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Glossary Of Fabric Terms [16]

N Nainsook A soft, fine, lightweight form of muslin. The word nainsook is first documented in 1790, and derives from the Hindi and Urdu "nainsukh", which literally means "eye's delight".
Nap The raised (fuzzy) surface on certain kinds of cloth, such as velvet. Nap can refer additionally to other surfaces that look like the surface of a napped cloth, such as the surface of a felt or beaver hat.
Napping The finishing process that raises the fibers on a fabric to produce a mat of fiber ends, or nap. It may be used on knit or woven textiles made of staple fibers, such as wool and cotton, or with fibers cut to staple length and spun into yarns such as silk, rayon, and polyester.
Narrow Fabric Any non-elastic woven textile having a width of 12 inches or less and a woven selvage on either side. They are small strips of fabric, often designed for a specific and practical purpose. Cords, braids, and lanyards are commonly used items that are also narrow fabrics.
Natural Dyes Dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood—and other biological sources such as fungi and lichens.
Natural fiber Class of hair-like materials that are continuous "filaments" or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. Natural ones consist of animal and plant fibers. The earliest evidence for humans using fibers is the discovery of wool and dyed flax fibers found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia that date back to 36,000 BP.
Needle Loom Loom in which the filling is carried through the shed by a long eye-pointed needle.
Needle Punching A process of nonwoven textiles production in which a continuous mat of randomly laid fibers or filaments is entangled with barbed needles. This causes matting and the production of a "felt" textile.
Needlepoint A form of counted thread embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Most needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern.
Neoprene Family of synthetic rubbers that are produced by polymerization of chloroprene. Neoprene exhibits good chemical stability and maintains flexibility over a wide temperature range. Neoprene is sold either as solid rubber or in latex form, and is used in a wide variety of applications, such as laptop sleeves, orthopedic braces , electrical insulation, liquid and sheet applied elastomeric membranes or flashings, and automotive fan belts.
Netting Any textile in which the yarns are fused, looped or knotted at their intersections, resulting in a fabric with open spaces between the yarns. Net has many uses, and come in different varieties. Depending on the type of yarn or filament that is used to make up the textile, its characteristics can vary from durable to not durable.
Noil The short fiber left over from combing wool or spinning silk and used as a decorative additive for many spinning projects, like rovings and yarns. As noil is a relatively short fiber, fabric made from noil is weaker and considered less valuable.
Nomex Registered trademark for flame-resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont. Nomex is related to nylon, but it is more rigid and more durable. It is used in firefighting, car racing, and aeronautical equipment.
Nonwoven fabric A fabric-like material made from long fibers, bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment. The term is used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabrics, such as felt, which are neither woven nor knitted.
Novelty yarns Yarns made with unusual features, structure or fiber composition such as slubs, inclusions, metallic or synthetic fibers, laddering and varying thickness introduced during production.
Nylon Any of numerous strong tough elastic synthetic polyamide materials that are fashioned into fibers, filaments, bristles, or sheets and used especially in textiles and plastics. The first example of nylon was produced in 1935, by Wallace Carothers. Nylon has found significant commercial applications in fibers (apparel, flooring and rubber reinforcement), in shapes (molded parts for cars, electrical equipment, etc.), and in films (mostly for food packaging).