Fabric Design

Woven structures on point paper: plain, twill, satin and their derivatives, drafting, hexadecimal design notation, cords, piqué, double cloth, colour-and-weave and fabric analysis.

21 lectures · 70 weave diagrams. Every worksheet is live: blue figures are inputs, grey cells recalculate. Click a lecture below or use the list on the left.

Start with Lecture 01 →

Lectures

Lecture 01Introduction to Weaving and Fabric Construction

The three motions of a loom, the common weaving defects, and how a fabric construction is written and read.

Lecture 02Weight of Fabric

The quick GSM estimate and the exact calculation, shared with Weaving Calculations Lecture 5.

Lecture 03Shedding Mechanisms and Point Paper

Tappet, dobby and jacquard shedding — what each can weave — and the point-paper convention for drawing a weave…

Lecture 04Twill Weaves

Regular, irregular and steep twills, cavalry twill, and the pointed twill — all built from one rule.

Lecture 05Satin and Sateen

Smooth, lustrous weaves built by distributing single interlacings with a move number.

Lecture 06Rib and Hopsack Weaves

Plain-weave derivatives: extend the interlacing warp-way for a warp rib, weft-way for a weft rib, both ways fo…

Lecture 07Twill Derivatives

Waved, herringbone, broken and curved twills — ways of turning or interrupting the twill line.

Lecture 08Draft, Peg Plan and Denting

From design to loom: which heald carries each end, which healds lift on each pick, and how many ends go throug…

Lecture 10Number Systems and Hexadecimal Weave Notation

Decimal, binary and hexadecimal, and the compact way of writing any weave as one hex number per pick.

Lecture 12Fabric Analysis II – Yarn Diameter

Estimating the diameter of a yarn from its count and specific volume — the number behind every cover and crimp…

Lecture 13Crepe, Spot and Honeycomb Weaves

Weaves built on sateen bases — crepes from added marks, superimposed sateens, and the cellular honeycomb.

Lecture 14Bedford Cord

Warp-way cords of plain or twill face separated by cutting lines, with stuffer ends for a rounder cord.

Lecture 16Piqué

Weft-way or figured cords made with a stitching back warp: welt, loose-back and fast-back piqué, wadding picks…

Lecture 17Stripe and Check Designs

Combining weaves side by side (stripes) and in both directions (checks); the 36-end 2/2 twill check and the wa…

Lecture 19Colour and Weave Effects

The same weave with coloured ends and picks: hairlines, hound’s tooth, bird’s eye — pattern made by colour ord…

Lecture 20Cover Factor

Relative cover from diameter and spacing, cloth cover, and the Ne cover factor — the design view of Weaving Ca…

Lecture 22Spot and Figured Designs

Distributing small motifs over a ground: the six methods and the sateen-base distribution over 30 ends × 40 pi…

Lecture 23Huckaback and Mock Leno

Open, absorbent weaves: huckaback for towels and mock leno imitating the gauze of a true leno.

Lecture 24Fabric Analysis – Guidelines

How to take a sample apart: finding the face, the warp direction and the repeat before counting threads.

Lecture 25Crimp

Peirce’s geometry of crimp, repeated here for the design course; the calculator lives in Weaving Calculations …

Lecture 26Double Cloth

Two cloths woven at once: face and back warps and wefts, and the rule that keeps them apart.

Original lecture files

The classic course page with all the original lecture files is still available: Fabric Design — all lecture files ↗. The Google Drive folder of the course: open folder ↗.

01 · Lecture 01 Fabric Construction (Doc) ↗02 · Lecture 02 Weight of Fabric (Doc) ↗02 · FD Lecture 2 worksheet (Sheet) ↗03 · Lecture 03 Introduction to Weave Designs (Doc) ↗04 · Lecture 04 Twills (Doc) ↗05 · Lecture 05 Satin & Sateen (Doc) ↗06 · Lecture 06 Plain Weave Derivatives (Doc) ↗07 · Lecture 07 Twill Derivatives (Doc) ↗08 · Lecture 08 Drafting (Doc) ↗10 · Lecture 10 Computer Aided Designs II (Doc) ↗12 · Lecture 12 Fabric Analysis II (Doc) ↗13 · Lecture 13 Fancy Designs (Doc) ↗14 · Lecture 14 Rib and Cord Structures I (Doc) ↗16 · Lecture 16 Rib and Cord Structures II (PDF) ↗17 · Lecture 17 Stripe and Check (Doc) ↗19 · Lecture 19 Color and Weave (Doc) ↗20 · Lecture 20 Cover Factor (Doc) ↗22 · Lecture 22 Spot Designs (Doc) ↗23 · Lecture 23 Fancy Designs II (Doc) ↗24 · Lecture 24 Analysis (Doc) ↗25 · Lecture 25 Crimp (Doc) ↗26 · Lecture 26 Double Cloth (PDF) ↗