Textile

GARMENTS

There are 2 types of garments. One is Woven garments. Another is Knitted garments. Shirts, trousers, Sarees, bed spreads, blankets, towels and made ups are Woven. T shirts, sweatshirts, undergarments, pyjamas and socks are Knits. Woven fabrics are made in hand looms, power looms and mill made. Making woven fabrics is simple. But yarn counts, reed & picks (warp & weft), width should beconsidered with more care. The fabric quality is made differently by various methods of finishing and treating. Knit fabrics are made in different kinds of knitting machines. According to the structure of fabrics, they are called by different names. The mainly used fabrics are Jersey, Pique, Interlock, Rib, French Rib, Flat back rib, Loop knit, Fleece, Polar fleece and Jacquards. The knit garments can be made in solid dyed or all over printed or yarn striped or jacquard fabrics.

GSM

GSM is the short form of Grams per Square Metre. GSM is the very most important thing which defines the weight of the fabrics of knit garments. Garment price and quality based on many things like GSM, fabric quality, colours, finishing, prints, embroidery, style, etc. But GSM is the most important thing to be decided when confirming the prices between the sellers and buyers. GSM is the weight of 1mtr x 1mtr fabric. It means 100cm x 100cm = 10,000 sq.cms. It can be found out by any one of the below ways. By the weight of 100cm x 100cm fabric bit. By the weight of 50cm x 50cm fabric bit multiplied by 4.By the weight of 25cm x 25cm fabric bit multiplied by 16.By the weight of 10cm x 10cm fabric bit multiplied by 100.We must be aware that if we use the smaller size bit, accurate GSM cannot be achieved. The bigger size of fabric bit is better used to get exact or closer GSM. If we have fabrics, then we don’t have any problem in finding GSM, as we can cut any dimension to find GSM. But most of the times, we will have only the garments to find GSM. And we will have to keep the garment for style, making and other references. So we will be allowed to cut a small bit from the garments. Hence now a days, round cutters are used. This system is used worldwide. With the help of this round cutter, the fabric will be cut into a small bit. Then the GSM of the fabric can be found out by multiplying the weight of this round bit by 100. This round bit is to be weighed in an electronic scale with milligram accuracy. As this bit is very small and as the weight has to be multiplied by 100, the fabric has to be cut very sharply to get the exact GSM. Hence the blades of this round cutter are to be sharp and new to get the exact GSM.

YARN

The thickness of yarn is measured as Counts. Yarns are made in different counts like 2’s,4’s, 10’s, 16’s, 20’s, 24’s, 25’s, 30’s, 34’s, 36’s, 38’s, 40’s, 60’s, 80’s, 100’s, etc. We can consider like this. 0’s counts are cotton fiber. 20’s counts yarn is thicker than24’s yarn. Likewise 30’s yarn is thicker than 34’s. So when the yarn counts areincreasing, the thickness becomes lesser. We can see, the higher the counts, the lesser the thickness. Yarn prices based on the thickness. Price of 20’s yarn is lesser than 24’s. Price of 30’syarn is lesser than 34’s yarn. We must know, higher the counts, higher the prices.  There are 2 qualities of yarn. Combed and Carded. Combed is superior quality. The cotton fibers are in different lengths from 0.25 inches to 2.5 inches. According to the technical parameters, the fibers with more length are considered to be better. These long fibers give more evenness and more strength for yarns. Also the short fibers are increasing hairiness whereas the long fibers are decreasing hairiness in yarns. Hence in order to get uniformity in fiber lengths, the short length fibers are to be eliminated from the long length fibers. For this purpose, a special process is being done. This process is called ‘Combing’. Because of the same longer length of fibers, the yarn will be very even with lesser hairiness. Hence after knitting or weaving, the fabric will have very even look. Carded yarn is inferior in quality. As the above said ‘combing’ process is not being done, the carded yarn will be made of the fibers in different lengths. Hence the yarn strength will be lesser than combed yarn. Also carded yarn will have more hairiness and due to this, the fabric made with carded yarns will have more unevenness. Because of this extra process, the Combed yarn price is higher than Carded yarn. Also Combed yarn quality is superior to Carded yarn. We have to use either Combed or Carded yarn according to buyers’ requirements and to the suitable price range. Yarn prices will vary from Mill to Mill due to their different quality standards. As the yarn prices are fluctuated often and as the yarn is the major cost factor of garments, we have to pay more attention in yarn quality and its cost. When we think about the raw materials for knit garments, we can understand that there is only one raw material which is, the Yarn. Cost of yarn covers almost 20% to 30% of garment price. Cost of yarn depends on the quality standards like dyeing absorbency, hand feel, evenness, strength, raw material, availability, etc.

The processing (dyeing, bleaching and finishing) results will differ according to the yarn quality. If the yarn contains more lifeless and dull cottons, the dyeing absorbency will be very less. Also evenness and numbers of naps determine the yarn quality. The garment quality is based on the fabric quality; the fabric quality is based on the yarn quality. Hence the garment’s quality is lying on the yarn quality. Let us see below the approximate prices for various qualities of 100%Cotton yarns.

