When choosing textiles, it is important to ask yourself, “Which fabric shall I purchase? Woven or Knits?”
You might be familiar with the materials which are used for making fabrics, like cotton, rayon, polyester, linen, etc.
The preparation of fabrics is the key difference in calling them woven or knits.
What are knit fabrics?
Knit fabrics are made with a single yarn.
It is a system of interlocking yarn together with long needles.
When needles run back and forth to make fabrics it is called weft knitting and warp knitting is when the needles run up and down to make fabrics.
Knit fabrics are most commonly used in making T-shirts, sportswear, socks, sweaters, leggings, sweatshirts, cardigans, etc.
What are woven fabrics?
When two sets of yarns are woven using a loom, horizontal weft threads, and vertical warp threads, we get woven fabrics.
It is the most ancient practice in making fabrics.
Dated as long as 5000 B.C. In a previous article Weaving: History and a walkthrough we have discussed the journey of the weaving process.
Woven fabrics are mostly used to make casual wear, formal wear, and kidswear.
How can we check if a fabric is woven or kitted?
Look the yarns
We can easily identify woven fabrics by checking the pattern of the yarns. If you can see a criss-cross, checkboard-like design, then it is probably a woven fabric. All the others are knitted. Knitted fabrics have loops, always check for them.
Try and stretch the fabric
Knits fabrics are likely to stretch more. It is stretchy horizontally and vertically. Woven fabrics are likely to resist your efforts to stretch them. It is also an easily identifiable property.
Wrinkle test
Woven fabrics retain the wrinkles made on them by squeezing the fabrics when knit fabrics easily remove the wrinkles.
For more details, you can read our article Woven Fabrics Vs Knit Fabrics: 3 Key Differences
Which fabric is better?
We can clearly see that woven fabric and knit fabric are unique in their own way.
Each has a special place in the market.
Specific use cases as well.
Both types of fabrics contribute to us in a different way which cannot be replaced by the other.
So when we are about to go fabric shopping, we need to ask ourselves, why we are purchasing the fabric and for what purpose.
Then you can select the appropriate fabric according to your needs.
Personally, I believe that woven fabrics are better because of the following reasons. Please note that the deductions are personal and can be subjected to a debate, and if you are planning to buy woven fabrics, check out them here.
- Ancient process
- Widely used
- Wide range of collection
- Rigid and last longer
- Best suited for making garments for special occasions.
Which one do you think is better? Comment below why you think so.
