The National Institute of Certified Floor-Covering Inspectors (NICFI) is a non-profit association of independent floor covering inspectors. NICFI members are expert flooring failure analysts and expert witnesses in flooring problems and failures.
NICFI members are experienced in the inspection and failure analysis of woven carpet, broadloom carpet, resilient tile, rubber tile, cork tile, ceramic tile, resilient sheet vinyl, vinyl composition tile, LVT, hardwood, laminate, solid vinyl,

and specialty flooring materials.
NICFI members attend the annual NICFI Convention in Dalton, Georgia, to increase their knowledge and update their skills. The Annual Convention includes updates on indicative field testing procedures, tools, products and product defects. The NICFI is the only Non-Profit Association in the Flooring Industry with membership comprised solely of Certified Floor Covering Inspectors.

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WOVEN GLOSSARY

A

Absorbency

Acetate

Acrylic

Aida cloth

Alnage

  • Alnage is the official supervision of the shape and quality of manufactured woolen cloth.

Alpaca

  • Alpaca is a name given to two distinct things. It is primarily a term applied to the wool of the Peruvian alpaca. It is, however, more broadly applied to a style of fabric originally made from alpaca fiber but now frequently made from a similar type of fiber.

Angora

Appliqué

Aramid

Argyle

  • An argyle pattern is one containing diamonds in a sort of diagonal checkerboard pattern.

B

Backstrap loom

  • Backstrap looms, as the name implies, are tied around the weaver's waist on one end and around a stationary object such as a tree, post, or door on the other. Tension can be adjusted simply by leaning back. Backstrap looms are very portable, since they can simply be rolled up and carried.

Baize

Ballistic nylon

Barathea

  • Barathea is an indistinct twill or broken rib - usually a twilled hopsack weave - with a fine textured, slightly pebbled surface. Often of silk or silk blended with wool, used for neckties, women's fine suits and coats, men's and women's evening wear.

Batik

  • Batik is an Indonesian traditional word and refers to a generic wax-resist dyeing technique used on fabric.

Bedford-Cord

  • Combination of two kinds of Weave, Namely Plain and Drill.

Bias

  • The bias direction of a piece of woven fabric, usually referred to simply as "the bias", is at 45 degrees to its warp and weft threads. Every piece of woven fabric has two biases, perpendicular to each other.

Binding

  • In sewing, binding is used as both a noun and a verb to refer to finishing a seam or hem of a garment, usually by rolling or pressing then stitching on an edging or trim.

Blend

Bobbin lace

  • Bobbin lace is a delicate lace that uses wound spools of thread (the bobbins) to weave together the shapes in the lace.

Bobbinet

  • Bobbinet is a tulle netting with hexagonal shaped holes, traditionally used as a base for embroidery and lingerie.

Bombazine

  • Bombazine is a fabric originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material.

Braid

  • To braid is to interweave or twine three or more separate strands of one or more materials in a diagonally overlapping pattern.

Broadcloth

Brocade

Buckram

  • Buckram is a stiff cloth, made of cotton or linen, which is used to cover, and protect, a book, and although more expensive than its look-a-like, Brella, is stronger and resistant to cockroaches eating it. Buckram can also be used to stiffen clothes.

Burlap

C

Calico

  • Calico is a type of fabric made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. Also referred to a type of Printing.

Cambric

  • Cambric is a lightweight cotton cloth used as fabric for lace and needlework.

Camel's Hair

  • Camel's Hair is a natural fiber from the camel. Camel hair can produce a variety of different coarseness of yarn. This fiber is a novelty fiber spun by hand-spinners.

Canvas

  • Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, and other functions where sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used on fashion handbags.

Canvas work

Carding

Carpet

  • A carpet' is any loom-woven, felted textile or grass floor covering.

Cashmere

Cellulose

Cheesecloth

Chiffon

Chino cloth

Chintz

  • Chintz is calico cloth printed with flowers and other devices in different colors. It was originally of Eastern manufacture.

