Fabrics provides designers with the information needed to make their fabric specifications easy, informed, and appropriate to the job at hand, considering aesthetics, performance, application, and green design. This thorough handbook by a textile professional describes and illustrates fibers and yarns, fabric structures, fabric design, dye and printing processes, finishes and treatments, styles and applications of cloth for furniture, window-, wall-, and floor coverings. Also covered are testing and flaws; the fabric industry, and professional practice.

"STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book"--P. [4] of cover.

“Designers, we’re going to Mood!” More than 10 years ago, Tim Gunn and Project Runway introduced millions of viewers to New York’s ultimate fabric mecca, Mood Fabrics. Now, the experts behind this fabric power- house bring their fabric and fashion know-how—plus their behind-the-scenes stories—to the sewing public. The Mood Guide to Fabric and Fashion is the ultimate guide for home-sewers, fashion students, aspiring designers, and Project Runway fans who want to learn everything they need to know to choose and use quality fabric. Drawing upon the expertise of the Mood staff, the book teaches readers the fundamentals—from where fabric is produced to the ins and outs of its construction—and features a fabric-by-fabric guide to cottons and other plant fibers, wools, silks, knits, and other specialty fabrics.

From Paleolithic flax to 3D knitting, explore the global history of textiles and the world they weave together in this enthralling and educational guide. The story of humanity is the story of textiles -- as old as civilization itself. Since the first thread was spun, the need for textiles has driven technology, business, politics, and culture. In The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel synthesizes groundbreaking research from archaeology, economics, and science to reveal a surprising history. From Minoans exporting wool colored with precious purple dye to Egypt, to Romans arrayed in costly Chinese silk, the cloth trade paved the crossroads of the ancient world. Textiles funded the Renaissance and the Mughal Empire; they gave us banks and bookkeeping, Michelangelo's David and the Taj Mahal. The cloth business spread the alphabet and arithmetic, propelled chemical research, and taught people to think in binary code. Assiduously researched and deftly narrated, The Fabric of Civilization tells the story of the world's most influential commodity.

The fabric-lover's guide to cloth offers preshrinking instructions and advice on layout, marking, interfacing, and hemming.