Fabrics (43)

Formaldehyde in Clothing and Non-Iron Shirts

History of Formaldehyde in Textiles Formaldehyde resins have been used to treat textiles, particularly cotton since the 1920’s. Formaldehyde treatments are usually applied to combat wrinkling, improve stain resistance/colorfastness, and prevent mildew. Essentially, it has been … Read

Wrinkle-Resistant vs Non-Iron Dress Shirts

What’s the difference in wrinkle resistance between non-iron and wrinkle-resistant dress shirts? Non-Iron dress shirts will generally have superior wrinkle-resisting performance compared to wrinkle-resistant shirts. Wrinkle-resistant dress shirts definitely need to be ironed or pressed after they … Read

Opacity Ratings

Proper Cloth’s Opacity Ratings: We rate each of our fabrics in terms of its opacity to give customers a good idea of what to expect from them. We do this on a 1-5 scale, with 1 … Read

Fabric Thickness and Weight

Overview When choosing a dress shirt fabric, you may want to consider how the thickness and construction of the fabric will play a role in how warm it is, how easily it wrinkles, and whether it’s … Read

Chambray vs Denim

Overview While chambray (below) and denim (above) are often confused for one another, they’re not exactly the same fabric. A chambray is a plain weave fabric woven with a colored yarn in the warp and a … Read

Dobby Dress Shirt Fabrics

Dobby fabrics can come in a variety of styles and are often mistaken with “Jacquard” fabrics, though there are some subtle differences between the two. You can find very thin dobby fabrics that you might mistake … Read

Flannel Shirt Fabrics

A flannel shirt fabric is a particularly soft woven fabric that has undergone a special brushing treatment to get a fuzzy texture. Some flannels are brushed on only one side, while others are brushed on both … Read

Mini Grid Shirt Fabrics

The mini grid is a popular dress shirt pattern featuring thin vertical and horizontal stripes that create a gridded pattern throughout the shirt. From a distance the shirt most often looks like a solid color, but … Read

Tartan Shirt Fabrics

While tartans originated as wool fabrics, they have become popular fabrics for sport shirts over the years–especially for fall and winter. Tartans are particular styles of plaids associated with Scottish clans. Some of the most popular … Read

Tattersall

Tattersall is a pattern featuring alternating grids that are interwoven into the cloth. They most often have one grid that is a darker color and one grid in a lighter color. Tattersall came into popularity in … Read

University Stripe Fabrics

A University Stripe is a very popular style of dress shirt fabric featuring alternating even stripes slightly under 1/8″ in width. This is a timeless style that can easily be worn with a suit and tie … Read

Bengal Stripe Fabrics

A bengal stripe is a particular type of wider-striped dress shirt fabric, most often featuring an even 1/4″ alternating stripe. It can either be a color and white or color and color stripe and sits on … Read

Gingham

Gingham is a simple, checked fabric design where vertical and horizontal stripes of equal width intersect to make a checkerboard pattern. Gingham can be found in both large and small-scale patterns.  Generally speaking, the larger the … Read

Thomas Mason Fabric Mill

Thomas Mason is widely considered one of the top Italian mills for dress shirt fabrics. Founded in England over 200 years ago by the enterprising industrialist Thomas Mason, the storied mill was purchased by Italy’s Albini … Read