Popular Fabrics For Shirt Making

There are a range of different fabrics used in shirt making today, however there are a few that are used the most, and that is because with them tried and tested over the years, they have proved to be fabrics that work perfectly for shirts.

Shirt fabrics should be made from a high count of natural fibre, if not 100% then at least 70%, such as cotton, linen, or even hemp. Blends of these fibres make perfect shirt material because it allows the body to breath, while providing warmth at the same time. Shirts made from natural fibres will allow you to feel warm in colder weathers, and cool in the heat. Shirts which claim to be non-iron shirts will have been treated chemically, and while they are easier to iron than regular cotton shirts, they usually still need ironing. If you want your shirt to be just natural fibres, untreated, do not got for non-iron.

Some other popular fabrics for making shirts in are; Flannel (a soft brushed cotton), denim, chambray (a plain weave fabric), twill (this shows diagonal weave), broadcloth or poplin, pinpoint or pinpoint oxford, or Oxford. Fabric provides various textures from fine to course, and each have their own positive qualities. Generally, a fine and smooth fabric will be a high quality fabric and will be ideal for a dress shirt or business shirt.

A shirt is worn right next to the skin, often for around 12 hours everyday. Because of this, it is vital to get your shirts made in a find quality natural fabric, or natural blend fabric. The majority of our shirts here are made from 2-fold 100% cotton poplin with 100’s (standard 105 grams/m2) and 140-200's (Superfine 100 grams/m2) thread count. All the poplin cotton fabric is made from two fold both warp and weft. The number describes the thickness of the yarn. Lower yarn number indicates a thicker yarn, whereas higher yarn numbers are indicative of finer yarns, shirts made from higher yarns are generally more expensive. Where as the ply refers to the number of yarns used in the weaving process. Two Ply indicates the twisting of two yarns together to form a single yarn before weaving. Fabrics made from two ply yarn are of higher quality than those made from single yarn. Because fabric is woven using yarns in two directions referred to as ‘warp’ for vertical and ‘weft’ for horizontal.  However, polyester / cotton blends can make very nice shirts, providing the cotton count is high and the quality is good. Shirts made with blends such as poly cotton will also be less expensive than 100% natural fibres.