Gabardine Fabric

Gabardine fabric is a type of material that is made with a twill weave and is widely used in tailoring. It is woven with natural fibres like wool, cotton, or a blend of both. This is why different types exist like wool gabardine fabric, cotton gabardine fabric and polyester gabardine fabric. Gabardine material is seen as a durable fabric and has been used historically since the 15th century with lanolin applied to make it waterproof.

What is the Difference Between Gabardine and Twill?

Gabardine is made with a wrap-faced twill weave style that results in a tightly woven fabric. The wrap-faced fabric has more wrap on the surface of the fabric than crosswise or filling yarns. A twill weave fabric shows raised lines or diagonal wales on its surface. They can be dyed into different colours including black gabardine fabrics, white gabardine fabrics, and green gabardine fabrics.

Cotton Gabardine Fabric

Cotton gabardine fabric is a twill weave fabric made from cotton. It is one of the most used gabardine fabrics and it is used for making a variety of clothes including pants, skirts, dresses, and more. You may use cotton gabardine fabric by the yard to create distinct patterns and designs that stand out in clothes.

This type of gabardine fabric is lighter in weight than wool but more durable and soft to the touch.

Wool Gabardine Fabric

Wool gabardine fabric is made of wool using a worsted weight yarn that is twisted well to create tightly woven fabric. It has a variety of uses including suits, trousers, jackets and skirts due to its durability. However, clothes designed with wool gabardine fabric by the yard are prone to fraying. Wool gabardine should always be pre-shrunk before cutting and sewing and when pressed, it can become very shiny.

Polyester Gabardine Fabric

This is a fine woven heavy polyester with linear stripes visible up close to the eyes. Polyester gabardine is woven with a distinctive till twist and is great for men's and women's clothing like pants, jackets, skirts, and more.