Difference Between Knit, Woven and Nonwoven Fabrics

Hello there; Julia here! I’m a textile designer and enthusiast and
good friend of Marissa’s. We trade textile fun facts, ask each other
about our areas of expertise (she’s always the one I ask about my
sewing machine hiccups!), and keep each other accountable with our
creative endeavors. I’m so lucky to have a creativity buddy who
supports me and speaks my language! As a result, I was thrilled
when she asked me to write this article on fabric types for Stitch
Clinic. In this article, I will be covering the most common fabric
structures (knit and woven fabric) as well as briefly discussing
nonwovens.

To put it simply:
● Knits are made of loops of con nuous yarn
● Wovens are made of interlacements of warp and weft yarns
● Nonwovens are made of tangled or bonded fibers
Time for some details.
KNITS
A knitted fabric is a series of interconnected loops of yarn. Knitted
fabrics are naturally stretchy because of this looped structure, even
if the yarn used is not stretchy on its own. Knitted fabrics can be
handknitted (check out Marissa’s post about the Knit Stitch to learn
how!) or knitted on a machine. Either way, they are created using
tools called needles, although handknitting needles and industry
knitting needles are quite different.
The loops that are the “building blocks” of knitted fabrics are called
“stitches.” On a basic level, a knitted fabric can be viewed as though
it is a grid made up of stitches: the horizontal rows of stitches are
called rows (handknitting) or courses (industry knitting), and the
vertical columns of stitches are called wales. Knits can be reversible,
but they usually have a technical face and back (right and wrong
sides).
Knit fabrics are usually used for products that take advantage of
their natural stretch. Places to find knitted fabrics include sweaters,
socks, your favorite T-shirt, bathing suits, athleisure clothing, stuffed
animals, office chairs, and the fabric on the ceiling of your car.

Be a fabric detective: Not sure if a fabric is a knit? These

characteristics indicate that your fabric might be a knit:
● Stretches easily in one or more direc ons
● Looks like it is made of flat “Vs” or bumps
● Has con nuous, connected loops of yarn
Examples:


Hand knit fabric, you can see every stitch or “V”. Very thick fabric
because the yarn is thick.
 
Commerically made knit fabric can use very thin needles and yarns to make
very thin fabrics.

There are different kinds of knit fabrics. For example – a man’s

white sleeveless undershirt is usually made with ribbed fabric (knit
and purl stitches on the same side) compared to your average t-shirt.
A typical hoodie sweatshirt and t-shirt are made from knit fabric,
just different weight threads/yarn were used to make the fabric.

WOVENS
A woven fabric is created when two sets of yarns at right angles to
one another are interlaced together. Woven fabrics have natural
stability due to these interlacements, and are not stretchy unless
they are made with elastomeric yarns. Woven fabrics can be
handwoven on table or floor looms or woven on larger industrial
looms.
The grainline of a woven fabric follows the warp direction, meaning
that it is the up-and-down direction of the fabric. Sewing patterns
for clothing must be cut “on the grain” so that they hang properly
and don’t end up stretching along the diagonal (the bias) and having
an awkward fit.
Let’s talk about selvages. Selvages are the edges on the left and
right sides of a fabric, running up the edges vertically. (They are also
spelled selvedges—totally your preference.) Selvages can be as
simple as the last stitch or interlacing on the edge of a fabric, or they
can be a narrow strip of tightly-constructed fabric that gives the
main, usable part of the fabric stability. When using a fabric, it’s a
good idea to be mindful of your selvages and keep a piece that has
both selvages still attached.
Having a selvage is a huge asset when doing “detective work” on a
fabric, since it can help you figure out the grain of the fabric or the
correct direction of a print. The width between selvages is often the
limiting factor in how large a piece of fabric can be; length can be
increased relatively easily, but the size of the machine that knitted
or wove your fabric limits how wide the fabric can be.

Woven fabrics are often used to make things that utilize their
stability, such as jeans, button-down shirts, quilts, couches, curtains,
rugs, and tarps.
Be a fabric detective: Not sure if a fabric is a woven? These
characteristics indicate that your fabric might be a
woven:
● Unravels easily along a cut edge
● Does not stretch easily
● Has dis nguishable sets of yarns at right angles
Examples:


This particular burlap is loosely woven. Not suitable for home decor that
will see a lot of wear or use. It is already coming undone!
 
Home Decor fabric is woven much more tightly to withstand repeated wear
and use. Fabrics with different colored yarns usually make a plaid design.

NONWOVENS
Nonwoven fabrics are made of individual fibers (rather than yarns)
that have been tangled, felted, or bonded together. They are often
less stable and pull apart more easily than wovens and knits.

