How do you know ‘quality’ material?

[Tonty]

What is the make up of fabric you look for when buying clothing for instance and what percentage of a mix should I be looking for?

I’ve. Moved away from just buying something pretty or trendy to wanting to buy fabric that actually lasts. I recently dipped my toe into the world of COS for a sweatshirt...OMG, I’m converted! The quality is amazing! It is 92% cotton, 6% Polyamide 2%Elastane.
So I’m trying to stick to cotton, I bought 2 sweatshirts from gap, they were cheap but made of 77% cotton the rest polyester. I’ve washed then twice...big mistake! They are completely washed out, bobbled, you can see colour patches just awful.

Someone advised buying organic cotton. I’ve seen some that are 100% organic cotton priced at £79 but discovered another online store today with also 100% organic cotton sweatshirts costing £30 each, are they the same, What am I missing? My warmest jumper is from H&M and is made of 100% acrylic and cost £16.99 it’s warm and soft and I’ve washed it like a hundred times but was told the best jumpers have a mix of wool in them but cost upwards of £50.

Same problem with trousers, they all seem to be viscose & polyester but priced at over £100. are there different grades of viscose, polyester, wool cotton etc?

Can you please, please post the fabric makeup of your best and most durable clothes.

Bump. Anyone pls.

There's weight, weave, nap and all sorts to consider but I think as a rule of thumb, elastic strands break over time so the less of it in the fabric composition the better. Synthetic fibres require more frequent cleaning and therefore garments made from them don't have the same longevity.

The easiest thing to do when you don't have much of an understanding yet is just to go for 100% natural fibres which feels like it has a good weight for the garment and preferably has a close weave.

If you want these type of items but don't want to pay the premium prices you're best off buying secondhand. From shopping around it'll also give you a good insight what brands hold up well with wear and which don't, and if you wanted to, you can invest confidently in new pieces from those brands.

Also do a bit of research on how to care for different fibres, eg. wool really doesn't require much cleaning as it has antimicrobial qualities.

botemp good points, weight is definitely something I’ve also started looking at but which went with lockdown as sometimes something looks heavy until it arrives! Weave to, I don’t know about ‘nap’ was that a typo?

I make clothes so I’ve learned a lot about fabrics. I don’t think you can generalise really.
In my opinion there’s nothing wrong with viscose, it’s derived from natural fibres. Some polyester is horrible and cheap and some is breathable and hard wearing.
I agree with PP that you would probably be better buying good quality secondhand rather than high street clothes. Generally the cheap high street stuff is much more likely to be made of nasty fabrics. Once you start thinking about fabrics you’ll quite quickly learn what’s good and what to avoid. There’s also more stuff to consider such as the finish on the garments you buy - how the seams are constructed etc. which will also contribute to the quality and longevity of a garment. If you buy, say, a good quality used shirt from eBay and compare it to a shirt from H&M or Primark you will start to see where the extra cost comes from.

No nap's not a typo but unless you make your own clothes probably not of interest but it's a finishing process regarding texture on a fabric and there can be a bit of variation on the quality of that finishing.

I also agree there is nothing wrong with cellulose based fabrics like viscose but the quality of it varies a lot and the high street is now embracing it en masse where it was previously polyester and as a result there's probably more shit viscose than good available. Look out for the brand name Tencel which is lyocell but because it's a protected name the quality is very consistent, that comes at a cost though.

And yes, yes, cut and finishes are the other part of the puzzle that give a good indication whether something will wear and last well.

I also try to go for natural fibres or biodegradable fibres and go for almost 100% if not 100%. But, sometimes you need to see it in person before you can tell if it's nice quality. I bought some bamboo tops recently and they arrived and looked so cheap and horrible. Ended up sending them all back.

I can see from comments that separating the wheat from the chaff is going to be as hard as I thought because of the sheer variety e.g viscose. Even if purchased via eBay, one still needs to know what to avoid on there. It looks like I may have to go by ‘price’ & brand as a guide, then look on eBay. Between that and finish etc shouldn’t go too far wrong.

Are there different grades of cotton out of interest and how does one spot the poor quality cotton? I think ‘linen’ definitely comes in different grades as I have 2 linen shirts. One shrivels up and wrinkles at the touch of the hand, the other maintains its shape, is harder and rarely wrinkles. Both pure linen but different brands.

If you look on sites like Matches Fashion and Net A Porter they will often specify fabrics more specifically, so instead of cotton or wool it will say cotton gabardine or wool cavalry twill. These things are easily googled and you can see what their qualities are and understand why they'd select that fabric for trousers as they're quite stiff for example. Occasionally finishes are listed too.

