This site contains information about two unique text books for introductory college/university textiles courses, published by Pearson Prentice Hall, NJ. One is Fabric Reference, Fourth Edition, the other is Fabric Glossary, Fourth Edition. These are designed to be used either separately or as companion books: Fabric Reference supplies current technical information in a much more condensed and accessible format than standard texts; Fabric Glossary offers a dual aid as a fabric dictionary, covering some 600 textile terms, which also addresses the most frequently-asked question, “What is this textile called—what is its name?”
More information on these, and complete details for ordering from Prentice Hall or a bookstore, may be found on the Fabric Reference and Fabric Glossary page. See also www.prenhall.com/fashion.
There is also a Fabric Glossary Swatch Set available. Like the books, This is a swatch set which is, like the books, unique. It provides a fabric example for each of 115 major “Fabric Files” (which contain an additional 11 sub-Files). These Files also define or explain, describe, and provide black and white illustrations* of some 600 textile names and terms. The Set has also been designed (and examples selected) to represent all the components of textiles study as followed through in most text books. This is particularly true for Fabric Reference where the appropriate Fabric Glossary Files are cited as an illustration of the characteristics of various fibers, yarns, fabrics, and finishes (including dyeing and printing effects), in the section in which each of these is discussed.
Included is a Swatch Mounting Key, and eight pages of Applications Listings. These latter indicate to anyone who may be using Fabric Glossary independent of Fabric Reference swatches which provide good examples of specific fibers, distinctive yarn types, particular weaves, knit stitches, and other fabric constructions, plus results of individual finishing processes such as napping, stages and effects of dyeing, types of print and contributions of other methods of applied design.
*The illustrations are almost all either computer scans or photographs of actual fabrics, chosen by the author Mary Humphries, many unraveled or arranged to reveal structure, such as the relative closeness of warp yarns compared to weft, or differences between face and back.