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.

@KirstenBlest Noted what you said about quality fabrics having a proper description of fabric type rather than just 'Cotton', I think someone also mentioned that upthread. That's really important especially when shopping online.

@PursuingProxemicExactitude It's a shame as my DM used to sew when we were little but then stopped. Up till that point, I was used to seeing fabric all over the place and we even used to practise sewing little outfits for our dolls. I actually bought a sewing machine about 10yrs ago to try and start making things like cushion covers and couldn't get past threading the needle. It all fell apart as I fiddled with it's bits and I'm ashamed to say it's still sitting in its box.

Thanks for the tip about the brush BUT why the brush? I get that it's for brushing the clothes but don't understand why I would need to brush natural fabrics but not synthetic or mixed ones.

Kirsten Definitely will do. Thanks.

With things like jeans, the brand won't necessarily be consistent, as they will use different fabrics. A fashion item from the brand won't necessarily be of the same quality as one that is a classic garment.

Writing my post above has made me remember a particular smocked frock in liberty print cotton that I watched my mother making sometime in the early 70s. God, it was breathtaking - as were all the clothes she made for us. But we also had shop bought clothes!

(I do know that, having grown up with mostly tailor made garments, my mother was somewhat perturbed by the racks of ready made department store clothes she found when she arrived in England. She soon hit her shopping stride - but it's her fault I have impossibly high standards and expensive tastes.)

The brush? Well, as far as possible you want to avoid dry cleaning clothes too often*, while also driving away moths. You can't throw a tweed jacket in the washing machine (you can, but you'll cry afterwards) but if you brush it after every wear it can remain in a decent state for ... years. Obvs you can wash a jumper, but a quick brush will make it look new. I'm sure you can use a brush on some synthetics, but you don't need to.

• Toxic chemicals, bad for the environment, flattens clothes. And your precious things mixed with other people's dirty clothes - generally eughh!

OMG it's so long since I've seen a proper clothes brush, as opposed to those useless lint things that just spread the fluff around.

And a trouser press - my dad used to have one, wish I knew what had happened to it.

Floisme. I bought another one to give to a 21st century teen a few years ago. It has been Resolutely Ignored.

@PursuingProxemicExactitude re brush: feel like i've stepped into a while new world.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/stella-mccartney-clothes-fashion-cleaning-sustainability-reason-a8991996.html

www.stellamccartney.com/experience/en/sustainability/clevercare/

What an insight, I'm born again! although, the emphasis is on 'Fine' clothing of which I have very few.

Your qn has helped me thank you op

You're welcome @Em999999999.

All fabrics, whether natural or synthetic, come in different grades/quality. And, as we have seen of late, natural and ethical do not always go hand in hand either.

I find the only real way to tell quality is to see how clothes wear after a few washes. This is something of a shame because at that stage, the horse has already bolted.

There is environmental impact too - polyester releases microfibres (you can buy things to put in your machine to catch them - which I do because of school uniform & sports clothes), viscose is appalling for the environment during manufacturing but tencel & lyocell are not. Cotton uses huge amounts of water so I try to buy sustainable. I buy a lot of second hand - I can afford better quality & it is better environmentally

Yes, part of the reason I avoid polyester is for the environment. My sports kit is polyester but no virgin polyester.

Another reason, (and I will admit, it is a weird reason, most normal people won't consider ), is what happens to polyester when it burns! It is slow burning, but melts and therefore causes deeper burns to smaller areas of your skin, if it does catch alight when you're wearing it. If it is a polyester / cotton mix, you unfortunately get the fast burning properties of cotton AND the melting properties of polyester and can get bad burns on larger areas. Acrylic acts the same as cotton / polyester mix, as it is fast burning and also melts.

Told you it was a weird reason! But it's a reason.

Viscose / bamboo acts like cotton. So does linen.

I worked with an ex marine (American) fire fighter briefly and he said he only ever wore natural fibres and it stuck with me. Cotton jeans, cotton tshirt and wool jumper pretty much every day!

Speaking of strange reasons, though maybe not so strange; OP you mentioned acrylic in your first post. I have never in my life bought anything acrylic for myself, and had long forgotten any reason why, other than 'synthetic'. Anyway, I had occasion to borrow a schoolboy's outgrown uniform acrylic sweater, and wore it around the house. After a single day it absolutely reeked of everything my day consisted of. It was a really unusual experience, not something that ever happens with wool, or cotton or anything else I've worn.

Absolutely dread to think how a classroom full of acrylic clad children smells.

I'm also wondering if synthetic fabrics' propensity to hold on to odours is the reason for all the strongly smelling fabric 'conditioners' people are persuaded to buy. (Needless to say, I never do.)

• Not because I'm morally superior, obviously; more because those liquids make me itch like mad.

Same as Kirsten and others, I was brought up in a similar family and taught to look at the composition of clothes. You can tell when something is good quality. Cheap silk clothes will often look creased on the hanger or crease very easily if you scrunch them in your hand - that's the kind of silk my mum refers to as "lining fabric" and not worth buying unless you love ironing and don't mind looking crumpled quickly! Good quality silk is thicker and heavier, usually with a price tag to match.

Synthetic fibres hold onto smells because they aren’t absorbent. So the odour sits in the surface. Also as they aren’t absorbent you sweat much much more than in natural fibres.

Viscose doesn’t act like cotton or linen. It’s a fibre made with chemicals. Cotton and linen are natural fibres and therefore cool to wear. The chemicals in viscose cause sweating. I can’t wear viscose, as I’m allergic to the chemicals. Viscose is a horrible fibre. It’s made from wood pulp and should be similar to cotton, but it uses tons of chemicals. Bamboo actually wicks moisture away so is very cooling to wear. Linen is also cool to wear.

Polyester has less impact on the environment than cotton. Cotton goes through endless bleaching and finishing processes that use endless amounts of water and chemicals. It also uses pesticides and excessive amounts of land.

Polyester, although made from oil goes through much less processing. Sustainable cotton is best. The next best fibre is wool. Linen is similar to cotton in terms of environmental impact but less of it is produced.

Viscose doesn’t act like cotton or linen.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow, sorry, I meant in terms of how it burns! It is fast burning and does not melt.

I'm ok with acrylic, it's not wool but it can be practical.
M&S acrylic jumpers are excellent, they look like wool and wash well.

Cheap acrylic doesn't.

Fabric conditioner is vile stuff. Clothes stink of it and feel slimy.
I never use the stuff.

You need fabric conditioner on acrylic though. It reduces the static charge and line conditioning hair, also makes it smoother,

I too hate fabric conditioner.

I'm not keen on hair conditioner, and I'm not convinced it actually does any good, other than making it easier to comb.

I can't say I noticed any static, but my acrylic is from M&S. Wool is nicer but I can't be bothered to hand wash, and I'm scared the moths will eat them.

Fabric conditioner smooths the fibres so they are aligned. That’s why it’s recommended for acrylic.

You can machine wash wool on the handwash section on your machine. And lots of wool products are now machine washes me. They put an anti shrink finish on them.

My cheap as chips washing machine has a 'Woollens' setting. Hasn't destroyed anything yet.

OP your first post reads as if you've never bought anything in 100% wool - but I'm sure that can't be the case?

I really enjoy hearing from posters who know their stuff about fabrics and garment construction.