Inspection and cares for Acetate lining from online fabric store
Ever heard of Acetate fabrics?
No, we are not talking about the “Triacetate” fabric you mostly heard from the fashion magazine. Let’s discuss it further in the future.
And yes, this time we want to talk about the traditional acetate – the one which started its usage from the 19th century, and mostly related to its famous lining usage.
As E-commerce is getting more and more popular these days, you may probably receive a “damaged” fabric from internet store. But is it really unusable? In this article, we will give advices on how to check your newly purchased acetate fabric from online, and also how to deal with some potential flaws or problems.
Acetate lining from fabric store
Acetate is one of many textile compositions, and basically a good choice of making fancy dresses – but there are some notes to take. We will recommend you to check and care by focusing on Acetate’s 4 major disadvantages:
- Easily ripped.
- Wrinkles easily.
- Colours fading out under certain environment.
- Sour odour after long time storage.
Easily ripped
A well woven piece of acetate fabric should not be ripped easily, especially when it is checked and dispatched by the fabric store. Briefly look at the edges of the clothes and you will not find it hard to spot out the damages. If there is one, notify the store and follow their returning policy if applicable.
Wrinkled easily
Similar to above, the fabric store should make sure it is in good condition, or have your awareness and consent about any flaws before dispatching.
If you receive it, unfortunately, with wrinkles because of logistics or other reasons, ironing is never your first choice to flatten your acetate – it could be burnt or melted easily. Treat it as any delicate fabric, for example, hanging it with a hanger overnight and it should be fine. Your will save your iron only as the last resort, and remember to set it to low heat, apply under a damp cloth, then press gently during the process.
Colour fading
In normal condition, no colour fading should happen upon receiving the fabric, but when it does, make sure it is minor enough which will not affect your sewing work.
Slight discolouring might happen sometimes, but if it fades evenly across the whole fabric (luckily), rather than scattering as spots or areas, then we suggest this piece of acetate fabric is still usable – of course, it is best used as lining rather than an exposing shell fabric.
Sour, vinegar-like odour
Lastly, check its smell. Acetate fibres could give out a sour, vinegar-like odour after preserving in years – especially in hot and humid area. But don’t worry our Asian friends, we recommend you to unfold and lay the fabric on somewhere cool and ventilated (it should be good enough to lay on your working table). The odour will gradually disappear and getting back to its original status after a few days, you will then be able to use it as a new one.
Acetate fabric is delicate, but it is still regarded as a good material to create gorgeous dresses today. After all, it is made to replace silk with a cheaper price at the beginning and holds a lot of good properties.
In this very late era of fast fashion, textile industries is highly saturated. Since 90s, fabrics were produced in excess and many parties like garment factories and fabric store were overstocking. On the other hand, new items are less frequently introduced by textile mills than before (it makes sense in order to reduce waste, garment and textile is regarded as the most polluted industry in the world), so we take this chance to encourage you to make good use of stock fabrics, in order to make our lovely planet sustainable – they might have some flaws, but when you know how to deal with them, they are still "sleeping beauties".
Hope it helps you!