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Fabric Designs

The designs created on the fabric plays an important part in making the fabric more beautiful and more fashionable. It reflects the craftsmanship as well as the customs or culture of the wearer. It varies from small geometrical patterns to pictured designs. Sometimes it is also designed with religious figures for religious purposes.

Fabric design is one of the oldest and most functional forms of decorative art. It dates back to 3000 B.C. People in ancient world wore patterned cloth. In the beginning, patterned cloths were manufactured by hand. In 1712, George Leason founded automated cotton printing works in Boston.

Types of Fabric Design

Batik Fabric
Dyed Fabric
Embroidered Fabric
Painted Fabric
Printed Fabric

1- Batik Fabric

Batik Fabric – It is a method of dyeing fabric where wax or glue paste is used cover those areas on the fabric which is to be undyed. Later on the wax is taken off by boiling.

Batik is an art that applies specialized method to dye the fabric, commonly cotton or silk. The popular batik patterns are flowers, plants, birds, animals, insects and some of the geometric forms. There are more than 3,000 of such designs or patterns. The invention of computer has added more new and exciting patterns to the existing collections.

Some of the time it is likewise structured with strict figures for strict purposes. ‘Tik’ also mean little dot, drop, point or to make dots. It is also thought that, batik may have been derived from the Javanese (in Java) word ‘tritik’ which means a dying process where the patterns are done after tying and sewing the areas. It was similar to tie dye techniques.

True origin of batik is a mystery. Evidence of batik has been found some 2000 years ago in Middle East, India and Central Asia. Batik is generally common on the Indonesian Island of Java. The batik of Indonesia is unique and unparalleled.

Today, Malaysia and Indonesia is driving in batik industry. The industry is also thriving in the Philippines, Thailand, Germany, Dutch, China and some of the African countries. The finest batik cloth is still made in Java, Indonesia.

Batik Process

In the batik process, the area where the pattern is to be done is not painted. Instead, wax is applied to the area which has to go pattern-less. The fabric is then immersed in dye. The area, which is wax-free, gets colored. The fabric is dried and then heated to remove the wax from the fabric. The more number of colors the fabric has, the process has to be repeated.

The ancient method of batik process involved drawing on the cloth with a wooden pen and then wax it, known as ‘canting’. But with the rise of Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, large copper stamps, or ‘caps’ was developed, which allowed for large scale application of wax. Previously, batik fabrics and garments were worn by upper class people only but today it is available for general population.

Batik Methods

There are different ways to create batik. The splash processes of batik splashes or pours the wax onto the cloth. Stencil is used in screen-printing process of batik. The hand painting is done with the help of a pen filled with wax. Scratch and starch resist is some of the other methods involved in batik painting.

Uses of Batik

Batik is widely used to apparel, home furnishing, canvas, wall hangings, tablecloths, scarves and household accessories. Batik sarees are very popular in India as well as around the world. Batik paintings by artists grace homes and offices.

2- Dyed Fabric

Dyed Fabric – during this process the material is dyed with a coloured substance that has an affinity to the substrate to the material it’s applied to.

Dyed fabric is that the fabric, which has been made up of the coloured fibers. it’s colored by substances, which has an affinity to the substrate to the material it’s applied to. These dyes are obtained from animal, vegetable or mineral origin with no or little or no processing.

Creature beginning colors resemble Tyrian purple, Kermes, cochineal. Vegetable source colors are contributed by safflower, turmeric, indigo, woad, alizarin (madder), logwood, and so forth. Iron buff may be a exemplar of inorganic dyes.

Mauveine was the primary artificial organic dye discovered by Henry Perkin in 1856. Uncountable number of colors have from that point forward been readied improving the properties with each endeavor. The fastness of the colour and its permanency depends upon the dye and therefore the process used.

Types of dyeing process

Acid dye – during this process, water-soluble anionic dyes are applied to fibers from neutral to acid dyebaths. Commonly fibers of silk, wool, nylon and modified acrylic are dyed.

Essential color – Water solvent cationic colors are applied for the most part to acrylic, fleece and silk strands.

Direct (substantive) dye – This process uses either common salt or sodium sulfate in neutral or little alkaline dyebath. Commonly cotton, paper, leather, wool, silk and nylon is dyed.

Mordent dye – the method requires the utilization of mordent (a dyeing substance) to enhance the fastness of the dye on the fiber like water, light and perspiration fastness.

Vat dye – This dye is insoluble in water and doesn’t dye fiber directly. Reduction in alkaline liquor gives the water soluble alkaline metal salt of the dye. this type dyes the textile fiber.

Reactive dye – This dye contain a reactive group, haloheterocycle or activated covalent bond . it’s applied to the fiber during a weakly alkaline dyebath, which forms a bond with an hydroxyl on the cellulosic fiber.

Disperse dye – A substantially water insoluble, developed for dyeing cellulose ester . The dyes are ground finely within the presence of a dispersing agent. it’s within the sort of paste, spray dried, or powders. it’s wont to dye nylon, triacetate, polyester and acrylic fibers.

