Fabric Defects
- Weaving Defects Skip stitch / float: Warp and weft yarns fail to interlace, with partial yarns floating on the surface, forming irregular lines or small lumpy protrusions. Broken yarn / missing weft or warp: Yarn breaks during weaving, leaving horizontal (missing weft) or vertical (missing warp) gaps and fine slits on the fabric surface. Slub / thick‑and‑thin yarn: Abrupt local thickness variation in a single yarn, resulting in lumps and thick streaks on the fabric. Double yarn: Two yarns are twisted together and woven as one, creating a raised ridge on the fabric surface. Skewed weft: Weft yarns are not horizontal, causing distorted fabric grain; garments cut from such fabric will twist with skewed hems. Density bar: Malfunction of weaving machine causes alternating loose and tight weave in local areas, producing horizontal streaky marks. Foreign‑body inclusion: Fly lint, fibre scraps and thread ends are woven into the fabric during weaving, forming tiny black spots and hard nodules. Needle hole: Common in knitted fabrics; small holes left by damaged knitting needles.
- Dyeing and Printing Defects Dye mottle: Uneven dyeing with patchy alternating dark and light areas. Colour difference: Inconsistent colour across the same piece of fabric (front‑back, left‑right); batch shade variation: colour discrepancy between different fabric lots. Colour spot / colour stain: Dye agglomerates, leaving coloured spots and stain marks of varying sizes on the fabric. Missing print / mis‑print: For printed fabrics, partial missing patterns, pattern displacement and mis‑registration of colour layers. Colour smearing / colour bleeding: Fabrics are piled up during dyeing, colours transfer onto one another and form foreign‑colour marks. Streaky dye defect: Striped light‑and‑dark marks caused by dyeing, running vertically or horizontally across the fabric.
- Raw Material and Surface Appearance Defects Nep: Tangled cotton fibres forming tiny granular specks; very common in cotton fabrics. Pill: In woollen fabrics, short fibres tangle into small ball‑like lumps. Oil stain: Machine oil from spinning or weaving equipment smudges the fabric, leaving oil spots and marks that are difficult to remove. Hole: Openings of varying sizes formed by broken yarns. Snag: Occurs in chemical‑fibre and knitted fabrics; yarns are pulled out by sharp objects, creating raised surface loops.
- Finishing Defects (after setting, pre‑shrinking and washing) Crease mark / press mark: Permanent stubborn fold marks left by folded and compressed fabric. Chafed shine: Excessive ironing or calendaring leads to local glossy reflections on fabric; frequently seen in chemical‑fibre and cotton fabrics. Water mark: Residual water stains after washing, appearing as patchy water‑trace marks. Edge curling: Knitted fabric edges curl inward, complicating cutting operations. Excessive shrinkage: Not an appearance defect but a performance defect; fabric dimensions reduce substantially after washing.