Coir

  • Coir is a coarse fibre extracted from the fibrous outer shell of a coconut.

Colorfast (Colourfast)

  • A term used to describe whether the colors bleed or not in washing.

Cord

  • Cord is twisted fibre, usually intermediate between rope and string. It is also used as a shortened form of corduroy.

Corduroy

Cotton

Crash

  • Crash is a rough fabric made from yarns that are usually undyed. The coarsest type is called Russian crash. Linen is generally used for the warp yarn, while linen and jute are used for the filler.

Crepe

  • Crepe is a silk fabric of a gauzy texture, having a peculiar crisp or crimpy appearance.

Crazy quilt

Crinoline

Cross-stitch

Crochet

Crochet hook

  • A crochet hook is a type of needle, usually with a hook at one end, used to draw thread through knotted loops.

Cro-hook

  • The cro-hook is a special double-ended crochet hook used to make double-sided crochet. Because the hook has two ends, two colours of thread can be handled at once and freely interchanged.

D

Damask

Darning mushroom

  • A darning mushroom is a tool which can be used for darning clothes, particularly socks. The sock can be stretched over the top of the (curved) mushroom, and gathered-tightly-around the stalk.

Denim

Dimity

  • Dimity is a lightweight, sheer cotton fabric having at least two warp threads thrown into relief to form fine cords.

Dobby loom

  • Dobby loom is a loom in which each harness can be manipulated individually. This is in contrast to a treadle loom, where the harnesses are attached to a number of different treadles depending on the weave structure.

Double weave

Dowlas

Durability

Dyes

Dye lot

  • Dye lot is a number that identifies yarns dyed in the same vat at the same time. Subtle differences can appear between different batches of the same color yarn from the same manufacturer.

E

Elasticity

Embroidery

Epinglé fabric

  • A type of velvet fabric woven on a wire loom or épinglé loom. The épinglé velvet is specific by the fact that both loop pile and cut pile can be integrated into the same fabric. The art of épinglé weaving in Europe originates from Lucca (Italy) and later Venice and Genua. Actually the term 'Genua velvet' is still in use. The Flemish region of Kortrijk and Waregem (Belgium) is the area whereupon today the technique of épinglé weaving is still very actual. The fabric finds it application mostly in upholstery, although in medieval times it was used as apparel for princes and kings as well as for bishops, cardinals and the pope.

Even-weave

Eyelet

  • Grommets and eyelets are metal, plastic, or rubber rings that are inserted into a hole made through another material. They may be used to reinforce the hole, to shield something from the sharp edges of the hole, or both.

F

Facing

Felt

  • Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers. The fibers form the structure of the fabric.

Felting

Fiber

  • Fiber or fibre (see spelling differences) is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. They can be spun into filaments, thread, or rope. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt.

Filament

  • A filament is a fine, thinly spun thread, fiber, or wire.

Filling

Finishing

  • Finishing refers to any process performed on yarn or fabric after weaving to improve the look, performance, or "hand" (feel) of the finished textile.[3]

Fishnet

  • Fishnet is a material with an open, diamond shaped knit.

Flannel

Flax

  • Flax fiber is soft, lustrous and flexible. It is stronger than cotton fiber but less elastic. The best grades are used for linen fabrics such as damasks, lace and sheeting. Coarser grades are used for the manufacturing of twine and rope.

Frieze

  • Frieze is a coarse woollen cloth with a nap on one side, that was raised by scrubbing it to raise curls of fibre (French: frisé). In the 19th century rough cheap frieze was made of wool mixed with shoddy (see Shoddy).

Fulling

  • Fulling is a step in clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to get rid of oils, dirt, and other impurities.

Fustian

  • Fustian is a term for a variety of heavy twilled woven cotton fabrics, chiefly prepared for menswear. Usually dyed in a dark shade. Declined in popularity from 1813, being replaced by harder wearing and better quality wool cloths.

