How to Check T-Shirt Fabric Quality: 9 Simple Tests

Two t-shirts can look the same in a photo and feel very different in your hands. One keeps its shape for years. The other twists at the side and loses its neck after a month. You do not need special tools to tell them apart. These nine tests take about two minutes in total. Use them in a store, or when your online order arrives and you can still return it.

#Before you start: read the label

The label tells you three facts. Read them first, because they explain what you feel in the tests.

If a product page says only "premium fabric" and gives no fibre or weight, treat that as a warning.

#Test 1: Touch the surface

Rub the fabric between your thumb and your fingers. Good cotton feels smooth and dense, with no loose fibres. Rough or hairy fabric usually means short cotton fibres. Short fibres pill faster. Pilling is when small balls of fibre form on the surface.

Then feel the inside of the tee. Many heavyweight tees feel soft on the outside and slightly firmer on the inside. That is normal.

#Test 2: Hold it up to the light

Hold one layer of fabric up to a window or a bright light. On a good heavyweight tee, you see only a faint glow. On a thin tee, you see the shape of the light clearly.

This test also shows the knit. A good fabric has an even pattern with no thin patches. Thin patches become holes after many washes.

#Test 3: Stretch and release

Hold a small part of the fabric with both hands. Pull it gently sideways for two seconds, then let go.

A good fabric springs back to its shape at once. A weak fabric stays stretched or shows a soft bubble. If the body fabric stays stretched, the tee loses its shape at the elbows and the hem.

#Test 4: Check the neck rib

The neck rib is the stretchy band around the neck. It is the first part of a cheap tee to fail.

1. Look at the width. A good neck rib is wide and thick.
2. Stretch it gently and let go. It returns flat at once.
3. Look at the seam where the rib joins the body. The stitches are even and tight.

A thin, wavy neck rib becomes loose after a few washes.

#Test 5: Look at the stitching

Turn the tee inside out and look at the seams.

1. The hem at the bottom and at the sleeves usually has two parallel rows of stitches. This is a double-needle hem, and it is stronger than one row.
2. The stitches are small, even and straight. Long or uneven stitches break sooner.
3. No loose threads hang from the seams.

#Test 6: Check the shoulder seam

Look at the inside of the shoulder seam. Many good tees have a strip of fabric tape sewn over it. This is shoulder taping. It stops the seam from stretching when you hang the tee or pull it over your head.

#Test 7: Check the side seams

Lay the tee flat and look at the side seams. They run straight from the armpit to the hem.

If a side seam curves toward the front, the fabric was cut off-grain. Off-grain means the cut did not follow the line of the knit. These tees often twist after washing, so the side seam moves to the front of your body.

#Test 8: Look closely at the print

Check the print in good light.

1. The edges are sharp and clean.
2. The print bends with the fabric when you stretch it gently, and it does not crack.
3. No glue shine shows around the edges of a DTF print. DTF is a print method that uses a film and glue. Read DTF vs Screen Print vs Puff Print vs DTG to learn the methods.

Do not stretch a print hard to test it. Stop if you hear or see it crack.

#Test 9: The rub test for colour

Use this test on dark or bright tees. Wet a clean white cloth. Rub it on the inside of the tee, for example on a hem, ten times.

If a lot of colour comes off on the white cloth, the dye is weak. The tee can fade fast and can stain other clothes in the wash. Wash it alone for the first few times.

#The burn test, for experts only

Do this test only on a loose thread from a seam, never on the tee itself. Do it outside, away from anything that can catch fire, with a bowl of water near you. Fire can burn your fingers, and melted plastic sticks to skin.

Hold the thread with metal tweezers and touch it with a flame for one second.

• Cotton burns like paper, smells like burnt paper and leaves a soft grey ash.
• Polyester melts, smells like chemicals and leaves a hard black bead.

If you get a hard bead from a tee sold as 100% cotton, the label is not correct.

#Quick checklist

Take this list with you when you shop.