Fabric Sourcing Guide: Use to Weight to Construction

Who wrote this: This guide comes from the production team at Shaoxing Keqiao Lianyang Fabric Co., Ltd (Pura Fabric), a weft-knit fabric manufacturer established in 2010 in Keqiao, Shaoxing, China, operating 52 circular knitting machines across a 4,000 sqm facility. The specification logic below is the same checklist we use when we quote on our own floor.

Most fabric buying problems are not fabric problems. They are specification problems — the garment was designed without a weight, the weight was chosen without a construction, and the construction was named in a language the mill reads differently. This guide is a decision tool rather than a catalogue: it takes an end use and works backwards to the construction, the weight, the fibre and the finishing route that will actually produce it. It is written for buyers who need to specify, and for the ones who have to defend that specification to someone asking why it costs what it costs.

Start With the End Use, Not the Fabric

Buyers arrive with a fabric name in mind — terry, jersey, interlock, fleece — and then try to work backwards to a use. That direction produces expensive compromises, because fabric names describe how a fabric is built rather than what it is for. Two fabrics with the same name can be entirely wrong for the same garment, and the same fabric can be right for one garment and useless for another.

The reliable order is the reverse: fix the end use first, then the variables that end use actually depends on. A sweatshirt needs to insulate without weight, hold its shape after washing, and survive repeated pulls at the cuff. A swimsuit needs to stay light when wet, resist chlorine, and dry quickly. Those two end uses share almost no requirements, which is why specifying either one from a fabric name alone goes wrong.

Use to Weight: The Conversion That Matters Most

Weight is the single most misused variable in fabric buying, because it is quoted as GSM without saying what it is weighing. GSM in fabric usage is grams per square metre, and the same fabric measured on a different scale, or at a different width, or after a finishing route that adds or removes weight, will not read the same. A fabric quoted at 240 GSM that has been brushed and relaxed may behave like a 280 GSM fabric, and a 240 GSM single jersey will not behave anything like a 240 GSM terry.

The useful conversion is weight per end use, not weight in isolation. These ranges are what actually lands in production for common end uses, and they assume the GSM is measured on the finished fabric, not on the greige.

Weight to Construction: Why the Same GSM Behaves Differently

This is where most specification disputes originate. A 280 GSM fabric can be a dense loopback terry that stands up to a sweatshirt, or an open, loose single jersey that drapes like a bedsheet. Both are legitimately 280 GSM. The difference is construction, and construction is what a fabric name is supposed to tell you.

Three variables carry most of the meaning: the loop or pile density, the yarn character, and whether the face and back are the same construction. Density determines how much the fabric moves and how it insulates. Yarn character determines the hand and how it wears. A backed construction changes stability, opacity and how the garment washes.

Fibre: What It Constrains and What It Buys

Fibre choice constrains everything else. It decides what finishes are possible, how the fabric washes, how it drapes over time, and what you can credibly promise a customer. Cotton and polyester do not substitute for each other in any meaningful sense, and a fabric that tries to do both usually does neither well.

Budget: What Actually Drives the Cost

The useful question is not “how much per metre” but what is in that price. A fabric that is expensive because of a difficult construction will stay expensive; one that is expensive because of a fibre choice or a finishing route may have a cheaper equivalent worth considering. Knowing which is which is what makes a quote negotiable.

Quality and Compliance: What to Ask For in Writing

Certification is where most B2B fabric programmes quietly break, because the mill and the buyer often assume the other side is handling it. The actual practice is that both sides assume the opposite. Whatever the certification situation is, it belongs in writing in the specification and the purchase order, including the certificate number and its validity period — not in a conversation that happened once.

Five Specification Mistakes That Cost Real Money

These five account for most of the avoidable cost in fabric procurement. None of them are exotic, and all of them are visible in hindsight from the specification document alone.

Comparing Quotes on a Like-for-Like Basis

Quotes arrive in different currencies, on different bases, with different inclusions, and comparing them directly is one of the more reliable ways to make the wrong decision. A quote that looks 15% cheaper than another may be quoting a narrower width, excluding the finishing route, or pricing at a weight the mill does not intend to deliver.

Sampling and Development: How to Avoid the Second-Order Surprise

Most fabric programmes run into trouble twice: once when the sample does not match the brief, and again when the bulk does not match the approved sample. Both are avoidable, and the avoidance is procedural rather than technical.

The Specification Checklist Before You Order

Most fabric disputes are settled by a document that did not exist when the order was placed. The following checklist covers the items that we see cause problems most often, in roughly the order they come up.

The Decision Tree in One Page

Collected, the whole decision process reduces to four questions asked in order. If you answer them in this sequence, the fabric you end up with will usually be the obvious one, and the specification will be short enough to be unambiguous.

Fabric Guides by Construction

Once the construction is settled, these guides go deeper on the specific behaviour of each fabric type — what changes between sample and bulk, how to write the specification, and what to check on receipt.

Frequently Asked Questions

Reviewed by the production team at Shaoxing Keqiao Lianyang Fabric Co., Ltd (Pura Fabric) — a weft-knit fabric manufacturer established in 2010 in Keqiao, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China. Send us your construction, target GSM, width and quantity and we will confirm what is runnable and quote within 12 hours.