Finding Fabric Weight

[texasmade10]

Anyone know how you can find the weight (8-15oz) of a suit? I have a suit that I really like and want to buy another suit with the same weight. Any way to tell these things?

 

[SpooPoker]

Actually, I dont know how to find this out either. Would be curious if you can do it "retroactively".

 

[Cordwinder]

Take it to a tailor or men's shop and ask them for suitings/suits in similiar weight?

 

[tobias3]

Your best bet is to compare your suit to another in a shop. A good tailor/cutter/fitter will tell you what the weight is straight away. Bear in mind that the lighter the fabric, the less durable. The opposite is true of heavier fabrics and they also tend to drape better if fitted right. Downside is that you can get real hot in summer!

A common mistake is to pik your cloth on what fels luxurious before considering what you will actually use it for and how often.

Hope this helps somewhat.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Originally Posted by tobias3

Your best bet is to compare your suit to another in a shop. A good tailor/cutter/fitter will tell you what the weight is straight away. Bear in mind that the lighter the fabric, the less durable. The opposite is true of heavier fabrics and they also tend to drape better if fitted right. Downside is that you can get real hot in summer!

A common mistake is to pik your cloth on what fels luxurious before considering what you will actually use it for and how often.

Hope this helps somewhat.

This is not always the case. The finish of the fabric and the weave has a lot to do with the durability of the fabric as well. Also the most luxurious of wool strands in certain weaves can actually be rough feeling depending on the weave and even at heavier weights not last that long. There are many factors here.

All in all "feel" in itself cannot appropriately gauge the fabric weight due to differing weaves and finishes. The best you can do it find te same finish and weave so it is an apples to apples comparison.

 

[rs232]

Weigh the trousers. There isn't much variation in trimmings in RTW.

 

[texasmade10]

So I guess no one knows a way to actually weight the fabric and get a actual gram or OZ of your fabric.

 

[poorsod]

I believe the fabric weight is measured as a 36"x60" piece of fabric. If you have a small piece of fabric and a very accurate scale, you can mathematically figure out the weight.

 

[Kent Wang]

Originally Posted by poorsod

I believe the fabric weight is measured as a 36"x60" piece of fabric. If you have a small piece of fabric and a very accurate scale, you can mathematically figure out the weight.
Oh neat, I've always wondered how that was defined. My mother works in a laboratory with a scale that goes to 0.0001 grams. Doing some simple math, a 36x60" piece of fabric is 2160 square inches. If you have a 1 sq in piece of fabric (maybe from the hem of the trousers) and the fabric ends up being 11 oz (312 g), and your scale has an error of 0.00005 g then the degree of error is only 0.108 g (.00005 g * 2160), i.e. your result becomes 312 g +- 0.108 g, which is quite certain. Since 1 oz = 28.35 g, if you wanted to know the oz weight of your fabric with error of 0.5 oz then you need a scale with an error of 0.0066 g or less (28.35 * .05 / 2160). You can buy jewelry scales for less than $100 with stated error of 0.005 g, but it's hard to know how true that is"”maybe it's really 0.01 g. The 0.0066 g figure is based on a swatch of 1 sq in. If you can get a swatch double that size in area, then you can tolerate double that error (0.0132 g), and so on if you can get a swatch triple, quadruple, etc. that size. Sorry, I haven't done any math this serious for years so if there are any errors, please let me know.

 

[69clyde]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

Oh neat, I've always wondered how that was defined. My mother works in a laboratory with a scale that goes to 0.0001 grams. Doing some simple math, a 36x60" piece of fabric is 2160 square inches. If you have a 1 sq in piece of fabric (maybe from the hem of the trousers) and the fabric ends up being 11 oz (312 g), and your scale has an error of 0.00005 g then the degree of error is only 0.108 g (.00005 g * 2160), i.e. your result becomes 312 g +- 0.108 g, which is quite certain.

