luster and lack of crispness. Due to the poor elasticity, it is very easy to appear wrinkles, and it is not easy to disappear.

9 Viscose

Advantages: luster brighter than cotton fabric, appearance finer and cleaner than cotton, feels soft and smooth, the texture is soft, and drapes heavy.
Disadvantages: lack of elasticity, easy-to-knead wrinkles, and creases are not easy to recover.

★  Silk: various silk fabrics made of silk.

1 silk

Advantages: lustrous, soft and bright, smooth, a certain stretch.
Disadvantages: easy to wrinkle and easy to rot, easy to draw yarn, color fastness is not good, trouble to take care of, washing trouble.

2 Quercus Serrata silk

Compared with silk

Advantages: more moisture-absorbent and heat-resistant, breathable and acid-resistant.
Disadvantages: the luster and softness are not as bright as silk, and the hand feel is not as smooth as silk.

3 Spun silk

Advantages: good luster, short fiber, rough style.
Disadvantages: more impurities, low strength, easy to pilling, lower grade, the fabric market has been very popular in recent years.

4 Synthetic Silk

Advantages: feeling slightly stiff, wet, and cold.
Disadvantages: drape heavy, easy to wrinkle.

5 Chiffon

Also known as Chiffe in French. The raw materials used can be divided into silk chiffon, artificial chiffon polyester silk chiffon, and other kinds.

Advantages: the texture is soft, thin and transparent, comfortable and flowing, feels smooth and elastic, light and clean appearance, with good breathable.
Disadvantages: because of the poor drape, it is easy to deform and loosen.

6 Chine: fine, even wrinkles on the surface.

Advantages: light and smooth texture, bright and soft color, elasticity, cool and comfortable to wear, good breathable.
Disadvantages: the silk body is heavier than chiffon, and the shrinkage rate is larger, at about 10%, but the general clothing is already shrunk before cutting.

7 Taffeta

It is a high-grade silk fabric made of plain tissue. The production process of taffeta is complex, production is not much, expensive and high-grade, is the top of the ladies’ dresses, popular in Europe and the United States.

Advantages: smooth, flat, and beautiful surface, good luster, tightly woven and stiff to the touch.
Disadvantages: it is easy to produce permanent creases after folding and should not be folded or pressed heavily.

★  Chemical fibres

1 Recycled cellulose fibres

Advantages: moisture-absorbent, breathable, feeling soft, comfortable, with the effect of silk, bright colors, full-color spectrum, good luster, and easy to wrinkle, not stiff, easy to shrink.

2 Polyester

Advantages: stiff, wrinkle-resistant, good strength, wear-resistant, poor moisture absorption, easy to wash and dry, not insects, not moldy, easy to store, for improvement, adding natural fibers, renewable cellulose, fiber blends.
Disadvantages: poor breathability, uncomfortable to wear, easy to absorb dust, easy to pilling.

3 Nylon

Advantages: elasticity and fluffiness similar to wool, high strength, stiff appearance, warmth, and light resistance.
Disadvantages: poor moisture absorption, poor comfort, improved by blending.

4 Acrylic

Advantages: light, fluffy, curly, and soft, similar to wool, slightly less resilient than wool. The fabric is smoother than cotton.
Disadvantages: not as soft as cotton.

5 Spandex

Advantages: good elasticity, large stretch, comfortable to wear, resistant to acids, alkalis, and abrasion, low strength, does not absorb moisture.
Disadvantages: poor moisture absorption; spandex is not usually used alone, but blended with other fabrics; poor heat resistance.

6 Vinylon

Advantages: good strength, moisture-absorbent, not afraid of mildew, not heat-resistant, easy to shrink, easy to wrinkle, strong and wearable texture.
Disadvantages: poor heat-water resistance, shrinkage, and deformation in the wet state when exposed to heat, and not brightly colored.

7 Polypropylene

Advantages: good strength, elasticity, abrasion resistance, non-hygroscopic, non-heat resistant, stiff appearance, dimensional stability.
Disadvantages: poor moisture absorption, poor lightfastness, and no resistance to high temperatures.

Comparison of overall characteristics

Fading: cotton > blends > chemical fibers.
Deformation: knitted > woven.
Pilling: cotton fabrics < blended fabrics (polyester-cotton) < wool-acrylic fabrics.
Static electricity: chemical fiber> cotton.
shrinkage: cotton < blended > chemical fibre.
Wrinkle resistance: cotton ＜blend ＜chemical fiber.