Nonwovens are used in applications such as felt crafts, wet wipes,

weed barrier fabrics, and other landscaping textiles.
Be a fabric detective: Not sure if a fabric is a nonwoven?
These characteristics indicate that your fabric might be a
nonwoven:
● Has no dis nguishable right or wrong side
● Has no distinguishable direction
● Pulls apart easily
Examples:

Craft felt is a common example of a nonwoven fabric. The fiber used in
craft felt is relatively thick and very visible,.


The white nonwoven fabric shown here is a cut-away embroidery backing.
 The fibers used are thin, the individual fibers are less visible and the fabric
is thin.

That about sums it up! I hope that you’re even more excited about
fabric and that this overview will be helpful the next time you’re
buying fabric for a project or when you are doing some textile
detective work. If you’d like to check out some of my design work,
feel free to follow the following links. Thanks again for having me on
Stitch Clinic, Marissa!

A huge thanks to Julia and her great illustrations. Now that you have
learned a little more about knit, woven and nonwoven fabrics,
hopefully you will be able to narrow down project fabrics more
quickly. This post is full of great information and useful to get to
know the terminology used in textile design and production.

To see more about finding beautiful fabrics, see this post about
buying fabrics while on travel.
We can dream about traveling even though it’s not a good idea right
now… can’t we?

/=================================/
Know Your Fibers: Wovens vs. Nonwovens
and Knit Fabrics
The goal of our Know Your Fibers series is to provide info about different types of fibers
for our readers. In this post, we’ll take a look at how nonwovens compare to woven and
knit fabrics.
Just by using the word nonwoven, you know a nonwoven fabric is not a woven fabric. It
is also not a knit fabric. While production of nonwoven fabrics only requires a few steps,
production of woven or knitted fabrics requires that the fibers be made into yarn first—
then those yarns must be woven or knitted into fabrics. Conventional textiles like
clothing, sheets, towels, upholstery, and curtains are made from woven knitted fabrics.
Let’s look at the different production steps for each respective fabric:
Production of Nonwoven Fabrics from Staple Fibers

Production of Woven Fabrics from Staple Fibers

Production of Knit Fabrics from Staple Fibers

As you can see from the diagrams, producing nonwoven fabrics has fewer steps than
woven or knit fabrics. Also, the production speed for making staple fiber nonwoven
fabrics is much faster (100 to 400 yards per minute) than woven fabrics (0.5 to 6 yards
per minute) and knit fabrics (2 to 16 yards per minute). Because of the higher speeds
and reduction of steps, nonwoven fabrics cost much less to produce.

Nonwoven Fabrics Breakdown

The fibers are bonded together by mechanical bonding (fiber entanglement), chemical
bonding (fibers are chemically bonded together with glue-like compounds), or thermal
bonding (where low-melt fibers are used and heat is used to melt the fiber to each
other). Nonwoven fabrics are lighter and weaker than woven or knit fabrics. They don’t
have much memory (for example, if you bend your elbow the fabric will retain that
position and leave a pucker in the fabric) or laundering durability, making them
unsuitable in durable clothing applications. Since they are cheap to produce, they’re
ideal for single-use products such as wipes, medical products, feminine hygiene
products disposable diapers, etc.

Woven Fabrics Breakdown

Woven fabrics are produced on a loom. The loom joins two sets of yarns by weaving one
set between the other. The two sets of yarns are perpendicular to each other. One set is
called the warp and runs the length of the fabric. The loom will raise some other warp
yarns up and some down, ultimately creating a shed. The fill or weft yarn is placed in
the shed parallel to the ward yarn and the shed closes. Now the yarns that were down
go up, and the ones that were up go down, creating another shed as another fill yarn is
put through. Many different fabric constructions (like plain weave, twill weave, etc.) can
be created by changing which yarns are opened up or pulled down in the shed. Woven
fabrics are durable to washing and can be finished to yield many different properties
(like being flame-retardant or water-repellant). They do not have much stretch because
of the tightness of the yarns in the fabric. Yarn properties are important for the fabric’s
performance. If you want a stretcher fabric you can add some elastomeric fibres (think
Spandex) to the yarn.

Knit Fabrics Breakdown

Knitting is defined as forming a fabric by means of interloping the yarn. Knitting
machines do the same interloping of yarn that a hand knitter does. Knit fabrics have
stretch because of the looseness of the fabric’s yarn structure (compared to knits and
most nonwovens). Because of this looseness, the fabric can tighten up due to the
mechanical action in laundering. That’s why knit fabrics shrink. Most current knit
fabrics are pre-shrunk before a garment is made from them, which eliminates most
shrinkage. Because the yarns in knit fabrics are looped around themselves, if you pick a
knit fabric the whole length of that course of yarn will unravel. I’m sure you have seen
this happen before. Knit fabrics are comfortable and warm, which explains why many
sweaters are made from them.

As you can see, there are many differences in these fabrics and there are many uses for
each type. The pie in the sky is to produce a comfortable garment of nonwoven fabrics
that will be durable, as well as more economical to produce. This has not yet been
accomplished—but there’s always hope.