Help identifying fabric please!

I just inherited a few boxes of fabric from a friend - and I need help
identifying it. Some I can tell, like some of the silks, but there is
lots of slinky silky fabrics and I'd like to find some way of telling
if its a poly, silk, cotton, rayon.

Am I dreaming that there is a miracle way to do this? I heard
somewhere that you can burn it but i don't know what to do after I
light the flame? ;-) besides cry... i mean burn the fabric - that's
heresy!

anyway thank you for indulging my questions.

xx/oo

angeline

angeline wrote:
I just inherited a few boxes of fabric from a friend -
and I need help identifying it. Some I can tell, like
some of the silks, but there is lots of slinky silky
fabrics and I'd like to find some way of telling if its a
poly, silk, cotton, rayon.

Am I dreaming that there is a miracle way to do this? I
heard somewhere that you can burn it but i don't know
what to do after I light the flame? ;-) besides cry... i
mean burn the fabric - that's heresy!

anyway thank you for indulging my questions.

Try this fabric identification site:

http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp

HTH,

Beverly

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:52:13 -0800, "BEI Design"
wrote:

Try this fabric identification site:

http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp

It left out a couple of points -- you ignite the fabric with a lit
candle, so as not to burn your fingers with a match. Using tweezers
or tongs, hold a very small sample near the flame for a while before
igniting it; fabrics often behave in informative ways when hot.

Set the candle on the kitchen stove; working down inside a bucket is
more likely to cause problems than to prevent them. Be prepared to
turn the exhaust fan on "high" if the fabric turns out to be
synthetic. If you don't have access to a kitchen, work outdoors,
well away from buildings, dry plant matter, etc.

Another chemical test: pour a little 2.75% sodium hypochlorite AKA
household bleach into a shot glass. Drop in a small sample of fiber.
Any fiber that is still there in the morning is not an animal fiber.
Fine animal fibers such as wool are usually gone in an hour. I think
a sample of human hair took two hours, but it has been a long time
since I did it.

Joy Beeson
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ -- sewing
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.

angeline wrote:

I just inherited a few boxes of fabric from a friend - and I need help
identifying it. Some I can tell, like some of the silks, but there is
lots of slinky silky fabrics and I'd like to find some way of telling
if its a poly, silk, cotton, rayon.

Am I dreaming that there is a miracle way to do this? I heard
somewhere that you can burn it but i don't know what to do after I
light the flame? ;-) besides cry... i mean burn the fabric - that's
heresy!

anyway thank you for indulging my questions.

xx/oo

angeline

I do burn testing in my garage with the cars pulled out and the doors
closed. Why? OK. Big space with a concrete floor. If anything I'm
burning gets out of control, I can drop it on the concrete floor and stomp
the flames out. (this is one time I DO wear shoes) The big advantage to
burn testing in the garage? I can smell the sample as it is burning. What
it smells like is a real clue to a lot of the fabrics. Plus, burning
outside in the wind??? Hello. Try keeping something lit in that. Did it
self extinguish or did it blow out?

My personal favorite guide for burn testing is in Claire Shaeffer's Fabric
Sewing Guide. If you don't have a copy in your personal library, try the
public library. But treat yourself and buy one when you can. It really
is a marvelous book.

And I know, it's hard to light that first flame. But you don't need a big
piece. Cut off maybe a 1" corner. That will give you enough to cut
smaller and burn test 2 or 3 times on that one fabric. Sometimes they burn
fast and you aren't sure of the result the first time. That's OK. Good
luck!!

Sharon
---
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of time and just annoys the
pig.

Merciful Heavens, you all make it sound complicated! I keep a cigarette
lighter and a VERY LARGE ashtray in the studio. To test, I cut a sliver
about two or three inches long, roughly a quarter-inch wide at the
selvedge edge tapering to nothing. Hold the lighter to the fabric
sliver OVER the ashtray, light it up, sniff, then blow it out and smell
the smoke. After it cools a second or two later, check whether it has
left ash or a bead.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

--
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