The questions weavers and buyers ask us most, answered the way we would answer them across the counter.
Crape (or crepe) yarn is filament yarn, usually polyester, twisted so tightly that it wants to untwist. When the woven fabric is washed and finished, that energy makes it shrink and pucker into the grainy surface of crepe and georgette.
Both are textured filament yarns. DTY gets its crimp from heat and false twist, so it is stretchy and smooth; ATY gets loops from a jet of air, so it is bulky, dry to the touch and looks like spun yarn. Choose DTY for stretch and drape, ATY for a spun look with filament strength.
For filament yarn, the first number is the denier (grams per 9,000 metres, so thickness) and the second is the number of filaments: 75/36 is 75 denier with 36 filaments. For spun yarn, the number is the English count (Ne), where higher is finer: 30/1 is a single 30s, and 2/24 is two plies of 24s.
SD, BRT and SBRT describe lustre: semi-dull yarn has a little titanium dioxide added for a soft, matt look; bright and super bright have little or none and shine. HIM, SIM and NIM describe how tightly the filaments are knotted together by air: high, semi or non intermingle.
POY (partially oriented yarn) is spun but not fully drawn, so it is mostly used as feed for texturising. FDY (fully drawn yarn) is spun and drawn in one step into a flat, smooth, lustrous yarn for weaving. DTY (draw-textured yarn) is POY drawn and crimped, which gives it bulk and stretch.
Denier and tex are weights of a fixed length, so bigger means thicker: tex is denier divided by 9. English count (Ne) is a length per weight, so bigger means finer: Ne is about 5,315 divided by denier. So 75 denier is about 8.3 tex and about 71s Ne, and a 30s yarn is about 177 denier.
Georgette and crepe need high-twist crape yarn; georgette uses it in warp and weft, usually alternating S and Z twist. Chiffon is lighter, with finer twisted yarn. Satin uses smooth, bright flat filament (FDY) so the floats shine. Everyday dress material is mostly woven with DTY.
Keep cartons closed, off the floor on pallets and away from walls, in a dry, airy godown, and use the oldest stock first. Polyester takes up very little moisture, but viscose and cotton absorb much more, so they are the ones most at risk of mildew, weight change and weak spots.
Surat was one of the great ports of Mughal India, trading silk, cotton and brocade, and famous for zari. In the twentieth century its weavers moved to art silk (viscose rayon) on power looms, and from there to polyester. Today it is India's largest centre for synthetic fabric.
Give the yarn type, the count, the lustre, the intermingle or twist, the colour, the quantity in kilograms or cartons, and where and when you need it. With those seven things a supplier can tell you the price and the date in one reply.
Every term on a yarn label, from denier to intermingle, in a line each.