Textile design is the process of creating designs and structures for knitted

Knitting

Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...

, woven

Weaving

Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...

, non-woven or embellishments of fabrics

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

.

Textile designing involves producing patterns for cloth used in clothing, household textiles (such as towels) and decorative textiles such as carpets. The field encompasses the actual pattern making as well as supervising part or all of the production process. In other words, textile design is a process from the raw material into finished product. Fiber, yarn and finishes are the key elements to be considered during the textile design procedure.

Overview

Textile designing is a creative field that bridges fashion design, carpet manufacturing and any other cloth-related field. Textile design fulfills so many purposes in our lives. For example:

• People climb out from under sheets and blankets and step into slippers and a robe.
• People wash our faces with washcloths, dry them with towels, and put on clothing for the day.
• People sit on upholstered seats; the vehicle moves on tires reinforces with strong textile cord.

The above examples illustrate the importance of textile in our daily lives. Also, these examples give the idea to the textile designer to consider the contribution of the performance to the finished fabric, because the design from the designer gives a direct influence on the performance, durability and attractiveness of a final product. It embodies not only drawing skill but also business savvy of the global textile industry and consumer relations as well.

Textile designers marry a creative vision of what a finished textile will look like with a deep understanding of the technical aspects of production

Textile manufacturing

Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...

 and the properties of fiber

Fiber

Fiber is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread.They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissues together....

, yarn

Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...

, and dye

Dye

A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....

s.

Designs for both woven and printed textiles often begin with a drawing or watercolor sketch of the finished design. Traditionally, drawings of woven textile patterns were translated onto special forms of graph paper

Graph paper

Graph paper, graphing paper, grid paper or millimeter paper is writing paper that is printed with fine lines making up a regular grid. The lines are often used as guides for plotting mathematical functions or experimental data and drawing diagrams. It is commonly found in mathematics and...

 called point papers which were used by the weavers in setting up their loom

Loom

A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads...

s.

In nowadays, designers might use software, hand paint, or grab a pencil and paper to record their design. Once a pattern is agreed upon, the design process shifts to choosing the proper fabrics and then to getting the design printed on or woven into the fabric. Designer might want to use the method of dyeing

Dyeing

Dyeing is the process of adding color to textile products like fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular chemical material. After dyeing, dye molecules have uncut Chemical bond with fiber molecules. The temperature and time controlling...

 or printing

Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....

 to create their design. There are many printing method. For instance,

• Direct (Blotch) Printing
• Overprinting
  Overprinting
  Overprinting refers to the process of printing one colour on top of another in reprographics. This is closely linked to the reprographic technique of 'trapping'...
  
  
• Discharge Printing
• Resist Printing
• Block Printing
• Roller Printing
• Screen Printing

Today, most professional textile designers use some form of computer-aided design

Computer-aided design

Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...

 software created expressly for this purpose.

Some of the latest advances in textile printing have been in the area of ink-jet printing. The process is similar to the computer controlled paper printers used for office applications. In addition, heat-transfer printing is another popular printing method to be used in the textile design.