Azoic dye – An insoluble dye is produced directly onto or within the fiber during this process. this is often achieved by the treatment with a diazo component and a coupling component.

3- Embroidered Fabric

Embroidered Fabric – Ornamental needlework is applied to the material creating patterns

Embroidered fabric is formed by stitching strands of a cloth on another material layer to offer an ornamental designs and patterns. Embroidery is completed to embellish clothing and household furnishings like table linens, tray cloths, towels and bedding. it’s also used as a sort of art through the creation of images in tapestries and wall hangings.

Most embroidery is completed by using thread or wool stitched onto a woven fabric. Traditionally embroidery was done by hand but now it’s also machine embroidered. Machine embroidery are often used for both, creative work on individual pieces also as for mass produced clothing products. Literally any evenly woven fabric are often embroidered.

The use of embroidered fabric dates back to 3000 BC in Egypt. Since then different culture has contributed their unique designs and technique. The Chinese mastered in silk-thread embroidery. Scandinavians counted techniques like Hardanger in evenweave fabrics. Indians elaborated in gold and metal embroideries where as Italians crafted delicate laces and cutwork.

Types of Embroidered Fabric

Assisi Embroidery – it’s counted thread embroidery from Italian town of Assisi started within the 13th century. it’s also referred to as voiding, a negative embroidery, where background is filled while the motif is left blank.

Bargello or Florentine Embroidery – this is often also called Flame stitch, which uses a singular stepped stitch .

Blackwork Embroidery – this is often an easy sort of embroidery where black thread is employed on white or off-white fabric.

Bunka Sishu – this is often a Japanese embroidery style originating within the 20th century. It creates very detailed pictures, which seems like paintings .

Canvas Work – this is often embroidery on canvas.

Counted-thread Embroidery – This produces a symmetrical image because the warp and weft fabric threads are evenly spaced. Evenweave fabric is typically used and therefore the fabric threads are counted by the embroidered before starting the embroidery.

Crewel Embroidery – this is often a minimum of thousand years old. The word crewel springs from the curl within the staple of the wool. Crewel wool features a long staple and may be strongly twisted aside from its being fine. it’s free style embroidery.

Cross-Stitch – this is often a well-liked sort of counted-thread embroidery where X-shaped are wont to form an image . Other stitches like ¼, ½ and ¾ also are termed as cross-stitch.

Drawn Thread Work – this is often also a sort of counted-thread embroidery, but here the threads from the warp and therefore the weft of even weave fabric piece is removed and are grouped or bundled together into a spread of patterns.

Goldwork Embroidery – the utilization of gold upon the material .

Hardanger Embroidery – this is often a sort of embroidery which is worked in white yarn of a coloured Hardanger cloth by using drawn thread work.

Whitework Embroidery – this is often white embroidery done on white material in mercerized cottons.

4- Painted Fabric

Painting on fabrics are a really old method of decorating the cloths made. it’s done by hand. Painted fabric is popular in wall hangings, tablecloths and bedsheets. Different patterns in several colors are painted to feature to the decor of the space .
Garments also are painted to reinforce the sweetness of the material .

Patterns of Painted Fabric

Floral
Geometric
Religious

Usually floral designs are popular. In wall hangings, religious figures also are painted and used for religious occasions.

Uses of Painted Fabric

Wall hangings
Table cloths
Garments

5- Printed Fabric

Printed Fabric – This is a fabric on which a pattern is printed with an ink or dye.

A printed texture has an example imprinted on it either with ink or color. It is typically a level texture woven from an assortment of strings, for example, acrylics, nylons, cottons and polyesters cotton. The fabric is tightly woven with rich woven designs and patterns. It adds color and glamour to the fabrics with bright printed floral or subtle replicating patterns, simple earth tones or fake fur fluorescent.

Printed fabric is a traditional choice for upholstered furniture. The printed designs are usually associated with thinner and delicate fabrics. It is the mainstay of the garment and soft furnishings industries.

Types of Printing

Block printing – It was first developed in China. In this type of printing the carvers use to carve fine work on wooden block and then cover it with ink. The wood is pressed upon the fabric to create duplicate pattern of the original.

Roller printing – In this type of printing, the fabric is fed into a giant set of rollers where a one of the rollers continually imparted a design on the fabric as it rolled past. Usually vertical lines are created on the fabric by this process.

Pigment printing – This is the process where pigment is used for printing.

Copperplate printing – This process was used on silk which is a pattern printed by disposition. Pen is available in fabric stores that is used to draw on paper and then set the paper over the fabric and press it with hot iron. New technique use paper that is run through an inkjet printer and then ironed on to fabric.

Dye sublimation – In this process, an image is digitally printed in reverse with a special type of dye sublimation toners or inks onto regular media. The image is placed on top of polyester. In scientific terms, a material is directly converted into a gaseous state from solid dying the threads.

Direct printing – This is a type of digital printing to fabric which accepts the ink from inkjet coated printer similar to inkjet paper.