Technical Guide · Preparation Chemistry
What Is Actually in Greige Fabric: Sizing and the Preparation Sequence
Greige fabric — also written grey fabric, grey goods or loom-state — is not just woven yarn. Its warp carries size: a starch, PVA or acrylic film applied before weaving so the yarns survive the loom. Around it sit cotton's natural waxes and pectins, spinning oils and loom dust. That is why greige feels stiff, repels water, and cannot be dyed or printed evenly until preparation removes what weaving left behind.
Updated
What is in greige fabric besides yarn?
| Component | Where it comes from | What removes it |
|---|---|---|
| Warp size (starch, PVA, CMC or acrylic film) | Applied at the sizing stage before weaving, to protect warp yarns on the loom | Desizing — the first wet-preparation step |
| Natural waxes & pectins | The cotton fibre itself — its cuticle is naturally water-repellent | Scouring (alkaline boil) |
| Natural colour & seed-coat fragments (motes) | The fibre — raw cotton is cream-to-yellow, never white | Scouring removes most seed-coat fragments; bleaching (usually hydrogen peroxide) decolourises the natural colour and any that remain |
| Spinning & weaving lubricants | Added in yarn and weaving to control friction | Scouring |
| Loom dust, fly and handling soil | The weaving shed and transit | Washing stages throughout preparation |
Read any row alone and it is a complete fact — the component, its origin, its removal step. Together the rows explain the central point of this page: greige is a package of yarn plus process chemistry, and every downstream property (absorbency, whiteness, dye uptake, handfeel) depends on that chemistry being removed in the right order.
Why does loom-state fabric feel stiff and repel water?
The stiffness is mostly the size film — a dried polymer coating on every warp yarn — reinforced by the fibre's natural waxes. The water-repellency is those same waxes plus the size: a drop of water placed on greige will often sit as a bead rather than soak in, while the same drop on prepared cloth wicks away in seconds. That one-drop check is the quickest floor test there is for whether a cloth has been prepared — no instrument required.
Buyers assume the stiffness is body that will survive to the garment. It will not — the size leaves in the first wet process, and most of the "quality" handfeel leaves with it. Judge hand on a finished or washed sample, never on loom-state cloth.
What do desizing, scouring, bleaching and mercerising each do?
Preparation is an ordered sequence — each step exposes what the next one works on:
- 1. Desizing removes the warp size. The route depends on the size chemistry: starch is broken down enzymatically (amylases) or by oxidative desizing; PVA and CMC are water-soluble and leave in controlled hot washing.
- 2. Scouring — an alkaline boil, typically with caustic soda — saponifies and emulsifies the natural waxes, pectins and oils, turning a water-repellent cloth into an absorbent one.
- 3. Bleaching — most commonly hydrogen peroxide — destroys the natural colouring matter and decolourises seed-coat fragments, taking the cloth from cream to white and levelling absorbency for coloration. Bleaching decolourises rather than removes: most motes are taken out by the alkaline scour before it, and any that survive can still show as specks in pale shades.
- 4. Mercerising (optional) — concentrated caustic soda applied under tension — swells the fibre permanently, adding lustre, strength and a noticeably deeper shade from the same amount of dye.
Not every route runs every step: a cloth destined for deep-shade dyeing may skip full bleaching, and mercerising is a quality decision, not a default. What never changes is the order — size out first, waxes second, colour third — because each layer blocks access to the one beneath it.
What happens if you dye or print greige directly?
The dye or print chemistry lands on the size film and the waxes instead of the fibre, and every defect that follows is a version of "the colour never reached the cotton": patchy, uneven shade where absorbency varied; poor penetration that crocks or washes off; resist marks where wax or size sat thickest; broken, fuzzy print edges; and fastness failures that only appear at testing. Width and shrinkage stay uncontrolled as well, because the cloth has never been through a wet process or been set.
This is the mechanism behind the buying rule in greige vs RFD vs PFD: the "cheaper" greige is only cheaper until the preparation it still needs is priced in.
