What is the Meaning of Fabric Construction and Weight

Question: I sent fabric samples to one of the dealers and they asked me to provide the fabric construction and weights for those samples. Could you please let me know, what they mean by fabric construction and weight? ... asked by an OCS reader.

When you place an order for something, you provide item specifications to get the desired item from a supplier. The same applies to fabric sourcing. There is a wide range of fabrics in terms of fabric designs, fiber content, fabric thickness and fabric quality. But you want one specific fabric for your garments or clothing.

Your desired fabric quality requirement can be understood by your supplier or dealer only if you provide fabric specification. Fabric construction and weight are the two most essential fabric parameters (specification).

See my explanation of these two terms below. I have also given links to the related articles of these terms.

Fabric construction for woven fabric: Under fabric construction, you have to

1. Mention Ends per inch (EPI) and Picks per inch (PPI)
2. Mention count of the warp yarn and weft yarn.
3. You can also mention the width of the fabric you need for the order for the maximum utilization of the fabric. This is not part of fabric construction.

Fabric weight: 
Weight in grams of one square meter of fabric. It is called as fabric GSM (grams per square meter). Fabric fineness depends on the fabric GSM.

Read resource posts for clarification about various terms related to fabric construction

1. How to Read Fabric Construction?
2. Warp and Weft in Fabric
3. How to Determine Warp and Weft in a Woven Fabric?

Read these posts to understand more and GSM and finding fabric GSM.

1. What Does GSM Mean in Clothing?
2. How to Find Fabric GSM without Using GSM Cutter?
3. How to Calculate GSM of Fabric?

You can find fabric weight and EPI and PPI by following method explained in the other posts. If you don't have the right instrument for measuring/testing these parameters, it is not a good idea to do it yourself. Instead, I would suggest you send fabric samples to one of the textile testing labs and get the correct information about fabric construction and weight.