Linen is a minefield but generally those woven in Belgium, France, and Ireland are considered superior. A lot of people think the weight of linen makes the difference but it's really down to the weave. However, while it's easy to find out from a label where something is made the provenance of fabric is generally a big question mark, but generally, companies that use premium fabrics do tend to market with it.

Cotton is a very large group, for one type you'll be looking for smoothness and an even weave in a t-shirt fabric you'll look for it's ability to stretch while still retaining shape so it's difficult to say.

I'm not an expert or anything, but the way I usually tell is by look and touch (which is why I hate buying online!)

I buy from charity shops to make it more affordable.
Look at the rail first, to see if I can spot anything I like in good condition.
Touch it, to check the fabric, lift it off the rail and hold it up to see how it hangs.
Check the care label to confirm. I'm usually looking for wool/cashmere jumpers, cotton shirts, cotton or wool-mix trousers.

But there are often big differences in quality between those that you can only really tell in person (well, that's the only way I can tell.)

For cheaper clothes, they'll usually try and squeeze as many pattern pieces out of the fabric as they can. So they'll lie them on like a jigsaw facing any orientation to make them fit.
The finished garment often won't hang straight, it might be a bit twisted along the seams.

It's more expensive to fit all the pattern pieces on so that they are all facing the same orientation and lined up with the weave of the fabric, because there is likely to be lots of fabric wasted. But the garment will hang properly.

How they hang is the biggest key. And my personal favourite is how they are finished/ hemmed.

I have a heavy jersey too from Cos, all the sleeves and neckline are bound inside to stop it stretching. Cos also do lots of deep hens which add to the drape.

I’ve taught fibres and fabrics for years. I always tend to go to natural fabrics, but not always. I’ve got beautiful viscose/polyester tops that hang really well because the fabric is heavy.

Avoid: overlooked 1/2cm hems. Thin viscose as it creates like mad, sheer or lightweight polyester. Just avoid polyester really!

Agree on avoiding polyester. I do this, except the odd thing for sports, where it's difficult to avoid.

Botemp Thanks so much. I have noted all that you said. I just came off the COS website again and for the first time noticed the brand name 'Tencel-Lyocell' on some of the clothes, I wouldn't have thought anything of it before although most of COS stuff is good quality but I can look out for it more in general now when clothe shopping. Thanks for also mentioning Net a porter and Matches, I'll bear those in mind too.

COOPwindow The hang! yes you can usually tell by the hang too, you can tell when it just doesn't sit right on the hanger. Thanks also for the tip on buying synthetics but in heavy fabric! that's something else I've been missing, not paying enough attention to the weight of the fabric, so it's not just about type of fabric.

Cinnamon I usually do better when actually feeling the fabric too but with the continued trend towards online shopping that's proving really difficult. I'd like to get a few nice pieces now we're coming out of lockdown.

Question about polyester - A lot of things are mixed with polyester. Lots of jumpers and sweaters have e.g 77% cotton and the rest polyester should these all be avoided at all costs and just go for no Polyester? or is there a certain balance that can be found between the two?

Polyester is used mainly because it’s cheap. That’s the only reason.

However it’s also hard wearing which means the elbows won’t wear as thin. For wool I’d be looking at maybe 5% nylon or polyester.

Cotton doesn’t need polyester in a jumper at all. Cotton is hard wearing and as jumpers are knitted it doesn’t need the crease shedding properties of polyester. No polyester for cotton!

From experience, it's best not to overthink it OP and just look at each garment on its own merit. Otherwise you'll never have any clothes - if it's not the material, it's the style, or the fit, or the size or the colour.

I try and wear natural fibres as far as possible, but some items have a mix of fabrics, is it that case, I will buy it if it has a high natural fibre content.

I'm not an expert on fabrics, but you can sometimes tell if a fabric will wash well, just by looking at it. When I'm browsing in store, I'll look at the weave of the fabric, hold it up to the light etc, and gently rub it.

Last year, I bought a BNWT dress from Boden on eBay. It was 100% cotton, a lovely thick weave cotton and when I rub the material, it feels lovely and silky. It's my benchmark of a lovely well made item. It was a total fluke find as I bought it from eBay so hadn't seen beforehand.

Tonty A problem when the fabric is a blend of natural and synthetic fibres (eg. 77% cotton 23% polyester) is that it is much more likely to get little "bobbles" on over time, with repeated washing. So your 100% acrylic jumper is probably better than one that is a mixture.

