Honored Contributor
Posts: 10,471
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Kim Gravel tops, knit or woven?

I'm wandering around the website, and many of her tops don't state knit or woven.  If I haven't seen the item on TV, how am I supposed to tell?  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,584
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Kim Gravel tops, knit or woven?

[ Edited ]

I stole this from whatthecraftdotcom


As a seasoned seamstress, I tend to take it for granted that people know the difference between a knit and woven fabric, but plenty of people don’t. As evidenced by the questions I get at least once a week both in my clothing shop and my pattern shop like: “Can I use 100% cotton with this pattern?” or “Is this dress made of cotton or is it stretchy?”

The problem with both questions is that fabrics can be knit/stretch and be 100% cotton. But people have come to confuse 100% cotton with woven.


When you think of woven fabrics, think of fabric you’d use to make a quilt or curtains or upholstery. Woven fabric is generally crisp and not stretchy*. It can be as thin as chiffon or as thick as denim.

*Some woven fabrics, like stretch denim or stretch poplin, have spandex woven in to give it some stretch. A stretch poplin may have 15% stretch across the grain, which means a 10″ piece of fabric can stretch up to 11.5″.

When you think of knit fabrics, think of t-shirts and leggings. Knit fabric is usually stretchy and supple. It can be as thin as mesh or as thick as sweatshirt fleece.

Knit fabrics tend to offer a superior amount of stretch compared with wovens, perhaps 30-50% for a t-shirt or up to 100% for something like a nylon spandex. 50% stretch would mean a 10″ piece of fabric can stretch up to 15″. 100% would mean a 10″ piece of fabric could stretch up to 20″. That’s quite a difference from the 11.5″ from the stretch poplin example.

This handy little drawing (courtesy of Threads magazine) is a close-up of how woven fabric is constructed. Notice it’s a sort of basket-weave pattern, with the threads running perpendicular to each other. Each thread is separate from the next, meaning that when it’s cut, the edges fray.


FROM NAT:  I think some of her offerings are poly, some cotton, some modal, etc.  I think you have to look at each one to determine what its fabric/fabrics is/are.