G

Gabardine

  • Gabardine is a tough, tightly woven fabric often used to make suits, overcoats and trousers. The fibre used to make the fabric is traditionally worsted (a woolen yarn), but may also be cotton, synthetic or mixed. The fabric is smooth on one side and has a diagonally ribbed surface on the other.

Gauge

Gante

  • Gante is a cloth made from cotton or tow warp and jute weft. It is largely used for bags for sugar and similar material, and has the appearance of a fine hessian cloth.

Gauze

  • A very light, sheer, fine woven fabric.

Genova velvet

  • A type of velvet where in Jacquard patterns are woven into the ground fabric and where the pile is made of a combination of cut and uncut (loop) pile. This fabric is also known as Venetian velvet, or more generally, as épinglé velvet. In the actual terminology of furnishing fabrics it is mostly named with its French name "velours de Gênes".

            This kind of fabric is made on a wire loom or épinglé loom.

Geotextile

Gingham

Glass fiber (fibre)

Gossamer

Grogram

H

Heddle

  • Common component of a loom used to separate warp threads for passage of the weft. Commonly made of cord or wire.

Hem

  • To hem a piece of cloth (in sewing), a garment worker folds up a cut edge, folds it up again, and then sews it down. The process of hemming thus completely encloses the cut edge in cloth, so that it cannot ravel. A hem is also the edge of cloth hemmed in this manner.

Hemp

  • The main uses of hemp fibre are rope, sacking, carpet, nets and webbing. Hemp is also being used in increasing quantities in paper manufacturing. The cellulose content is about 70%.

Huckaback

I

Ikat

  • Ikat is a style of weaving that uses a tie-dye process on either the warp or weft before the threads are woven to create a pattern or design. A Double Ikat is when both the warp and the weft are tie-dyed before weaving.

Intarsia

  • Intarsia is a knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colours.

Interfacing

J

Jacquard

Jacquard loom

Jamdani

Jute

  • Jute is a long, soft, shiny plant fibre that can be spun into coarse, strong threads.

            Jute is one of the cheapest natural fibres, and is second only to cotton in amount produced and variety of uses. Jute fibres are composed primarily of the plant materials      cellulose and lignin.

K

Knit fabrics

Knitting needle gauge

  • A knitting needle gauge makes is used to determine the size of a knitting needle. Some also double for crochet hooks. Most needles come with the size written on the needle, but many needles (like double-pointed needles) tend to not be labeled. Also, with wear and time the label often wears off. Needle gauges can be made of any material, and are often made for metal and plastic. They tend to be about 3 by 5 inches. They contain holes of various sizes, and often have a ruler along the edge for determining the gauge of a sample.

L

Lace

  • Lace-making is an ancient craft. A lace fabric is lightweight openwork fabric, patterned, either by machine or by hand, with open holes in the work. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often lace is built up from a single thread and the open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric.

Lamé

Lawn

Linen

  • Linen is a material made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen produced in Ireland is called Irish linen. Linens are fabric household goods, such as pillowcases and towels.

Lining

  • Lining

Loden

  • Loden is water-resistant material for clothing made from sheep wool.

Loom

Lucet

  • Lucet is a method of cordmaking or braiding which is believed to date back to the Viking era. Lucet cord is square, strong, and slightly springy. It closely resembles knitted I-cord or the cord produced on a knitting spool. Lucet cord is formed by a series of loops, and will therefore unravel if cut.

M

Macramé

Mercerized cotton

Merino

Mesh

  • A mesh is similar to fabric or a web in that it has many connected or weaved pieces. In clothing, a mesh is often defined as fabric that has a large number of closely spaced holes, such as is common practice for modern sports jerseys.

Metallic fiber (fibre)

Microfibre (fiber)

  • Microfibre is a term for fibres with strands thinner than one denier. Fabrics made with microfibres are exceptionally soft and hold their shape well.

Millinery

  • Millinery is women's hats and other articles sold by a milliner, or the profession or business of designing, making, or selling hats for women.

