The appearance of a woven wool fabric is best assessed from two different perspectives, namely that of the finished fabric itself and the appearance of the garment after making up.

In practice, woven fabrics are inspected (perched) before being rolled and despatched, and in general, most visually detected faults are associated with variations in either yarn tension, yarn count, or weaving density. However, dry finishing processes such as raising, singeing and cropping may also be implicated, as can wet finishing processes such as scouring and setting. Irregular, non parallel patterns, described as “running marks”, may also be observed on occasion and are associated with creases forming during the transport of the wet fabric through the machines.

The setting procedures used during finishing have the most impact in terms of the appearance of the fabric. Woven fabric setting has the same function as in the anti-cockle treatment used in knitwear in that it stabilises the fabric in a flat configuration, effectively neutralising the stresses and strains imparted to the yarns during both spinning and weaving. Setting is achieved by steaming the fabric under specified conditions, although under certain circumstances boiling water and/or a reducing agent may be used to enhance the effect still further.

Before fabrics are submitted for making up they are assessed in terms of their likely performance. This invariably involves fabric swatches being steamed to assess the potential for shrinkage i.e. relaxation shrinkage. If the fabric has been inadequately set during finishing the fabric surface may deteriorate. This can be particularly apparent where high twist yarns have been used i.e. crepe fabric, and is often accompanied by significant levels of shrinkage. Similarly, Lycra containing fabrics which have not been set at a sufficiently high temperature may relax to produce a fabric which resembles the surface of an orange.

During steaming creases may form which were not visible when the fabric was inspected, and depending on the conditions under which they were formed the creases may be ‘permanent’. Although these unwanted creases may be removed by pressing, they will invariably re-occur in the finished garment at some stage.