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Textile Glossary
Cutting through the jargon
This glossary is a resource aimed at helping share and simplify both generic and industry specific information, expertise and knowledge. This service is provided as a committment to visitors to our site and the industry as whole. Although we aim to ensure that all the content is correct, please bear in mind that some areas of the industry move fast and terminology and its application can change.
Oatmeal cloth
A heavy, soft fabric with a specked pebbly surface. Used for drapery, upholstery.
Odhani
A veil-cloth for a woman, often worn tucked into the side of the waist and drawn upward over the back and the head, the free end being draped over the shoulder. Literally, 'a wrap'.
Oil coated
The application of oil to a fabric (usually linseed oil) to seal it and made it waterproof.
Oil repellent
A treatment that allows a fabric to resist staining by oily substances.
Oil-repellent
Descriptive of textile material on which oil globules do not spread.
Oiled wool
Unscoured or undyed knitting wool or wool dyed before spinning and containing added oil not subsequently removed.
Olefin (fibre) (us.)
A term used to describe manufactured fibres in which the fibre-forming substance is any long-chain synthetic polymer composed of at least 85% by weight of ethene (ethylene), propane (propylene), or other olefin units. The term includes the iso generic names are polypropylene and polyethylene.
Oligomer
A simple polymer containing a small number of repeating units., note: the oligomer most frequently encountered in the textile industry is the cyclic trimer of poly(ethylene benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate) (poly(ethylene terephthalate)), the polymer used for polyester fibre. This material can form deposits during the processing and dyeing of yarns and fabrics.
Open end
A high speed yarn spinning process that creates yarn by transferring twist from previously formed yarn to fiber or sliver continuously fed into the spinning machine. The twisting may be done by mechanical methods, rotors or air jets.
Open-end spinning; break spinning
A spinning system in which sliver feedstock is highly drafted, ideally to individual fibre state, and thus creates an open end or break in the fibre flow. The fibres are subsequently assembled on the end of a rotating yarn and twisted in. Various techniques are available for collecting and twisting the fibres into a yarn, the most noteworthy being rotor spinning and friction spinning.
Open-width processing
The treatment of fabric at its full width in the unfolded state in contrast to rope-form processing. The fabric may be carried on rollers through the processing media or be held on a roller, as in dyeing.
Opening
The action of separating closely packed fibres from each other at an early stage in the processing of raw material into yam.
Operatic Fabrics
Cloth used to make garments used by Opera Houses. Costumes for Opera Singers.
Optical brightener
A substance that is added to an uncoloured or a coloured textile material to increase the apparent reflectance in the visible region by conversion of ultra-violet radiation into visible light and so to increase the apparent brightness or whiteness. Also termed fluorescent brightener; optical whitener; fluorescent whitening agent; brightening agent.
Orientation
(1) parallelism of fibres, usually as a result of a combing or attenuating action on fibre assemblies causing the fibres to lie substantially parallel to the axis of the web or strand. (2) a predominant direction of linear molecules in the fine structure of fibres. Note 1: in man-made fibres orientation is usually parallel to the fibre axis as a result of extrusion stretching, or drawing. In natural fibres the predominant direction is determined during growth, for example a helix around the fibre axis in cotton. Note 2: unoriented structures are those in which orientation is absent. Disoriented structures are those in which orientation has been reduced or eliminated as a result of a disrupting treatment.
Ottoman
A medium to heavy weight fabric with wide horizontal ribs . May be knit or woven. Used for women's apparel, upholstery, drapery.
Outline embroidered
A fabric with a design motif traced (outlined) with embroidery stitches.
Outline quilted
A quilted fabric in which the quilting stitches follow the motif of a print design.
Oven-dry weight
The constant weight of textile material obtained by drying at a temperature of 105 ± 3˚c.
Overcoating
Heavy weight wool melton used for coatings and other heavy garments.
Overdyed
Dyeing of a print or yarn dyed fabric in a shade which does not totally cover the original design.
Overprinted
Usually refers to printing over a previously dyed fabric, however yarn dyes, cross dyes and previously printed fabrics are also sometimes overprinted.
Oxford
A fabric with a single filling yarn woven over and under 2 smaller warp yarns. Commonly found in cotton shirtings, but oxfords are produced in a wide variety of fibers and weights for many uses, mainly in apparel.
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HAINSWORTH FABRICS ON PARADE AT CORONATION FESTIVAL AS THEY WERE AT THE CORONATION 60 YEARS AGO
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National favourites
McVities biscuits are amongst the most popular snacks in the UK and Hainsworth supplies the woollen cloth used on the company’s production line conveyors as any small synthetic fibres ingested with the biscuit could make the eater unwell.