A 100% wool jumper will usually be better quality than a polyester or acrylic one. My dad still wears a jumper that my gran knitted for my grandad, from 100% wool yarn, at least 5 decades ago. He wears it all the time and it still looks great! As you've seen though, wool tends to be expensive.
Personally I don't wear wool as I'm slightly allergic to it- my skin gets stupidly itchy when I wear it. I keep meaning to learn to knit and then make myself chunky jumpers out of lovely bamboo yarn, but haven't got round to it yet!

(I have seen jumpers with 2% or 4% wool in and do not understand how they can give any of the useful properties of wool. I'm sure it's just there so that people see "wool" on the label and think it must be good quality.)

Yeah, jumpers with 2% wool. What’s the point?!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Thanks so much.

@purpledagger From experience, it's best not to overthink it OP, and just look at each garment on its own merit. Otherwise, you'll never have any clothes This really made me laugh, it's so true. My decision to start paying more attention to quality is recent so I want to get it right. Shop less often but buy good quality and get rid of some of the junk in my bulging wardrobe.

@Bergamotte Great tips! i didn't know it was the mix of fabric that causes the bobbling, I'd always thought so long as the natural fiber outweighs the synthetic it was a goodun as in my Gap sweaters mentioned upthread. I will also now avoid those tantalising looking jumpers with 3% that I thought were bargains.

Thank you all so much.

You get used to the sort of quality a brand uses. If a dress is cheap chances are the fabric will be cheap. Items that use good quality fabric won't be cheap.

Brands like John Lewis and M&S use decent linen and cotton. A cheap linen or cotton item will probably be made from cheap fabric.

Organic isn't necessarily top quality.

I don't like viscose or lyocell, but that's me. Polyester isn't necessarily bad. it's great for not crumpling.

As pp said, if a good quality fabric has been used, it will probably describe the fabric e.g. cotton twill, cotton lawn. If you familiarise yourself with what the terms mean, you'll know what weight and weave to expect.

In addition to fabric, consider the cut and construction. Cheaper clothes might have a good cut, if you know what brands to look for. Of the cheaper brands, I find H&M good for cut.

Check the seams when you buy something. Patterns should match at the seams. Stitching should be even, and so on.

Oh goodness - what a fabulous thread!

The shortest answer to your original question, OP, is be born into generations of seamstresses. I haven't touched a sewing machine since I was ten years old, but an instinctive understanding of good quality fabric is probably my only super-power.

Once, on an S&B thread, I mentioned my decades old Kent clothes brush - and someone asked what on Earth it was for. Which was the point at which I realised that most people now are wearing almost exclusively synthetic fabrics - while I rarely stray from tweed, Shetland wool and thick cotton velvet. Plus the odd cotton and linen t shirt in summer

So, my one piece of advice - if you're going to be buying natural fabrics - get a really good clothes brush. This is the one you want. Think mine was £18 in 1999 ...

I'm from a family of seamstresses and dressmakers too.

When the shops are open again, go to different retailers and compare the garments. Outlet villages are a good place to look. The top end brands are likely to use good cloth.

On the high street, the shops that are derided for being frumpy on here generally make clothes that will wash and wear well.

Fast fashion shops generally make clothes that have hanger appeal, and will only be worn once or twice.

Haha @PursuingProxemicExactitude that’s me too! I have sewing in my blood as so many family were seamstresses. I guess I’ve grown up and absorbed knowledge without even realising. My mum has always said that certain fabrics/prints look cheap and now I know more about fabrics I understand why.
Non-directional prints are sometimes a giveaway of cheap garments, as pp mentioned it means pattern pieces can be cut out like a jigsaw so garments will hang strangely. In contrast, a directional print (eg stripes) can’t be cut out like this and therefore may hang better.
OP in terms of how you know from eBay, you might have to go by brand and possibly older/vintage garments. Even say a 1980s M&S blouse will be noticeably better constructed than its modern day equivalent

I too come from a line of seamstresses and mill workers. The trouble was - when I was growing up, all I ever wanted were clothes from a shop. Now that they're gone and there's no-one left to ask, I'm trying to teach myself. Not easy. I don't have much advice other than that there's a lot to learn, listen to your parents and your grand parents and your great grand parents if they're still around, and some cotton can be utter shite.

For me weight of fabric is important. I have paid a fortune for 100% cotton tops that have looked terrible after a wash so it is not just about the material, but the weave, weight etc as someone else said.

I am increasingly shocked at how many designer clothes (expensive) are made from 100% polyester. I mean it might be good quality polyester but I wouldn't pay 400-600£ on principle! Sometime synthetics drape better, depending upon the clothes though.

Me too! I ended up doing a degree in fashion.

I can literally make anything. But o make nothing at all......😳