I am giving a once-a-week x possibly forever (!) vintage fabric workshop in the Vintage Fashion Guild public forum. If you’d like to join in, you’ll find the workshop under “Fabric Friday” HERE.
You can also follow along here in my blog, where I intend to post some of the same content. Please ask questions! I love questions.
If you’re a vintage fashion dealer, you probably know all about how challenging it can be to decide what fabric your item is made of. Maybe you’ve even given up on trying! However there are some very good reasons to figure this out.
Customers often want to know. After all, some find wool irritating, some hate wearing polyester, some will spend more for silk, and so forth.
The fabric can help gauge the value of an item for selling purposes.
Knowing the fiber of the fabric can help date the item. For instance, nylon wasn’t available commercially on any real scale until after WWII, so a nylon nightgown most likely won’t date from prior to 1946.
Knowing the fabric makes you a more trusted and helpful seller.
You will have a better idea of how to clean an item.
If you are a vintage fashion buyer, you will have some of the same interests: How to clean, how much to pay and what you like to wear.
So I start this series with a bit about determining the fiber of a fabric.
This is just slightly adapted from the Determining Fiber page of the VFG Fabric Resource, which I wrote and compiled.
If you have a piece of vintage clothing without a fabric content label and you’d like to know what the material is made of, try the most accessible test out there: A fiber-burn test. The basic process involves snipping a small piece of fabric from an inseam, then carefully burning it with a lighter while observing how the fiber behaves (looks, smells, feels) during and after. You can then compare your findings to a chart.
There are a number of tests, some traditional but potentially inconclusive (such as dampening and creasing a fabric to see how it behaves) and some quite scientific but not accessible to the average person (exposing yarns to certain chemicals and examining them under a microscope). By far the most accessible test is burning.
Burning fibers takes practice, and you must start with a little caution. Tie long hair back out of the way. You should burn over a sink or bucket so you can allow the potentially molten fiber to drip safely, and drop your sample if necessary. You need a pair of tweezers to hold a small fabric swatch, and a lighter. If you burn matches of any sort you will pick up the scent of burning paper or wood, throwing you off for discerning the burning fabric’s odor.
If you are testing a finished garment, find an inconspicuous place to cut a small sample, usually a seam allowance. Even a few yarns are “readable” with experience, but a piece of about 1” × 1/4” is ideal. Hold one end of the fabric with the tweezers and slowly expose the other end to the flame of the lighter. Notice if the fabric readily burns or takes some effort to light. Also, note if the fire burns out or continues until all the fabric is burned. Smell the smoke as the fire goes out. Finally, when the sample is cool enough, feel the residue and note its color. Compare your findings to the standards in the burn chart, below.
Of course, many textiles are made of fiber blends. Pull apart warp and weft yarns and burn them separately, as the blend may be as simple as one distinct fiber in the warp, another in the weft. Another test is to untwist an individual yarn and burn the plies separately. In both these cases, try to bundle and twist together like threads so that you have a swatch of sufficient density to burn accurately. Other blends may seem inconclusive, but feature a “top note” that is discernible—such as the “burning feathers” odor of silk. Even knowing part of the fiber is helpful.
To train yourself about how a fiber burns, try taking clippings of known fabric samples and get used to each sample’s characteristics when burned.
You can find YouTube videos of fibers being burned, and that may help with the visual side of the process.
Several factors may effect how a fabric burns, including finishing treatments, density of the weave, and even the dye used.
Your senses also will help determine a fabric’s fiber content without burning, given a chance to learn. With experience, silk, wool, rayon, polyester, acetate—all fibers, are discernible just by look and feel. Spend time handling known fabrics; keep your own swatch book to compare. If you have a chance, be taught first hand: You may be fortunate to find a person who is knowledgeable about textiles and can guide you. Experience with a fabric mentor could make a complex project much easier and more memorable.
One technical test of fiber content available to the average person is microscopic examination, using a relatively inexpensive hobbyists’ or children’s microscope (just 100x magnification is plenty for this purpose). Photos of magnified textile fibers can be seen in books and online.
I don't own this, but I'm considering ordering this hand-held microscope: Carson MicroBrite Plus 60x-120x LED Lighted Zoom Pocket Microscope. (This is an Amazon affiliate link. That means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.)
On another level, a technical evaluation of solubility uses hazardous chemicals to test fibers. Generally these tests are only run in laboratories. One test of this kind, though, is available to the average person—using acetone. (Look for pure acetone among nail polish removers.) At room temperature, acetate will dissolve in acetone (brush it on with a cotton swab). Triacetate will disintegrate. Modacrylic and vinyon will soften.
I know that a number of people struggle with the fiber burn test for various reasons. (Someone told me recently that it sets off the smoke detector in her apartment!) What can I do to help?