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The Burn Test
Why would you burn fabric?
The other day, I was organizing my fabric stash and found some wonderful pieces of fabric purchased in days gone by. I didn't mark the fibre
content on the fabric piece and didn't know how to pretreat before sewing.
I was shopping in a discount fabric store and found a piece of fabric just screaming my name.
The bolt end said "unknown fibres". The price was $1.99/metre. It looked like wool, it felt like
wool, but the price did not indicate wool. I took a small amount and burned it and voila!
Wool!
Following are the indicators for fibre content.
Wool is a protein fibre. It does not burn easily. The flame will often flicker. The smell emitted is
similar to burning hair. Ash is blackish.
Silk is a protein fibre. It burns easily, but the flame will often flicker. Silks smell like burning
hair and leave little or no ash.
Cotton is a plant fibre. It burns readily with a yellow flame. It smells like burning paper or
leaves. The ash is grey and is crumbled easily.
Linen is a plant fibre similar to cotton. The fibres are a different consistency than
that of cotton which causes it to burn slower. It smells like burning leaves and produces a similar residue to
cotton.
Rayon is a plant fibre and burns with an orange flame. It leaves very little, if any ash
and emits a smell similar to that of burning paper.
Nylon almost melts when it burns. It burns with a bluish flame and leaves hard
beads rather than ash. It smells a little like celery when it is burning.
Polyester burns easily. It forms a hard black beadlike residue and smells like overripe fruit.
CAUTION: Be careful when conducting a burn test. Keep fire safety in mind!
For additional service information see:
Sewing Machine Maintenance Tips
or
Fabric Facts
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