Mocado

Modal

Mohair

Mungo

  • Fibrous woollen material generated from waste fabric, particularly tightly woven cloths and rags. See also: shoddy.

Muslin

N

Nainsook

  • Nainsook is a fine, soft muslin fabric, often to used to make babies clothing.

Nap

Needlepoint

Needlework

Net

Nonwoven fabric

  • Non-woven textiles are those which are neither woven nor knit, for example felt. Non-wovens are typically not strong (unless reinforced by a backing), and do not stretch. They are cheap to manufacture.

Novelty yarn

Nylon

O

Oilcloth

  • Oilcloth was, traditionally, heavy cotton or linen cloth with a linseed oil coating: it was semi-waterproof. The most familiar use was for brightly printed kitchen tablecloths. Dull-colored oilcloth was used for bedrolls, sou'westers, and tents. By the late 1950s, oilcloth became a synonym for vinyl (polyvinyl chloride) bonded to either a flanneled cloth or a printed vinyl with a synthetic non-woven backing.

Organdy

  • Organdy or organdie is the sheerest cotton cloth made. Combed yarns contribute to its appearance. Its sheerness and crispness are the result of an acid finish on greige (unbleached) lawn goods. Because of its stiffness and fiber content, it is very prone to wrinkling.

Organza

  • Organza is a thin, plain weave, sheer fabric traditionally made from silk, the continuous filament of silkworms. Nowadays, though many organzas are woven with synthetic filament fibers such as polyester or nylon, the most luxurious organzas are still woven in silk.

P

Paisley

Patchwork

  • Patchwork is a form of needlework or craft that involves sewing together small pieces of fabric and stitching them together into a larger design, which is then usually quilted, or else tied together with pieces of yarn at regular intervals, a practice known as tying. Patchwork is traditionally 'pieced' by hand, but modern quiltmakers often use a sewing machine instead.

Percale

  • Percale refers to a closely woven, high thread count, cotton fabric often used for sheets and clothing.

Persian weave

Pile knit

Pile weave

Pile Wire

  • A steel rod which is inserted in between the base fabric and the pile ends in a pile fabric woven on a wire loom or épinglé loom. The height and thickness of the rod determine the size of the loop. A pile wire can be a simple rod - in which case the pile yarns will form a 'loop' pile. If the pile wire is equipped with a blade holder and cutting blade at the tip it will cut the pile loops during extraction thus producing cut pile.

Pill

Plaid

Plain weave

Plied yarn

Plush

Polyester

Poplin

  • Poplin is a heavy, durable fabric that has a ribbed appearance. It is made with wool, cotton, silk, rayon, or any mixture of these. The ribs run across the fabric from selvage to selvage. They are formed by using coarse filling yarns in a plain weave.

Purl stitch

Q

Qalamkari

Qiviut

Quilt

  • Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating batting in between. A bed covering or similar large rectangular piece of quilting work is called a quilt.

R

Rayon

  • Rayon is a transparent fibre made of processed cellulose. Cellulose fibres from wood or cotton are dissolved in alkali to make a solution called viscose, which is then extruded through a nozzle, or spinneret, into an acid bath to reconvert the viscose into cellulose. A similar process, using a slit instead of a hole, is used to make cellophane.

Rib knit

Rib weave

Rolag

Roving

  • A roving is a long rope of fibers where all of the fibers are going parallel to the roving.

Rug

  • A rug is a form of carpet. It is usually smaller than a carpet. See also: rug making

S

Sailcloth

Sateen

  • Sateen is a fabric formed with a satin weave where the floats are perpendicular to the selvage of the goods.

Satin

  • A Satin is a cloth that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back. It is formed by a sequence of broken twill floats in either the warp or weft system, which respectively identify the goods as either a satin or a sateen.

Satin weave

  • A satin is a broken twill weaving technique that forms floats on one side of the fabric. If a satin is woven with the floats parallel to the selvedge of the goods, the corresponding fabric is termed a "satin." If the floats are perpendicular to the selvedge of the goods, the fabric is termed a 'sateen.'"

