OK. I started this page because waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many guys are sewing-challenged. And I'm tired of explaining this stuff over and over and over and over...
Read on, Landsers!
The Difference Between Gabardine and Trikot For the last time, gabardine has a single angled rib and Trikot has a double angled rib.
And these are weaves, not the content of the fabric. Cotton and polyester can also be woven into gabardine and trikot.
All modern fashion gabardines, which includes wool, cotton and polyester, are thin and lightweight compared to the traditional heavyweight wool gabardines used during the first half of the last century. Obtaining the traditional wool fabrics is expensive and can take months!
The same can be said for Tricot (the German spelling is Trikot and I use them interchangably). The Trikot tunics you see coming out of China are polyester or a polyester blend of some kind. The Germans and many other countries used a heavyweight wool Tricot.
gabardine--note single angled rib
Trikot--note double angled rib
The Difference Between Fabric and Weave
Satin is not a fabric. It is a weave. Same goes for twill, gabardine, Trikot, plainweave, etc.
Ok, so what is fabric? Fabric is the stuff that the cloth is made out of. Wool is sheep's hair, and once it is processed and spun into yarn, it can be woven into plain weave cloth, twill weave, gabardine, Trikot, or knitted.
Here is a very short list of just a few fabrics: cotton wool hemp rayon polyester nylon silk
The weave describes exactly how the yarns are woven into cloth. Here is a list of the more common weaves: plain weave twill weave satin weave
Gabardine and Trikot are both a type of twill weave.