Since 1 oz = 28.35 g, if you wanted to know the oz weight of your fabric with error of 0.5 oz then you need a scale with an error of 0.0066 g or less (28.35 * .05 / 2160). You can buy jewelry scales for less than $100 with stated error of 0.005 g, but it's hard to know how true that is"”maybe it's really 0.01 g.

The 0.0066 g figure is based on a swatch of 1 sq in. If you can get a swatch double that size in area, then you can tolerate double that error (0.0132 g), and so on if you can get a swatch triple, quadruple, etc. that size.

Sorry, I haven't done any math this serious for years so if there are any errors, please let me know.

 

[Nicola]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

Oh neat, I've always wondered how that was defined. My mother works in a laboratory with a scale that goes to 0.0001 grams. Doing some simple math, a 36x60" piece of fabric is 2160 square inches. If you have a 1 sq in piece of fabric (maybe from the hem of the trousers) and the fabric ends up being 11 oz (312 g), and your scale has an error of 0.00005 g then the degree of error is only 0.108 g (.00005 g * 2160), i.e. your result becomes 312 g +- 0.108 g, which is quite certain.

Since 1 oz = 28.35 g, if you wanted to know the oz weight of your fabric with error of 0.5 oz then you need a scale with an error of 0.0066 g or less (28.35 * .05 / 2160). You can buy jewelry scales for less than $100 with stated error of 0.005 g, but it's hard to know how true that is"”maybe it's really 0.01 g.

The 0.0066 g figure is based on a swatch of 1 sq in. If you can get a swatch double that size in area, then you can tolerate double that error (0.0132 g), and so on if you can get a swatch triple, quadruple, etc. that size.

Sorry, I haven't done any math this serious for years so if there are any errors, please let me know.


You're assuming there isn't a tolerance in the fabric spec.

On a more serious note smaller pieces will lead to more errors adding up.

 

[Kent Wang]

I also forgot about the amount of error introduced by trying to measure the size of the swatch accurately. I'm not sure how you can figure that.

 

[cptjeff]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

I also forgot about the amount of error introduced by trying to measure the size of the swatch accurately. I'm not sure how you can figure that.
Significant digits is the easiest way (the other way would be to use a calibrated instrument, but significant figures still apply). You simply only report your answer at the lowest number of significant digits of any measurement you took. If you're using a ruler graded to mm, you can measure with 2 decimal places worth of certainty- the exact mm, and you estimate about how far things are to the next mm. So, say I have a swath of fabric that measures an inch. When I measure it, I can say with certainty 2.5 cm, and I can look at where on the mm scale it falls, and estimate that it's 2.55 cm long. That gives me 3 significant digits. The other measurement will give me the same, unless it's significantly longer, where I might have 11.25 cm. Then I would have 4, but when I report my answer, I still have to use 3, since that's all I have for my other measurement. When you're doing the calculations, you use the longest form of the number you have, just to prevent rounding errors from accumulating with the operations. But when you have your answer, you get say, 312.046 grams/meter (or whatever). But since you don't know it to that precision, you just report it as 312 grams/meter. If you knew it to 4 sig figures, 312.0 g/m. If you definitely need a +/- figure, the error of the measuring device is half it's smallest interval. So that mm scale gives you an accuracy of +/- .05 cm. You then propagate that through your calculations. Yay for physics and engineering courses.

 

[tobias3]

Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH

This is not always the case. The finish of the fabric and the weave has a lot to do with the durability of the fabric as well. Also the most luxurious of wool strands in certain weaves can actually be rough feeling depending on the weave and even at heavier weights not last that long. There are many factors here.

All in all "feel" in itself cannot appropriately gauge the fabric weight due to differing weaves and finishes. The best you can do it find te same finish and weave so it is an apples to apples comparison.

This is a general rule that applies 95% of the time...Of course there are fabrics that are light and durable, the same as heavy and will fall apart. Unless you buy something ultra specific, you should adhere to the rule.