Seam

Seam ripper

Selvage or Selvedge

Serge

Serging

Sewing

  • Sewing is an ancient craft involving the stitching of cloth, leather, animal skins, furs, or other materials, using needle and thread. Its use is nearly universal among human populations and dates back to Paleolithic times (30,000 BC). Sewing predates the weaving of cloth.

Shag

  • Shag (fabric) is typically used to make a deep-pile carpets. This is the oldest use of the term. Shag carpet is sometimes evoked as an example of the aesthetic from the culture of the U.S. 1970s. Also used to make carpets for mariners.

Shed

  • In weaving, the shed is the gap between yarns on a loom when one or more, but not all, of the harnesses are raised.

Sheer

  • Sheer is a semi-transparent and flimsy cloth.

Shoddy

  • Recycled or remanufactured wool. Historically generated from loosely woven materials. Benjamin Law invented shoddy and mungo, as such, in England in 1813. He was the first to organise, on a larger scale, the activity of taking old clothes and grinding them down into a fibrous state that could be re-spun into yarn. The shoddy industry was centred on the towns of Batley, Morley, Dewsbury and Ossett in West Yorkshire, and concentrated on the recovery of wool from rags. The importance of the industry can be gauged by the fact that even in 1860 the town of Batley was producing over 7000 tonnes of shoddy. At the time there were 80 firms employing a total of 550 people sorting the rags. These were then sold to shoddy manufacturers of which there were about 130 in the West Riding. Shoddy is inferior to the original wool; "shoddy" has come to mean "of poor quality" in general (not related to clothing), and the original meaning is largely obsolete.

Shot

  • The opal effect achieved on a fabric by dyeing the warp and weft threads different colours. The yarns are dyed first and then woven. When looking at the fabric from various angles it appears to alter in colour, this is more obvious in lustrous fabrics and more so in certain types of weaves.

Shuttle

Silk

  • Silk is a natural protein fiber that can be woven into textiles. It is obtained from the cocoon of the silkworm larva, in the process known as sericulture, which kills the larvae. The shimmering appearance for which it is prized comes from the fibres triangular prism-like structure, which allows silk cloth to refract incoming light at different angles.

Sisal

  • Sisal or sisal hemp is an agave Agave sisalana that yields a stiff fiber used in making rope. (The term may refer either to the plant or the fiber, depending on context.) It is not really a variety of hemp, but named so because hemp was for centuries a major source for fiber, so other fibers were sometimes named after it.

Skein

  • Skein is when a length of yarn is bundled in a loose roll rather than put on a cone (as you would purchase from store)- usually done if yarn is going to a dye vat or needs a treatment in a manufacturing/knitting mill environment.

Solution-dyed

Spandex fiber

Spinning

  • Spinning is the process of creating yarn (or thread, rope, cable) from various raw fiber materials.

Spread Tow Fabrics

  • Spread Tow Fabrics is a type of lightweight fabric. Its production involves the steps of spreading a tow of higher count, e.g. 12k, into thin-and-wide spread tow tape (STT) and weaving them into a lightweight fabric by employing the novel tape-weaving technique.

Staple

  • Staple is the raw material, or its length and quality, of fiber from which textiles are made.

Stitch

Stuff

Super

  • The Super grading system is used to grade the quality of wool fabric. The higher the number, the more yarn is packed in per square inch, therefore all things being equal a super 120s yarn is better than super 100s.

T

Tablet weaving

  • Tablet weaving is a process of weaving where tablets, also called 'cards', are used to create the shed that the weft is passed through. It is generally used to make narrow work such as belts or straps.

Tactel

Taffeta

Tapestry

  • Tapestry is a form of textile art. It is woven by hand on a weaving-loom. The chain thread is the carrier in which the coloured striking thread is woven. In this way, a colourful pattern or image is created. Most weavers use a naturally based chain thread made out of linen or wool. The striking threads can be made out of silk, wool, gold or silver, but can also be made out of any form of textile.

