Mystery Fabric?

[Frost]

About 6 months ago, I picked up an unmarked mystery fabric at the local Walmart, and it turned out to be a really great fabric for down DIY projects. It's relatively light, very very tightly woven (completely down proof) and quite water resistant (not quite water proof).

It's definitely not nylon. It might be some kind of poly blend, but the two sides are not uniform. One side is a rather smooth, almost microfiber sort of feel, while the other is a rougher, almost scratchy (very very tiny) checkerboard kind of pattern. There is zero stretch that is readily apparent. I'll post photos of the two sides of the fabric tomorrow morning when I get my phone sorted out. I'd really love to know what this stuff is.

I actually got crazy lucky and went back this afternoon and discovered the remainder of the bolt I got my first piece from last fall, so it will be the inner portion of my new summer TQ.

[titanium_hiker]

what's the weight per square yard?

there are also some burn tests you can do with a scrap to see what it is.
http://www.ditzyprints.com/dpburnchart.html is one, more on google.

TH

[schrochem]

The burn tests can be quite maddening when you do them. It's hard to determine the color and smell sometimes.
The best for determining if its nylon or polyester is with formic acid. If you can get some, nylon is dissolved in it and poly isnt.

[FLRider]

The burn tests can be quite maddening when you do them. It's hard to determine the color and smell sometimes.
The best for determining if its nylon or polyester is with formic acid. If you can get some, nylon is dissolved in it and poly isnt.

So...I should make some of the mystery fabric into a sock and step in a fire ant pile? Sounds a little dodgy to me...


Seriously, though, if you decide to do the burn test, do it outside; the Mrs. isn't gonna be too happy with the stench of burnt synthetics in the house. Don't ask how I know that one .

[Frost]

Here are a couple of photos, one each of the front and back of the fabric.

The Back:


That surface is distinctly rough and almost tacky. It likes to grab fuzz or down clusters and hold on pretty well.

The Front:


The front is very smooth and almost soft. It's a very tight weave and high thread count.

Any ideas?

[schrochem]

Yea I don't mind the mosquitoes poking around on my hammock but I don't want the ants to make me fall through ;-)

[hk2001]

what's the weight per square yard?

there are also some burn tests you can do with a scrap to see what it is.
http://www.ditzyprints.com/dpburnchart.html is one, more on google.

TH

Thanks for this, for some reason I never thought about different mats burning differently enough to be used to ID them.

I also picked up some mystery fabric at Walmart, it's calendered just like ripstop.



according to the burn chart, it's poly... Actually, I like the feel of it better then 1.9oz nylon, a little stretch, but a little softer as well.

It holds my weight, whatever it is.... so far

[c0wb0y_hubs]

I was just about to start a thread on this very subject. I came across a piece of mystery material last night at Savers, while I was picking up king size sheets for DIY tarps. Its a little nasty when I think about it, but I did a breathing test to see if it was silnylon. I couldn't get a good seal, so once I got it home I pushed a piece into an empty cup and dumped water into it. It holds water like a champ, so now I'm going to have to figure out how to use this the most effective way possible. It's ~60x144 (inches)

[Frost]

The burn test definitely suggests Polyester of some description. The actual purpose/name for the fabric is what I'm most interested in at this point. The single sided design makes me think maybe some kind of upholstery, or perhaps even the purpose I'm using it for, stuffed bedding type items. I'll get a weight/yd tomorrow at work.

[blkx01]

appears to be a polyester micro rip stop fabric w/ an acryliuc coatong on the back side.
Tought to tell without touchy feely, but that's what it looks like in the photos.