Approximate grey yarn prices per kg in Rs:

20’s 24’s 30’s 34’s 40’sCombed 100 120 130 140 145Carded 95 110 120 130 140

Melange yarn:

Melange means mixture. Melange yarn means mixture of different shades of yarns. There are different mélange yarns. They are Grey mélange, Ecru mélange, bleached mélange, Flax mélange, Colour mélange, etc. Melange yarns are generally made with Cotton and Viscose fibers. According to the required percentage and colour shades, the fibers are mixed together before making into yarn. Grey Melange, Ecru Melange, Bleached Melange are used widely. These mélange yarns are generally in the composition of 85%Cotton / 15%Viscose approximately. In these yarns, the cotton portion will be in light shade and the Viscose portion will be in dark shade. In colour mélange yarn also, the cotton portion will be in light shade. For light colour mélange yarn, it is enough to add little percentage of Viscose. But for dark colour mélange yarns, higher percentage of Viscose to be added to get dark shades. For example, the Dark Blue colour mélange yarns will have 55%Cotton / 45%Viscoseapproximately. But we have to remember that if we use colour mélange yarns with higher  percentage of Viscose, the fabric made with these yarns will have higher shrinkage; also the shrinkage cannot be controlled. The fabric may have very soft feel and shiny look. But we must think of shrinkage, which is very important. Hence, we have to be very cautious of the percentage or composition of Viscose. It issafer not to use mélange yarns with higher percentage of Viscose, due to higher shrinkage. To avoid this shrinkage problem, colour mélange yarns made by 100%Cotton fibers are also used. But this is more expensive than normal colour mélange yarn with Viscose blend. But as we use 100% Cotton, the shrinkage can be controlled to the acceptable level.

Also there is another way to solve shrinkage problem. Fabric can be made with Ecru mélange or Grey mélange and can be over dyed to required dark shades. Cost wise, there will not be big difference between colour mélange yarn and over dyeing. But this method will solve the shrinkage problem.

Approximate Melange yarn prices per kg in Rs:

For Ecru Melange & Grey Melange yarns, Rs.10 to 15 to be added with above prices of Combed yarns. For Colour Melange in Cotton / Viscose blend: Light colours: Rs.20 to 30 to be added with above prices of Combed yarns. Medium colours: Rs.30 to 40 to be added with above prices of Combed yarns. Dark colours: Rs.40 to 50 to be added with above prices of Combed yarns.For Colour Melange in 100% Cotton: Approximately Rs.70 to 100 to be added (according to the depth of colours) with above prices of Combed yarns.

Dyed yarn:

For making the stripes and jacquard design fabrics, the dyed yarns are used. Yarns are dyed by manually and by sophisticated machines. In manual yarn dyeing, we cannot expect the consistency of shades, yarn strength and better quality. Hence it is always advised to dye the yarns with the latest machines only. For yarn dyeing, only combed yarns are used. Also the yarn should have more yarn strength. It is called Count Strength Product (CSP).The prices of dyed yarn are based on the counts and colour shades. For easy reference, the dyed yarn price of 30’s Medium colour will be around Rs.250 per kg. The prices for other colours will be differed according to the shades. The prices of other counts are based on the price differences of grey (kora) yarns.

Mercerised Yarn:

This is a very special quality yarn. There is a huge difference between the mercerised yarns and normal type of cotton yarns. These yarns are made with selective fibers with longer lengths by thoroughly removing the lifeless, dull and dead cottons. Mercerised yarns are always in 2 ply, like 60/2, 80/2, 100/2. It means 2 yarns of same counts have to be twisted together. The minimum counts which can be doubled are 50s.So minimum mercerised yarn can be 50/2. Let us see some important things about these special yarns. As the finer cottons are used, the yarn contains more cotton, giving more resistance and silky feel. These yarns are made exclusively of long fibers, as the combing process removes shorter fibers.

Name of the fabrics Equations

Single jersey Yarn count = - 0.141 GSM + 50.22Pique Yarn count = - 0.146 GSM + 57.16Double lacoste Yarn count = - 0.167 GSM + 64.361 x 1 Rib Yarn count = - 0.123 GSM + 54.57Lycra 1 x 1 Rib Yarn count = - 0.119 GSM + 59.12Lycra 2 x 2 Rib Yarn count = - 0.108 GSM + 56.62Interlock Yarn count = - 0.206 GSM + 80.56

EQUATIONS FOR GETTING REQUIRED GSM FROM THE SPECIFIC YARNCOUNT:

Fabric

Equations

 Single jersey GSM = -6.879yarn count + 350.4Lycra single jersey GSM = -4.9716 yarn count + 354.56Pique GSM = -6.6737 yarn count + 386.441 1 Rib GSM = -7.9731 yarn count + 437.66Lycra 1 1 Rib GSM = -8.2839 yarn count + 494.08Lycra 2 2 Rib GSM = -9.1216 yarn count + 519.05Interlock GSM = -4.778 yarn count + 388.41

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