Tarlatan

  • Tarlatan is a starched, open-weave fabric, much like cheese cloth. It is used to wipe the ink off a plate during the intaglio inking process. The open weave allows for the tarlatan to pick up a large quantity of ink. The stiffness imparted by the starch helps prevent the fabric from taking the ink out of the incised lines.

Tassel

  • A tassel is a ball-shaped bunch of plaited or otherwise entangled threads from which at one end protrudes a cord on which the tassel is hung, and which may have loose, dangling threads at the other end.

Tatting

  • Tatting is a technique for handcrafting lace that can be documented approximately to the early 19th century.

Terry cloth

Thimble

  • A thimble is a protective shield worn on the finger or thumb.

Threads per inch (TPI)

  • Threads per inch is the measurement of the number of threads per inch of material, such as fabric, or metal in the case of screws and bolts.

Thread count

  • The thread count is the number of warp threads per inch plus the number of weft threads.

Tissue

Trim

Tulle

Tweed

  • Tweed is a type of fabric using the twill weave.

Twill tape

Twill weave

  • Twill is a type of fabric woven with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs. It is made by passing the weft threads over one warp thread and then under two or more warp threads. Examples of twill fabric are gabardine, tweed and serge.

U

V

Velour

Velvet

  • Velvet is a type of tufted fabric in which the cut threads are very evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it its distinct feel. Velvet can be made from any fiber. It is woven on a special loom that weaves two piece of velvet at the same time. The two pieces are then cut apart and the two lengths of fabric are wound on separate take-up rolls.

Velveteen

  • Velveteen is a cotton cloth made in imitation of velvet. The term is sometimes applied to a mixture of silk and cotton. Some velveteens are a kind of fustian, having a rib of velvet pile alternating with a plain depression. The velveteen, trade varies a good deal with the fashions that control the production of velvet.

Viscose

W

Warp

  • The warp is the set of lengthwise threads attached to a loom before weaving begins, and through which the weft is woven.

Warp knit

  • Knit fabric in which intermeshing loops are positioned in a lengthwise, or warp, direction. The fabric has a flatter, closer, less elastic structure than most weft knits and is run-resistant.

Waterproof

Water repellent

Weaving

  • Weaving is an ancient textile art and craft that involves placing two sets of threads or yarn made of fibre called the warp and weft of the loom and turning them into cloth. This cloth can be plain (in one color or a simple pattern), or it can be woven in decorative or artistic designs, including tapestries.

Weft

  • The weft is the yarn that is woven back and forth through the warp to make cloth.

Weft knit

Wilton Carpet

  • Wilton carpet is produced on a specific type of weaving machine called wire loom. Wilton carpets are pile carpets whereby the pile is formed by inserting steel rods in the pile warps of the fabric. After extraction of the rods the pile is looped (in case straight wires have been used) or cut (in case cutting wires are used). Wilton carpet is generally considered as high quality and is used for heavy duty applications.

Wire loom,

  • Weaving machine for pile fabrics or velvets whereby the pile is made by weaving steel rods or wires into the fabrics. When the wires are extracted the warp ends that have been woven over the wires remain as loops on top of the fabric or will form cut pile if the wire is equipped with a cutting blade. This technique is also known as "épinglé weaving". A wire loom in a much wider version (up to 5 meters of width) and in heavier construction is used for the manufacturing of carpets is called a "WILTON" loom, and the carpets made on such a loom are known as "Wilton Carpets"

Woof

  • The woof is the same thing as the weft.

Wool

Woolen

Worsted fabric

  • Worsted is the name of a yarn and cloth usually made from wool. The yarn is well twisted and spun of long staple wool (though nowadays also medium and short fibres are used). The wool is combed so that the fibres lie parallel.

Woven fabric

  • A woven fabric is a cloth formed by weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions (between the warp and weft directions), unless the threads are elastic. Woven cloth usually frays at the edges, unless measures are taken to counter this, such as the use of pinking shears or hemming.