Shirt basics: All you need to know

Shirt basics all you need to know

At Acorn Fabrics, we know that finding the perfect shirting can be hard. With so many styles, fabrics, and colours to choose from, it can be difficult to decide what’s the best fit for your requirements. That’s why we’ve designed today’s bespoke shirting fabric guide. We’ve covered all the basics of shirting fabrics and detailed exactly what you need to look out for – making that hunt for the perfect shirt a whole lot easier.

 

Step one: Choosing the right shirting material

shirting material

When choosing your bespoke shirting fabric, you’ll want to decide on the material you need first. At Acorn Fabrics,  at Acorn Fabrics, we stock over a dozen different fabric weaves – so whittling down the fabric type to just one will help to narrow down your choice as the current Acorn collection consists of over 400 fabrics.

Our materials include superfine poplin, ideal for spring and summer weather, and Oxford weaves – the go-to choice for most men all year round. You’ll also find Herringbones, Linen shirt fabrics, and many more – all of which boast a range of different properties.

When choosing your shirting, always make sure the fabric is made from 100% natural fibres. At Acorn Fabrics, quality comes first – so you can always be sure you’re getting 100% cotton, wool, linen, or a blend of these natural fabrics in all of our materials. We always list each material’s composition details and weave on the product webpage.

If you need more help understanding the quality and composition of each material, why not take a look at our fabric glossary?

 

Step two: Picking shirt fabric with the suitable weight and structure

white shirting fabric

Within each range, you’ll also find fabrics of different weights and structure. This will affect the fineness of the yarn and how thin the shirt is – thinner shirts being better for summer or layering, and thicker shirts best suited to winter.

To work out the fineness and thinness of a yarn, you need to take a look at the fabric’s super number. We detail this in the Yarn section on each page. The fabric’s weight, also detailed on each webpage, will also give you a good idea of the weight of the shirt too.

Step three: Opt for two-ply fabric where possible

checked two ply fabric

Two-ply fabrics offer better quality than single-ply materials, which are subject to issues like pilling. In two-ply fabrics, two yarns are spun into one to prevent this from happening.

At Acorn Fabrics, you’ll find details like these listed in the Technical Details section on each page. For example, our voile shirt fabrics all feature two-ply yarns as well as Egyptian cotton, for the best in quality and performance.

If you have any questions about the technical details or specification of any of our shirts, please give our team a call on 01282 698662.

Now you know the basics, why not shop for a brand new shirt fabric for summer? Our Summer Weights collection features the best of our summer-ready, lightweight fabrics. You can browse the colourful collection here. 

What’s your favourite shirting fabric from the Acorn Fabrics range and why? Tell us in the comments below or tweet us @AcornFabrics

We're Rated Excellent

Henrique BarboneHenrique Barbone
22:13 17 Dec 21
Acorn Fabrics is one of the only shirting mills that engages with and sells directly to end customers. Aside from this, the quality of their fabrics is on par with the likes of Thomas Mason and other big players in the market. Their collection has some uniquely interesting colours and patterns such as a red striped heavy Oxford (my shirtmaker in Naples couldn't find a similar fabric from any other mill) or the cotton-linen Aruba denim. Having browsed through shirting swatches from many other mills, I also think that Acorn has the best collection of Tattersall shirtings anywhere. I've taken several of Acorn's fabrics to Naples with me and had them made into beautiful shirts.
sal bsal b
06:09 17 Oct 17
My Acorn fabrics arrived in Sydney today - including the Malham 280 royal. The staff at Acorn are professional and generous, and head an extraordinary company with excellent quality cloth. I feel blessed to have discovered them and will definitely look forward to using them again in future. Sal B in Sydney
Jamie CampbellJamie Campbell
21:41 31 Jul 17
I can't praise Acorn Fabrics highly enough. A wonderful company, I didn't think such companies still existed. Five stars are just not enough!
Tim JonesTim Jones
08:28 14 Jun 17
I have always found Acorn Fabrics to be a splendid company. Their product is of the highest quality, offered across a wide, comprehensive range of fabrics and colours and the 'team' are both veryfriendly and extremely efficient. It is a pleasure to do business with them.
js_loader

Stay In Touch