Greige fabric, and what to specify before you ask
Cloth as it leaves the loom or the knitting machine: how a construction is written and read, which width and which weight are meant, and what an enquiry needs to say.
Greige fabric is cloth as it leaves the loom or the knitting machine, before any dyeing or finishing. It is what a buyer asks for when they, or their own dye house, will decide the colour and the finish. It is also where a lot of fabric arguments begin, because a construction written loosely can be quoted three different ways by three mills. This page sets out how a greige construction is written and read, which width and which weight are meant, what a woven and a knitted enquiry each need to say, and how the mills that quote it are checked.
What greige fabric actually is
Fabric as it leaves the loom or knitting machine, before any dyeing or finishing. Nothing that decides its colour, its hand or its shrinkage has been done to it yet, and that is the reason to buy it: every one of those steps is then yours to choose.
The same cloth weighs different amounts before and after finishing, and shrinks in width. A weight agreed without saying which one is meant is an argument waiting to happen. So a greige enquiry says greige or finished beside every width and every weight it gives, every time.
Greige or finished: which to buy
Greige if you control the dyeing and the finish, or want to, because it separates the cloth decision from the colour decision. Finished if you do not have a dye house relationship and do not want one. The two are quoted on different bases and are not directly comparable, so decide which you are buying before you compare two prices.
How a woven construction is written
A woven construction is written as warp count by weft count over ends per inch by picks per inch, for example 40s x 40s / 133 x 72. The first pair is the yarn, the second is how densely it is packed. Together with the weave they decide the weight, the cost and the hand.
Always name the count system. In English cotton count, Ne, a bigger number is a finer yarn. In tex, which is grams per thousand metres, a bigger number is a heavier one. A count written without its system can be read backwards.
The weave
Plain is one over one: the firmest and the flattest. Twill is the diagonal, two by one or three by one: softer, drapes better, hides soil. Satin floats the yarn over several threads for lustre and snags more easily. A weave change alters both the cost and the behaviour of the garment.
From construction to weight
Two counts and two densities are enough to estimate a woven cloth’s weight before a metre is woven. Take the twill the raw material guide works through: 20s by 20s, 108 ends and 56 picks per inch, 63 inches wide, with 10 per cent allowed on the warp and 5 per cent on the weft for crimp. It comes to about 206 grams per square metre, and one running metre at that width weighs about 330 grams.
Crimp is the extra length a thread uses as it waves over and under the threads crossing it. Mills carry their own crimp allowances by loom and by construction, so a calculated weight is a planning figure and not a specification. The fabric weight calculator does the arithmetic for your own construction, and fabric consumption per garment writes the formula out line by line.
What a woven greige enquiry needs to say
Eight lines. A construction written this way can be quoted identically by every mill that receives it, and anything missing from it comes back as a question in the first reply instead of a number.
- Composition. Every fibre with its percentage, in falling order. 97 per cent cotton and 3 per cent elastane, not “cotton stretch”.
- Yarn count. Warp and weft, in the count system you name, because the numbers run in opposite directions.
- Ends and picks. Threads per inch, warp first. 133 by 72.
- Weave. Plain, two by one twill, three by one twill, satin, oxford, dobby, jacquard.
- Width. In centimetres, said as greige or finished, and whether it includes the selvedge. A cloth 4 cm narrower than promised can cost a whole size in the marker.
- Weight. Grams per square metre, said as greige or finished, with the tolerance you will accept. Plus or minus 5 per cent is the usual ask.
- The finish, or none. If the mill finishes it, the route in order: mercerised, sanforised, peached, calendered. Each is a separate cost and a separate wash test, and the maximum shrinkage you accept, warp and weft, belongs on the same line. If you want it unfinished, write greige, unfinished, so nobody adds one.
- Inspection, and the sample. Rolls are graded by penalty points for faults, usually on the four point system, with a limit per hundred square yards. Without an agreed limit, “first quality” means nothing in particular. And a sealed sample, approved in writing, before bulk starts.
Then the lines every request carries: the quantity in your own unit, the destination port, the Incoterm, and the month you need it landed. What a request needs from you sets them out.
Knitted greige is specified differently
A knit is not written as a construction. Gauge is needles per inch and sets how fine the loop structure is. Stitch length, or loop length, is how much yarn goes into each loop, and it is the single thing that decides a knit fabric’s weight. This is why a knit weight cannot be calculated from the yarn count the way a woven weight can: the machine setting decides it.
- Composition. As for a woven, with the elastane percentage written even when it is small.
- Yarn count and spinning. The count, and whether it is combed or carded, ring spun or open end. Combed ring spun costs more and pills far less. The yarns we quote sets the systems out.
- Stitch. Single jersey, interlock, one by one rib, two by two rib, pique, French terry, fleece.
- Gauge. Needles per inch on the machine. A finer gauge gives a closer, more expensive cloth at the same weight.
- Weight. Grams per square metre with a tolerance, said as greige or finished. It is the number a buyer checks first, and the number most often missed.
- Width. Tubular or open width, in centimetres. Tubular has no side seam, which changes the pattern.
- Shrinkage and spirality. The most of each you accept after a named wash. Spirality is the twist that makes a side seam walk round the body.
Where the cloth is quoted from
Weaving and knitting mills in Pakistan, India, China and Bangladesh, checked the same way as the spinners. Which country is deep in which cloth, and which origin keeps a duty preference into your market, is the subject of the fabric guide’s step on where to ask, and the duty page sets the markets side by side.
We do not route anything between India and Pakistan. Trade between the two countries has been closed in both directions since May 2025.
What a greige price is made of
A fabric price is a yarn price plus a conversion cost, and the conversion cost is decided by the construction, the weave and the density. Buying greige takes the dyeing and the finishing out of the mill’s price and puts them into your dye house’s. So two greige quotes compare only when they are for the same construction, the same width, the same weight basis and the same Incoterm. What moves a yarn price covers the half of the price that follows the yarn.
How the mills are checked
Every mill that quotes you sits at one of four levels, from Listed to Inspected, and no level is given before the evidence behind it has been seen.
Listed
The company exists. Registration seen, website and working contact confirmed, product range recorded.
Checked
Capacity, machinery and product range confirmed against documents, not just against a claim on a website.
Verified
Certifications seen and validated at source, export record confirmed, and references taken from buyers who have shipped.
Inspected
A third party inspection agency checks the goods on a specific shipment. Arranged on request, paid by the buyer, report sent to the buyer.
What moves a mill from one level to the next is written out on the four checking levels.
Common questions
What is greige fabric?
Fabric as it leaves the loom or the knitting machine, before any dyeing or finishing. It is bought when the buyer, or the buyer's dye house, controls the colour and the finish, and it weighs and measures differently from the same cloth once finished.
How do I specify a greige fabric?
By its construction: the warp and weft counts in a named count system, the ends and picks per inch, the width and the weave, plus the composition and the quantity. A construction written that way can be quoted identically by every mill that receives it.
Is knitted greige specified the same way?
No. A knit is specified by the yarn count and spinning, the stitch, the machine gauge, the weight with a tolerance, and whether the width is tubular or open. A knit's weight is set by the stitch length on the machine rather than worked out from the count, so say whether the weight you give is greige or finished.
What does it cost to ask for a fabric quote?
Nothing. You pay no fee to send a request, to receive quotes or to be introduced to a mill. The supplier pays us a success fee, and only when a shipment actually happens. If nothing ships, nobody pays us.