Why does the size chemistry matter downstream?
Because the size type chooses the desizing route, and the desizing route carries cost, time and effluent consequences. Starch needs an enzymatic or oxidative step; PVA and CMC leave in hot washing, and PVA is recoverable in principle but a genuine effluent load where it is not recovered; acrylic sizes are likewise water-borne with their own removal behaviour. Blends of sizes — common in practice — need a route that handles every component, and residual size that survives a mismatched route surfaces later as uneven dyeing.
None of this requires the buyer to run the chemistry — it requires the buyer to ask what the warp was sized with, so the processor can choose the right route before the lot is committed.
What should you ask about sizing before buying a greige lot?
- What was the warp sized with — starch, PVA, CMC, acrylic, or a blend? The answer selects the desizing route.
- Is the intended processor aware of the size type? A route chosen blind is a route chosen twice.
- Is the lot a single weaving lot? Mixed lots can carry mixed sizing and prepare unevenly.
- What is the downstream route — dyeing, rotary or digital print? It decides how clean "clean enough" has to be, and which prepared base the lot must become.
- Is the handfeel approval on prepared cloth? If it is on loom-state cloth, it is approving the size, not the fabric.
If the route is printing, the base decision has its own guide — choosing a base fabric for digital and rotary printing — and the minimums each route carries are on low-MOQ fabric sourcing from Pakistan.
Related knowledge
- RFD fabric supplier: ready-for-dyeing cotton
Prepared bases where this sequence has already been run.
- Greige vs RFD vs PFD
The states this chemistry produces, compared as purchases — which base your route actually needs.
- RFD fabric: specification and low-MOQ sourcing
What the prepared base at the end of this sequence is specified on.
- Choosing a base fabric for digital and rotary printing
Where preparation meets print: why the pretreatment is route-specific and what each route demands.
- Low-MOQ fabric sourcing from Pakistan
The confirmed processing minimums a prepared lot goes on to meet.
Frequently asked questions
Can you dye greige fabric directly?
Not reliably. The size film and natural waxes stop dye reaching the fibre evenly, so direct dyeing risks patchy shade, poor penetration, resist marks and fastness failures. Greige needs desizing and scouring — and usually bleaching — before coloration.
What is sizing on fabric?
A protective polymer film — starch, PVA, CMC or acrylic — applied to warp yarns before weaving so they survive loom abrasion. It does its job on the loom and is then removed by desizing, the first step of wet preparation.
Why is greige fabric stiff?
Mostly the dried size film on the warp, reinforced by cotton's natural waxes. The stiffness is process chemistry, not construction — it leaves in the first wet process, which is why handfeel should be judged on prepared or finished cloth.
What is the difference between desizing and scouring?
Desizing removes the added warp size; scouring removes what the fibre itself carries — waxes, pectins and oils — using an alkaline boil. They run in that order because the size layer blocks access to the fibre surface beneath it.
Does preparation change the width and weight of the fabric?
Yes, in both directions: removing size and waxes takes weight out, while width typically contracts through wet processing before finishing sets it. The loom-state and finished figures are different numbers for the same cloth — specify which state every figure refers to, and confirm per construction.
What is mercerising and do I need it?
A concentrated caustic-soda treatment under tension that permanently swells the fibre — adding lustre, strength and deeper dye uptake. It is a quality choice, not a default step; whether it earns its cost depends on the end use and the shade depth you need.
On typical values: preparation routes and their outcomes vary by fibre, construction, size chemistry and processing unit; the sequence described here is the standard shape, not a recipe for your lot. Physical swatches, lab dips and approved specifications override anything illustrated here. Burhan Enterprises is a sourcing and export partner and coordinates through partner mills and processing units.
Check the base before the route is committed
Tell us the construction and the coloration route you intend, and we will confirm what state the cloth should be bought in — with physical swatches of greige and prepared bases, free of charge.