Discuss the wholesale blanks industry: Factory direct, custom labels. You can also use this forum to locate a wide variety of wholesale products including t-shirts, hoodies, mousepads, coffee mugs and other imprintable products.
1. In my opinion 160 is considered on the lighter side for a jersey knit fabric, especially for men. I guess it all depends on your market. Something like a Hanes Beefy t-shirt is 206gsm and an American Apparel t-shirt is 190gsm.
2. Lighter weight fabric does mean to some extent that the shirt will be more “see-thru”, but that really applies when you are considering 5oz. vs. 6oz. as an example. What also matters is the yarn count. The yarn count expresses the thickness of the yarn. In general, the higher the yarn count the thinner the fabric, but not necessarily any more “see thru”. What matters most is the density of the fabric as far as being “see through”…
3. Single jersey means that just one side of the fabric has a face. The machine knits only one side of the fabric. Double knit means that both sides of the fabric have a face. On double both the front and rear sides of the fabric will look similar, while on single knit you will easily notice the face and the backside of the fabric. The machines for these fabrics are totally different machines.
4. To get a t-shirt that is light-weight and soft I would suggest looking into bamboo fabric. Its so amazing how soft bamboo feels. Bamboo has a real silky feel and has a sheer, thin look to it if it is light-weight. I would suggest 40’s yarn count.
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1. In my opinion 160 is considered on the lighter side for a jersey knit fabric, especially for men. I guess it all depends on your market.
Like you said, it depends on the market. For a sports tees, funny tees, slogan tees sort of a market I agree with you. For a fashion tee market I disagree with you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by moksha
Something like a Hanes Beefy t-shirt is 206gsm and an American Apparel t-shirt is 190gsm.
Standard American Apparel shirts (2001, 2102) are 145gsm, not 190gsm.
190gsm is the weight of a Gildan 5000, FOTL 50/50 Best, etc.
Another aspect to fabric weight, light or heavy weight and transparency involves the type of knit. Jersey knit was specifically mentioned. An interlock will actually have a heavier weight in terms of yarn grams per square meter [GSM] but feel lighter. This is because the pattern of the knit is airyer. It will not be transparent.
180-190 grams per meter squared compares to about a 5.6 oz per square yard density.
The fashion t-shirts are not always 100% cotton, they'll use some spandex or modal or some other fiber. From my interactions in the industry, it appears that there is a separation between regular t-shirts and fashion t-shirts.
Density means weight per volume as in pounds per cubic feet or grams per cubic centimeters and certainly might be a better descriptive term for fabric than weight per area (example-GSM or grams per square meter.). Measuring the thickness of fabric might be tough to do.
While catalog shopping for a sweatshirt I saw an ad that proudly claimed their product was made of 10 oz. material and I had no idea what they were bragging about and I am still rather uncertain as some retailers thought it meant the weight of a linear yard of 22 inch wide material (Some thought the material was 24 inches wide.). One thought it was the weight of one square foot and another said one square yard. I am doing a little better with this sort of thread. Your post was very informative. Thank you.
ok..there is somethin i did like to know... how would i make 100% cotton pique fabric which will be shrinkfree..between 210 to 220 gsm... 2x1... what count of yarn shud i go for and how will i knit...??
Fabric weight & single vs. double jersey 
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