Terry cloth, also know as terry, is a fabric with loops that can absorb more water than a traditional cloth. There are many types of terry cloth in the market today. These range in size, strength, touch, and fabric used in the cloth. Most terry cloth is used in the form of towels. Some of the best towels come from Turkey. There are seemingly endless products within the terry family. These products may include: Grommeted Golf Towels, Rally Towels, Beach Towels, and Bath Robes.
Towels are a woven fabric made of Cotton or a Cotton-Polyester (Cotton-Poly) blend and are a usually loop or pile pattern. Special looms called Dobby Looms are used to weave the fabric into the finished product. Modern looms are fully computerized and make the job much easier than it was in the past.
Early in the history of Terry cloth nearly everything was made by hand. Due to the time it took to make this cloth towels were usually reserved for the wealthy. Towels were generally smaller and most were hand and facial towels. These were made of natural woven fibers. The make-up of these natural fibers made this early cloth much less comfortable to the touch than what you will find today. By the end of the nineteenth century, weaving became automated and the terry cloth industry was changed forever.
After the mechanizing of looms we started to see a greater variety of materials being used and a greater market for towels because they were less expensive. This also created a large market for Bath Towels for the first time. Like most textile cloth throughout the manufacturing process everything is bleached a bright white before it is dyed its final color. This is almost always done to the fabric in large rolls or yards before any weaving or other alteration takes place. Terry cloth is woven on a dobby loom, which means that it has two steps or processes. The first one is referred to as the ground warp and forms the body of the towel or cloth. The second one is called the pile warp, which forms it forms the terry loop or pile.
Terry cloth of any type does not lend itself well to screen printing. The primary reason for this is due to the rugged and tough surface of the cloth, as well as the repeated punishment from hot machine washing and use. In order to get a good print it is best to work with a fairly flat surface, which terry cloth is not. When we do see printed terry, it is often a single color print for something such as a sporting event. A printed Rally towel works well because they are usually not used for very long and are inexpensive. Embroidery is the solution for decorating any terry cloth. The same reasons that make it unsuitable for screen printing are responsible for making it a great fabric for embroidery or monogramming. The fabric is generally so tough that it does not require an embroidery stabilizer like backing. Furthermore if you are hosting an event in which you would like a nice gift or promotional product, the embroidered towel will be a hit. Not only will you get a long life span from an embroidered terry cloth item, but its cost relative to embroidered shirts makes it an attractive item.
There are many types of terry cloth and many more uses for it. While we mostly think of the terry cloth as a bath towel there are dozens of terry cloth products for all types of uses and you should not have any trouble find your terry solution.