About Plabric

Choosing a fabric quietly turned into a numbers problem. A spec sheet leads with a GSM figure when the mill you last dealt with quoted ounces; a yarn is described in denier here and tex there, and cotton count runs backwards from both; a bolt’s usable width is narrower than the width you paid for; thread count gets marketed without the yarn count that would make it mean anything; and a fabric that fit perfectly off the bolt comes back from the first wash a size smaller. None of it is complicated once someone explains it — but the explanations are scattered, and the shops selling the cloth aren’t the most neutral place to learn.

Plabric exists to take that arithmetic off your plate. Rather than one long guide you have to read end to end, the site is built around a set of small, single-purpose calculators, each aimed at one question about fabric. The Fabric Weight Convertermoves a cloth’s areal weight between GSM and ounces per square yard and puts it in a weight band. The Fabric Weight from Dimensions tool turns a GSM and a roll size into a total weight and a weight per running metre. The Denier / Tex / Dtex Yarn Count Converter translates a yarn specification between the direct and indirect counting systems. The Fabric Yardage Calculatorworks out how much to buy from the area a project needs, the bolt’s usable width, and a waste allowance. The Thread Count & Cover Factor Calculator combines ends and picks per inch with yarn counts to judge how tightly a cloth is really woven. And the Fabric Shrinkage Calculator measures shrinkage from a test wash, or works backwards to the length to cut for a target finished size.

Beyond the calculators, the blog and learn section cover fibres and yarns, weaves and knits, dyeing and finishing, and the properties and care of fabric, along with the reasoning behind the numbers the tools produce. The Museum of Fabric is a browsable collection of the fibres cloth is spun from, the weaves and knits that build it, the dyes and finishes that colour and treat it, and the technical textiles engineered to perform, with every entry, image, and fact drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

A few things worth stating plainly. Plabric is an independent site — not a mill, a testing lab, or a manufacturer, and not affiliated with any fabric, fibre, or equipment brand. It is supported by advertising, which is how the tools stay free with no account required. Every figure the tools produce — a GSM conversion, a yarn count, a yardage estimate, a cover factor, a shrinkage percentage — is an educational estimate built on the numbers you enter and standard textile formulas, not professional testing or engineering advice. For anything that must meet a specification or a standard, confirm against a physical sample and, where it matters, an accredited textile laboratory. If a tool looks off, or there’s a calculator you wish existed, the contact page is the place to say so.