| Finish oil | "Oil that is put on a yarn, either flat or textured, to reduce friction during subsequent processing stages." |
| Findings | "Any extra items attached to a garment during the manufacturing process. This can include trims, buttons, hooks, snaps, or embellishments." |
| Finished Fabric | "A fabric that has gone through all the necessary finishing processes, and is ready to be used in the manufacturing of garments." |
| Flammé | A slub yarn. |
| Flame Resistant | "A term used to describe a fabric that burns very slowly, or has the ability to self-extinguish upon the removal of an external flame." |
| Flame Retardant | "A chemical applied to a fabric, or incorporated into the fiber at the time of production, which significantly reduces a fabric's flammability." |
| Flannel | "A medium-weight, plain or twill weave fabric that is typically made from cotton, a cotton blend, or wool. The fabric has a very soft hand, brushed on both sides to lift the fiber ends out of the base fabric and create a soft, fuzzy surface. End-uses incl |
| Flannelette | "A woven cotton fabric with a soft, raised surface." |
| Flash spunbonding | "A major variant of spunbonding, developed by DuPont, where polypropylene is solvent-dissolved and then pumped through holes into a chamber. The solvent is then flashed off, and highly oriented filaments are produced." |
| Flash-spun | A type of web made by flash spunbonding. |
| Flax | The fibre used to make linen textiles. |
| Floating (warp) | A length of warp yarn which passes over two or more weft threads (rather than intersecting with them) in a woven structure. |
| Floating (weft) | A length of weft yarn which passes over two or more warp threads (rather than intersecting with them) in a woven structure. |
| Floats | Warp float: a length of warp yarn on the surface of a woven fabric which passes over two or more weft threads; weft float: a length of weft yarn on the surface of a woven fabric which passes over two or more warp threads. |
| Flocking | "A type of raised decoration applied to the surface of a fabric in which an adhesive is printed on the fabric in a specific pattern, and then finely chopped fibers are applied by means of dusting, air-brushing, or electrostatic charges. The fibers adhere |
| Flock printing | "A process in which a fabric is printed with an adhesive, followed by the application of finely chopped fibres over the whole surface of the fabric by means of dusting-on, an air blast, or electrostatic attraction. The fibres adhere to the printed areas, |
| Flounce | Hanging strips of material which are normally sewn to the hem of a skirt. |
| Foam printing | A process in which a rubber solution is turned into a foam and squeezed through a screen to make a rubber print. Also known as puff rubber printing. |
| FOB Free-on-board | goods are delivered on-board a ship or to another carrier at no cost to the buyer. |
| Folded yarn | A yarn made by twisting two or more single yarns together in one operation. |
| FOY | Fully oriented yarn. |
| Foulard | "A lightweight twill-weave fabric, made from filament yarns like silk, acetate, polyester, with a small all-over print pattern on a solid background. The fabric is often used in men's ties." |
| FR (flame retardant) | "Fibres, yarns or fabrics which resist burning." |
| Free swell absorbency | "The weight of fluid in grams that can be absorbed by 1 gram of fibre, yarn or fabric." |
| Friction angle (geotextiles) | "An angle, the tangent of which is equal to the ratio of the friction force per unit area and the normal stress between the two materials and quantifies soilgeotextile friction." |
| Frisé | A fine bouclé yarn. |
| Fuji silk | A spun-silk fabric woven in a plain weave. |
| Face | The right side or the better-looking side of the fabric. |
| Faille | "A glossy, soft, finely-ribbed silk-like woven fabric made from cotton, silk, or manufactured fibers." |
| Facing | "A piece of fabric that is sewn to the collar, front opening, cuffs, or arms eye of a garment to create a finished look." |
| Fairisle | A type of sweater knitted with a coloured pattern in a traditional design originating in Scotland. |
| False-twist texturing | "A process in which a single filament yarn is twisted, set and untwisted. When yarns made from thermoplastic materials are heat-set in a twisted condition, the deformation of the filaments is ""memorised"" and the yarn is given greater bulk." |
| FDY | Fully drawn yarn. |
| Fell (of the cloth) | The edge of the fabric in a weaving loom formed by the last weft thread. |
| Felting | "The matting together of fibres during processing. This is achieved on animal hair or wool by the application of moisture or heat, which causes the constituent fibres to mat together." |
| FIBCs | "Flexible intermediate bulk containers. Large polypropylene woven containers used for packaging and carrying granulated bulk goods. FIBCs are suitable for containing or carrying loads between 500 and 2,000 kg." |
| Fibre/Fiber | "A material used to make textiles which is flexible, fine, and has a high ratio of length to thickness." |
| Fibrefill/Fiberfill | "Staple fibres used for stuffing or padding quilts, upholstery and toys, etc." |
| Fibrillation | "the longitudinal splitting of a fibre or filament to give either micro-fine surface hairs or a complete breakdown into sub-micron fibres. In fabrics for apparel, fibrillation can be used to create a variety of surface textures and attractive aesthetics. |
| Fibroin | "A tough, elastic protein which forms the principal component of raw silk." |
| Filament | A fibre of indefinite length. |
| Filling | "In a woven fabric, the yarns that run cross the fabric from selvage to selvage, and which run perpendicular to the warp or lengthwise yarns. Also referred to as the weft." |
| Filter cake (geotextiles) | The graded soil structure developed upstream of the bridging particles on a geotextile acting as a filter. |
| Filtration (geotextiles) | A formulation of glass designed for use in electric circuitry which has particularly good electrical and heat resistance properties. E-glass is also the most common type of glass formulation used in glass-fibre reinforcements. |