Yarn-Dyed

Yarn-dyed fabric is woven from yarns that already have colour in them. The stripe, check, or two-tone is in the warp and weft, not applied after the cloth leaves the loom. Piece-dyed cloth works the other way: undyed greige is woven first and dyed as a whole piece to one solid shade.

What the difference actually buys

Because the dye is in the yarn before it is woven, colour usually sits deeper than it does after a later piece-dye bath. Three practical consequences follow.

Patterns that are structural. A stripe or check built from coloured yarns cannot be created by piece-dyeing at all — piece-dyeing produces one uniform shade. If the design needs pattern and you do not want print, yarn-dyeing is the route.

Both faces carry the colour. The back of the cloth shows the same yarns, so you are not looking at a one-sided print. That matters for anything seen from underneath: curtains, unlined bedding, upholstery.

Better resistance to abrasion and washing. A surface print wears off where it is rubbed; a yarn-dyed colour has to lose the yarn to lose the colour. Stripes, checks, chambray-like two-tones, and heathers stay cleaner in the wash than a surface print in the same shade.

On polyester home textiles the chemistry is still disperse dye on filament, under heat. What changes is when the colour goes in, not the fibre.

Yarn-dyed vs piece-dyed vs printed

Common constructions

Stripe — coloured warp bands, usually running the length of the cloth. The stripe plan is a creeling instruction, so a change in stripe width is a change in the yarn plan.

Check and gingham — coloured warp and weft in a repeating grid. Both directions carry colour, so the number of yarn lots multiplies with the number of colours.

Chambray — a coloured warp with a white or pale weft, giving a two-tone face that reads solid from a distance and textured up close.

Heather — dyed fibres blended before spinning, so the colour is speckled through the yarn rather than solid. Different from a two-tone weave, and it cannot be reproduced by piece-dyeing.

Dobby stripe and check — the pattern is in the weave as well as the colour, which is where yarn-dyeing and a dobby mechanism meet. Satin stripe is a related case: that stripe is a weave change producing sheen bands, unless you also specify coloured yarns.

Why it costs more

The extra cost is in the yarn plan, not in the weaving. Each colourway has to be dyed and creeled before the first pick, so:

• Changing the design is a yarn programme. A new stripe or an added colour means dyeing new yarn lots — not a lab dip on greige.
• Minimums are quoted per colourway. This is in line with other make-to-order constructions rather than stock greige.
• Lead time starts earlier. Yarn dyeing has to happen before weaving can start, so the critical path is longer than a piece-dyed programme that draws on stock greige.

If you want one solid Pantone across a width and may change the shade next season, piece-dyeing is still the quicker and cheaper route.

Two things it is not

Not dual-jet. Dual-jet is how many wefts the water jet puts in one pick. Yarn-dye is when those yarns were coloured. A cloth can be both — two pre-dyed yarns on a dual-jet insertion is a common way to get a two-tone face without printing — but they are separate notes.

Not satin stripe. That stripe is a weave change producing sheen bands. It is not coloured yarns unless you specify them too.

What to put on the purchase order

Write construction and colour route as separate notes on the programme, not as a catalogue SKU:

• Colour route — yarn-dyed, with the colourways listed per yarn
• Construction — weave, and the stripe or check plan
• Width, GSM, finish
• Fastness — colour fastness on the grey scale 1–5 and light fastness on the blue wool scale 1–8, each with its ISO or AATCC method, per color fastness

Approve a physical woven strike. A screen will not show how the yarns sit next to each other in daylight, and that adjacency is the whole design.

What to ask a mill

How many yarn lots does this design need, and what is the minimum per colourway? Is the yarn dyed in-house or bought coloured, and does that change the lead time? Can you weave a strike-off of the actual yarn plan rather than a flat colour swatch? What light fastness do you commit to for these particular shades?

Weaverine weaves yarn-dyed and dual-jet constructions on waterjet looms across 160–330 cm greige widths, quoted per colourway rather than as a stock article. Send the stripe or check plan and the shade list, and we will come back with the yarn programme it implies.