Guide to Cotton, Polyester, and Blended Fabrics

Online stores are common in digital marketing. If you want to open an online store for your clothing business, it's better to expand your business, but it's not easy to get started. You need to use it to study and define your choices. There are many ways you can find the right choice. Among the many choices you have to make a good decision: which fabric is the most important one for your product.

If you're new positioning, you may want to design with the cheapest canvas, but don't rush to make that decision. Think about your audience and how you present your brand. Remember, the fabric of your clothes should not only be in line with your positioning, but also with your design.

Every clothing store should be familiar with three main fabrics: cotton, polyester and blended fabrics. In this blog post, we will study each fabric carefully to help you decide which fabric is most suitable for your shop.

1、Cotton

2、Polyester

3、Cotton vs Polyester

4、Fabric blends

5、What’s your fabric of choice?

Cotton:

Feel and wear

Cotton is the highest yield natural fiber in the world. As a fabric, it is known for its comfort and durability, which makes it one of the most popular clothing fabrics.

Comfortable:

Cotton is a versatile fiber that can be woven or knitted into many different fabrics such as denim, flannel, jersey, etc. Each of them naturally has a slightly different feelings and comfortable for ware.

Advantage:

All cotton fabrics are soft and breathable, making them perfect for people use in any weather condition as climates and hot/cold temperatures, as well as sensitive skin.

Disadvantage:

Finally, cotton is not sticky. So if you don't want to sell tight clothes in your store and prefer a looser fit, opt for cotton. But keep in mind that 100% cotton dries slowly, so probably not ideal for sportswear.

Printability：

Cotton is an excellent surface for DTG printing. So if you want your design to be opaque and crisp, choose 100% cotton clothing. Keep in mind that DTG prints do not appear as firmly on heavy cotton clothing (e.g. sweatshirts) as they do on T-shirts.

Durability and maintenance

High quality cotton is extremely durable, making it less prone to accidental tearing. However, cotton is not as durable as polyester or cotton / polyester blends.

Like most natural materials, it can shrink when exposed to high temperatures. Therefore, when washing a cotton shirt, use cold water and avoid adding too much detergent, as this can affect the wear of the fabric. Choose a delicate cycle setting on your washing machine to avoid discoloration.

Keep in mind that due to different manufacturing techniques, the products may feel different on your skin, even though they are all hundred percent cotton. You can see it in action in our People Test t-shirt video:

Polyester:

Polyester is a synthetic fiber that is synthesized from petroleum-based products. Polyester fabric was invented in 1941, so compared to cotton, this fabric is quite a new player in the game.

Despite this, polyester is becoming an increasingly popular option in the clothing industry. Polyester is especially appreciated by those looking for a fabric that can withstand abrasion and washing.

Comfortable:

Let's take a look at what polyester looks like when you wear it and more specifically how polyester fits.

Polyester is lightweight and is a bit silky than cotton. It is also perfect for sports. Polyester clothing protects the skin from perspiration. This means that polyester shirts are slightly sweaty in hot weather, but warm in cooler weather.

Polyester shirts are generally light and thin and may stick a bit to the skin. For people with extremely sensitive skin, polyester can cause mild irritation, but this is not so common when polyester is mixed with other fabrics.

Is polyester stretchy?Yes, polyester naturally stretches to ensure wearing comfort. Polyester does not shrink naturally and hundred percent polyester will not lose its shape even after heavy wear and will regain its shape quite quickly.

Printability

If you run a clothing store, you are probably wondering what material polyester is when it comes to printing.

Printing on polyester has been a challenge for some time. But thanks to special dyes and advanced printing technologies, it is no longer a problem to get high quality prints on polyester fabrics. The printed colors are vibrant and are unlikely to fade over time.

However, since it is more difficult to print on polyester garments than it is on cotton or fabric blends, polyester products tend to be more expensive.

Popular 100% polyester products available on Dingqiang:

 New Product And Cheap Price for Printed Microfiber Fabric

Bright Color 100% Polyester Disperse Microfiber Fabric

100%polyester Twill Disperse 120gsm Printed Fabric

Durability and maintenance

Polyester is very durable, harder than cotton and most blends. It is also difficult to stain permanently because polyester is less absorbent than most fabrics.

Polyester fabrics are also known for their resistance to creasing, shrinking and fading when properly maintained. That said, it is recommended that you wash polyester clothes in lukewarm water with an all-purpose cleaner in the machine and then tumble dry on low water.

Most Printout products have detailed care instruction on the product pages.

Cotton vs polyester

Now that you know the two fabrics, let's go through the cotton vs polyester comparison checklist to see what features set them apart.

This comparison chart can already give you an idea of which fabric is best for you. But before you make your final decision, take a look at what fabric blends have to offer.

Blends of fabrics

As you can probably guess, fabric blends are created when two or more different types of fibers are combined to create a new type of textile with unique properties.

Over the years, blended fabrics have been developed to meet specific needs such as improving the texture, durability, feel of the material or even reducing the cost of producing clothes.

Today there are hundreds of fabric blends on the market, but the most popular blends for printed clothing are:

Cotton and polyester blends (65/35 and 50/50)

If you can't choose between cotton or polyester, combine the best of the two and go for a cotton-polyester blend.

The cotton-polyester blend is versatile and is used for everything from bed linens to shirts. Since polyester does not shrink or change shape like cotton, this blend is easier to wash and dry. And thanks to the cotton component of the blend, cotton-polyester clothing is more breathable than pure polyester products.

Best of all, this mix makes a great canvas for bright, colorful designs.

Polyester-cotton-rayon blend (50/25/25)

Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber that combines just the right amount of polyester, cotton and rayon. Garments made from this fabric are soft and stretchy, yet durable. This well-known tri-blend is a perfect fabric for loose clothing and is appreciated for its comfortable feel.

Due to the looser weave and the combination of fabrics, DTG prints on three blends get a so-called vintage feeling. This is because the fabric of the garment is slightly visible through the ink.

Spandex, also known as elastane or lycra, is a synthetic fiber best known for its elasticity. In combination with cotton, spandex is a perfect fabric for soft touch and durable clothing. Most often, polyester-spandex blends are used in sportswear, since spandex is stretchy and can retain its original shape, and polyester - durable.

What’s your fabric of choice?

All three types of fabrics have their advantages and disadvantages, so it really depends on your personal preferences. But as a store owner you need to think about the fabric and products you choose because they reflect your brand. You should also educate your customers about the fit, feel, and care instructions for each fabric garment so that it lasts longer.