SOME FABRICS ARE MADE JUST FOR WINTER

Warm, woolen mittens; cool, crisp, cotton shirts; and smooth, silk sheets – they all feel good. They also illustrate how fabrics are closely tied to comfort.

Keeping warm or feeling cold depends not only on the style of a garment, but also on the fabric of which it is made. With winter's cold weather here, protection and warmth are important.

A wide range of fabrics are used especially for winter coats and jackets, and each has advantages and disadvantages. A Va. Tech Extension specialist in clothing and textiles, Valerie Giddings, listed some fabrics found in winter clothing and explained their uses.

Wool is a very warm fabric frequently used in blends with a large percentage of wool and small percentages of such synthetic fibers as acrylic, nylon or polyester. The wool provides warmth and comfort while the synthetic fibers provide strength and durability. Wool sweaters feel warm because they are very breathable, allowing body moisture to evaporate from the side next to the skin.

Down, the soft, fluffy undercoating of waterfowl, is the oldest, best-known, and most expensive insulator. The quality of down is determined by its "fill or filling power" with an ounce of good grade down filling about 500 to 550 cubic inches. Avoid buying from companies that do not specify the "fill power" of the down in their outerwear garments.

Besides being an excellent insulator, down is extremely lightweight and provides more warmth per ounce than any other insulation. It is extremely soft, compressible, odorless, nontoxic and durable.

One disadvantage, besides cost, is it loses its loft and does not provide insulation when wet. Down-filled garments are most satisfactory when worn during cold, dry weather.

Gore-Tex (registered tradename) is a waterproof fabric made by laminating a film to the surface of a polyester or cotton. Although it appears solid, it has millions of tiny holes in it which are too small to permit wind and rain to penetrate, but allow moisture vapor from the body to escape. Since it's breathability makes it comfortable to wear it is used on many outerwear garments.

Bion II (registered tradename) is a waterproof finish that creates a continuous film on fabric surfaces. It allows moisture vapor from the body to evaporate to the outside and is so thin the fabric remains very light. Because it is stretchable and can be used to make knitted fabrics waterproof, it is suitable for skiwear.

Texolite, an insulation used in coats and jackets, was developed from insulation blankets used in space vehicles. It has been used in sleeping bags and window covers and just recently in clothing. It provides a reflective barrier that bounces energy back to its source and a warmth-giving vapor barrier caused by air trapped between its two layers of aluminized polyethylene film sandwiched between three layers of netting.

Hollofil II is a hollow-core polyester fiber which traps approximately 15 percent more air than solid polyester fibers. Because it is made of short fiber lengths, it requires down-proofed fabrics and must be quilted to prevent fiber shifting.

It does not lose its insulating ability when wet and so is suitable for use in garments worn in wet or dry weather. Thermal R is one of the new ultra thin insulators. It is 1/32-inch thick and has a silver side of metallized polyolefin, an inner fabric of a polyester foam and a third of polypropylene. It is windproof, water-resistant and breathable.

Thermolite is a thin insulation which offers warmth without bulk and retains more of its warmth after dry cleaning than thick insulation that contains polyolefin fibers. It allows garments to drape.

Thinsulate is made from extremely fine microfibers of olefin and polyester. Microfibers give it the ability to trap more air than ordinary fiber. Since the olefin fibers wick moisture away from the body, garments made with Thinsulate are more comfortable than those made with 100 percent polyester fibers.

Quallofil is an insulation made of polyester fibers with four hollow spaces instead of one like Hollofil. Because each fiber is coated with a special slickening agent, the insulation has a super soft downlike feel. It is warm whether or not it is wet or dry and comforms easily to body shapes. Since it is made of short fiber lengths, it must be quilted to prevent shifting. It is considerably more expensive than Hollofil II or Hollofil 808.

Nylon taslan is a plain weave fabric woven by a special process that creates a bulky fiber with a nonshiny appearance. These fabrics look and feel like cotton, but still have the strength of nylon. This fabric is down proof and highly wind and water repellent, which makes it expecially good for skiwear and for other garments where durability and wind and water repellency are desirable. It tends to pill and after a short time does not look as nice as some other nylon fabrics.

Entrant (registered name) is a new waterproof fabric made by applying a microporous polyurethane coating to a fabric. It is more flexible and tougher than the coating on Gore-Tex (registered trademark) but it will not withstand as much water pressure as Gore-Tex does. It usually has a sparkly look because of the way the top layer is made.

Storm Shed (registered trademark) is a fabric which has been coated to make it waterproof. It is made from a polyester and cotton blend and the underside is coated to make it waterproof and windproof but yet breathable.

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