J.j. Pizzuto's Fabric Science Swatch Kit

great for learning about fabrics

This swatch kit grew on me. Initially I was very disappointed that there we no descriptions for the swatches. But I just finished mounting all the swatches (108 in total) and the range of swatches is really amazing. Not sure if one could be able to build these kind of swatches by themselves. And the swatches are divided into different categories: fibers (15), yarns (12), woven fabrics (21), knitted fabrics (20), non-wovens (6), dyed fabrics (5), printed fabrics (8), textile finishes (10), and special facbrics (16). All are fabric swatches (no fibers or yarns). The categorization is helpful as you don’t need to search of what you are looking for. There is a four page printout that gives (a)swatch number (b) fabric name (c) swatch type, and (d) fiber content. It is minimal information, hence if you are looking for detailed information, you will not find it here. Using the above key words you have to do your homework. I wish the authors gave more info as well because it could be used as a textbook in itself. There are many assignment templates at the end but that is for the hardcore textile science students, it looks like. I’m not sure if I’ll be doing them. I also liked “Fabric for Fashion: the swatch book” as it was neatly organized with some description of each swatch. But the swatches in that book are not as extensive as this one. That book deals with main fabrics and have different set of swatches, which is good in its own way. I also ordered “SWATCH REFERENCE GUIDE FOR INTERIOR DESIGN FABRICS”, which has lengthy description and nicely laidout book but when the book was delivered, the swatches were missing! So I returned it but found it expensive (12k). So can’t comment on it much other than wishing the swatches were there. I just wish this book had introductions to each category and more description for each swatch, which would have turned this into a textbook than a workbook. Overall, I’m impressed with the collection of the swatches. I wouldn’t have collected them myself and for the price I paid (6k INR) this didn’t seem too much, although students in my class did feel it was expensive. But they might not be too focused on fabric science as such.

good

This kit came with 2 packages of the A fabrics instead of an A and B package.

Bought it for school and it came fast and with everything, swatches were cut a bit messy and the faux fur swatch was extremely messy and kept shedding everywhere.