tedytrser

Hello all I have a question about how you tell if fabric is 100% Cotton. I bought three big bags of fabric for 15 dollars and there are a few that I think are 100% TIA to all.

Fraew

I use the burn test:

http://quilting.about.com/od/fabrice.../burn_test.htm

tedytrser

Well, thank u guess I will be doing this here very shortly!

dunster

I find it's still hard to distinguish rayon from cotton with the burn test, but at least you can easily eliminate the polyesters.

JustAbitCrazy

I can usually tell rayon just by feel--it feels 'slippery", and cotton doesn't. Often I can tell if there is polyester mixed with the cotton by ironing the fabric after I've washed it. If you iron on the hottest setting, which is cotton, the fabric with polyester in it gives off an unpleasant, pungent smell, while 100% cotton just smells sweet if there is any odor at all. I know you can also examine the fabrics under a blacklight and some synthetics show up somehow. I'm unsure what they look like--I'm guessing they glow. I've never done it, so I can't say for sure.

Helen S

My mom taught me many years ago that 100% cotton will wrinkle if you wad it up in your hand and squeeze. Seems to be so for the most part.

tedytrser

Well, Thank you for all the help.

EvelynJ

Wonderful information. Thanks for the link and information. Should prove very helpful.

JustAbitCrazy

Something else I remembered: sometimes you can tell a synthetic by the frayed threads along the edge, because they are often much finer than cotton threads, almost hair-like by comparison. Take a good look at the frayed cotton threads along the edges of your known cotton pieces first, and you'll see what I mean.