Narrow Fabrics: Different Purposes & Industry Demand

If you are looking for an elastic for your lower, ribbon to decorate your kid's b'day dress, webbing for your bags, laces, trims etc, then yes; you are looking for narrow fabrics that comes in various colors and designs. Now what the narrow fabric is?  Narrow fabric is nothing but the strip of thin fabric that does not exceed 12 inches in width. It can be woven, knitted or braided. Different fabrics such as cotton, nylon, polyester etc are used by the narrow fabric manufacturers. 

Narrow fabric is widely used in all types of industries such as jewelry, beauty, decoration, military, travel and so on either for decoration or support & safety. Each day every industry is doing experiments and finding out improved version of narrow fabric for these purposes. Like leather cords in jewelry industry having exquisite designs and colors are in vogue. Garment industry requires expressly looking laces & ribbons for trendy garments. Along with this narrow woven fabric having beautiful patterns and colors can be spotted easily.
 

Narrow fabrics for Decoration

Decoration whether individual, on fabric or for home is one area that seeks the attention of everyone. You can easily find a nice dress having laces & ribbons. Apart from this, laces can be found on handbags, lingerie, bed & bedding furnishings and other textile furnishings. Garment & furniture upholstery use narrow woven fabric called ribbons and tapes to decorate their products. Now if you talk about home decor with narrow fabrics for decoration, then there is nothing better than wicks and mantels. You clear surface can be beautify further with these small artifacts.

• Ribbons
• Laces
• Tapes
• Trims
• Fringes
• Wicks & Mantels

Narrow Fabrics for Safety

Safety is one area where narrow woven fabrics play an important role. In military there is much demand for cotton narrow fabrics that are used for safety. Cords and straps are made to tie things and used in packing also. Wherein Lanyard is a piece of rope that is especially used in ships.

• Cords
• Straps
• Lanyard

Narrow Fabrics for Support

Narrow fabrics in support & safety cannot be differentiated much. Narrow woven fabrics that are used in sports industry are considered under the support category. Webbings, which are made from closely woven fabrics is used to fasten anything. So rock climbing, trekking, swimming and other such adventurous sports are not untouched from narrow fabric. You can find cotton webbings, jute, nylon, plastic webbings, reflective webbing and many more webbings from different fabrics and in ultimate designs. But in each case very high quality fabric with durability and strength is required. Elastic narrow fabric is extensively used in any kind of garment. Wide range of elastic is thus used in garment industry. Narrow fabrics for support and safety are also used in aerospace, footwear industry and for industrial safety. For safety and support these narrow fabrics are checked for stretch tolerance, tension tolerance, yield, pick & stitch tolerance. There is no such industry at present that does not use the narrow fabrics.

• Webbings
• Elastic

Narrow Fabrics- For Decoration, Safety and Support

Narrow fabrics are specialized fabrics used for both- individual as well as industrial requirements. Individuals use them for decorating their garments and home furnishings while industries utilize them for adding value to their products. Narrow fabrics manufacturers know this very well and thus strive to create more and more innovative narrow fabrics in order to meet the requirements of various industries. Let's know what are the types of narrow fabrics and how they find applications in various industries.

Types and Applications of Narrow Fabrics

Narrow fabrics are thin strips of textile, not more than 45cm in width. They can be made of different fabrics including cotton, satin, velvet, nylon, polyester among others. There are many such common narrow fabrics that are used for one or the other purpose.

Tapes: Available in various patterns, designs, weaves, width and thickness, the long strips of fabrics called tapes are widely used in garment, furniture upholstery and home furnishings etc.

Webbings: They are flat strips or tubes of strong woven fabric, often made up of meshed fabric. Webbings are used in bags, sports products, furniture and automobile upholstery, parachutes, military apparels and industrial safety products.

Laces: Laces are narrow fabrics with open holes in them. Mostly used for decorative purpose, they find application in garment, handbags, lingerie and footwear industries.

Cords: They are lengths of fabrics, usually made of twisted strands or fibers and can be called an intermediate between rope and string. Some of the cords can be identified as drawstrings, piping cords, and elastic cords which are mainly used for binding, tying, connecting or supporting garments, handbags, luggage, sports clothing etc.

Elastics: These stretchable fabrics are further used for making other narrow fabrics such as tapes, laces, straps, trims etc. Elastic narrow fabrics can be braided, woven, knitted or corded which are used by various industries like furniture, automotive, garments etc.

Ribbons: These narrow strips or bands made up of fine fabrics like satin, velvet etc. and sometimes with leather too, are mainly used for binding and tying things together. However, their use for decorative and symbolic purposes (awareness ribbons) is also well known around the world. They are widely used in garments, footwear, handbags, lingerie, gift packing and even for decorating wedding cakes. Typewriter too have ribbons for holding ink.

These are only some of the narrow fabrics. There are many others like straps, trims, labels, wicks and mantles etc. that can be categorized as narrow fabrics.