Fabrics

Fabrics provides designers with the information needed to make their fabric specifications easy, informed, and appropriate to the job at hand, considering aesthetics, performance, application, and green design. This thorough handbook by a textile professional describes and illustrates fibers and yarns, fabric structures, fabric design, dye and printing processes, finishes and treatments, styles and applications of cloth for furniture, window-, wall-, and floor coverings. Also covered are testing and flaws; the fabric industry, and professional practice.

Fabric for Fashion: The Complete Guide is the only book specifically for fashion designers to explain the behaviour and properties of different fabrics. Fashion design is largely determined by how the fabrics work, move, feel and look. The most successful fashion designers are those who understand their materials, who match design skill with technical knowledge. This book bridges that gap by providing a mix of practical information and industry vocabulary, visually examining generic fabric types, discussing the characteristics of fabrics and showing how to exploit materials to push the boundaries of design. With stunning colour photographs that show how fashion designers, both past and present, have worked with fabrics, the book’s prime objective is to stimulate creative exploration of the relationship of fabrics to fashion.

Concrete is the most used man-made material in the world and is the fundamental physical medium for most of the world’s architecture and construction. The character of concrete is largely the product of the rigid moulds that have shaped it since its invention in antiquity. The advent of flexible moulds, however, marks a radical break from conventional practice – and conventional concrete architecture. The Fabric Formwork Book provides the first comprehensive handbook on the emerging technology of flexible moulds for reinforced concrete architecture. Written by the foremost expert in the field, this book takes a comprehensive and generous approach that includes technical, historical and theoretical aspects of the subject. The book: concentrates on simple flat-sheet formworks contains detailed technical descriptions of how to construct a wide range of formworks for various applications features case studies from around the world critiques the difficulties and advantages in each case it covers provides instruction and guidance on how to model and design fabric-formed structures includes the most comprehensive history of fabric formwork yet published features essays from guest expert authors, which explore the theoretical, historical, and poetic significance of flexibly formed architecture and structures discusses fabric formwork as an exemplary approach to sustainable construction through its simplicity and efficiency. Beautifully designed and illustrated with a superb range of images, diagrams and technical drawings, the book both informs and inspires. Speaking directly and plainly to professionals, students and academics, the language used is both clear and precise, and care is taken to avoid opaque technical or academic jargon. Technical terms, when used, are clearly described and a special glossary is included to make the book as widely accessible as possible.

A magnificent work of original research that unravels history through textiles and cloth—how we make it, use it, and what it means to us. How is a handmade fabric helping save an ancient forest? Why is a famous fabric pattern from India best known by the name of a Scottish town? How is a Chinese dragon robe a diagram of the whole universe? What is the difference between how the Greek Fates and the Viking Norns used threads to tell our destiny? In Fabric, bestselling author Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it. She beats the inner bark of trees into cloth in Papua New Guinea, fails to handspin cotton in Guatemala, visits tweed weavers at their homes in Harris, and has lessons in patchwork-making in Gee's Bend, Alabama - where in the 1930s, deprived of almost everything they owned, a community of women turned quilting into an art form. She began her research just after the deaths of both her parents —and entwined in the threads she found her personal story too. Fabric is not just a material history of our world, but Finlay's own journey through grief and recovery.

Surveys recent advances in combinatorial properties of switching fabrics Written by an expert in the area of switching fabrics

With hundreds of step-by-step illustrated instructions and a user-friendly, stay-flat format, Patternmaking with Stretch Knit Fabrics provides emerging fashion designers with comprehensive information on how to draft patterns for popular cut-and-sew stretch knit fabrics such as jersey and knits with spandex. After covering the basics of knits and techniques for gauging stretch capacity, Julie Cole introduces a unique, simplified approach to drafting slopers using hip and top foundations. She then provides information on converting, drafting, grading, and reducing patterns for proper fit in four categories of stretch. The book proceeds to drafting slopers and patterns for tops, dresses, jackets, sweaters, cardigans, skirts, pants, lingerie, swimwear, and activewear. Patternmaking with Stretch Knit Fabrics is ideal for students with basic or intermediate design, patternmaking, and sewing skills for any course in which students design and draft patterns for knits; or courses that incorporate both knits and woven fabrics. Features - Accurate and simplified system for patternmaking with stretch knit fabrics with easier to follow approach than other books -Each chapter includes - Key terms - Highly-illustrated step-by-step instructions - Three types of boxes: "Important", "Pattern Tip", and "Stitching Tip" - End of chapter features "Knit It Together" checklist, "Stop! What Do I Do If..." troubleshooting tips, and "Self Critique" review - More than 900 technical drawings with color accents and 100 photographs of sewn samples on the dress form Patternmaking with Stretch Knit Fabric STUDIO - Study smarter with self-quizzes featuring scored results and personalized study tips - Review concepts with flashcards of terms and definitions - Access downloadable files for half-size top and hip foundations, and slopers found in the book Teaching Resources - Instructor's Guide and Test Bank includes sample syllabi, suggested projects, test questions, and evaluation guides