This page explains the fabric faults a quality inspector meets most often, and how a fault-scoring method turns those faults into one pass-or-fail decision for a roll, and it is for anyone who inspects fabric, reads a fault report, or approves a shipment before it is cut: a quality inspector, a merchandiser, a buyer, or a student. A person doing this job looks at a fabric roll, names each fault correctly, and adds up its score against an agreed maximum, rather than judging the roll by a first glance or by counting faults.
Without this skill, a person can reject a roll with many small, low-value faults while passing a roll with one severe fault, because a headcount of faults hides how serious each one is. A buyer's quality team that does not understand fault scoring cannot judge whether a mill's own pass or fail decision was fair, and a mill that scores faults inconsistently ships some rolls that should have failed and holds back others good enough to ship. This lesson mainly teaches a decision: not "how many faults," but "how many points, and does that score stay at or under the agreed maximum."
You need: lesson 5.1's explanation of how fabric quality is inspected, and Order A's fixed spec, single jersey 180 GSM knitted cotton jersey for a basic T-shirt.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: interlining and other supporting materials (lesson 5.3), reading a full fabric test report (lesson 5.4), and building the full fabric inspection checklist (lesson 5.5).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hole/tear | A break in the fabric that leaves an actual gap, usually the most serious common fault since it makes that section unusable. |
| Stain | A discoloured mark on the fabric surface, such as an oil mark, that may or may not wash out or be avoidable when the piece is cut. |
| Shade band | A visible band of uneven colour running across or along a fabric roll, from uneven dyeing, that can make a whole panel unusable even without physical damage. |
| Structural defect | A fault in how the fabric was built: a broken yarn leaving a gap in a woven fabric, or a dropped stitch leaving a hole in a knit fabric. |
| Fault scoring | A method that gives each fault type its own point value and totals the points for a length of fabric, so a roll is judged by its weighted score, not a fault count. |
| Agreed maximum | The highest total fault score a length of fabric may reach and still pass, fixed between mill and buyer before inspection starts. |
| Roll | One continuous length of fabric wound onto a tube, the unit a mill usually inspects and scores. |
Common fabric faults fall into a small number of named types. A hole or tear is a break that leaves an actual gap in the fabric. A stain or oil mark is a discoloured spot on the surface. A shade band is a visible band of uneven colour from uneven dyeing, running across or along the roll. A structural defect is a fault in how the fabric itself was built: a broken yarn in a woven fabric, or a dropped stitch in a knit fabric. Fault scoring turns these named faults into one number: each fault type carries its own point value, set by how serious it usually is, and a roll's total score is the sum of every fault's points for an agreed length of fabric, commonly 100 metres. A roll passes only if its total score stays at or under an agreed maximum for that length; a four-point system and a ten-point system are both common variants used across the trade, and the specific point values below are an illustrative example, not a claim about Rowad Knits' or any other mill's own fixed scoring system.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Holes/tears | A physical gap in the fabric, from a snag, a machine fault, or damage in handling. | Usually the highest illustrative point value, since the section around the hole cannot be cut into a garment panel at all. |
| Stains/oil marks | A discoloured mark from processing oil, dirt, or a chemical spot picked up during dyeing, finishing, or handling. | A moderate illustrative point value, since some stains wash out or can be avoided by cutting around them, unlike a hole. |
| Uneven dyeing (shade bands) | A visible band of colour running across a knit roll like Order A's, or along a woven length like Order B's denim, from uneven take-up of dye. | Can make a whole panel unusable for matching even without any physical damage to the fabric, since a garment's parts must all match in shade. |
| Structural defects | A dropped stitch leaving a small hole in a knit fabric such as Order A's single jersey, or a broken yarn leaving a thin line or gap in a woven fabric such as Order B's denim. | Scored per occurrence, since each one is a separate point where the fabric's own structure has failed. |
| Export and domestic orders | An export buyer such as Northline Apparel and a domestic brand such as Cedar & Co. can each set their own agreed maximum for the same fault types. | The maximum a roll must stay under is agreed between mill and buyer for that order; it is not a fixed industry number that applies everywhere. |
The same four fault types appear on a knitted fabric like Order A's and a woven fabric like Order B's denim alike, though a dropped stitch is specific to knits and a broken yarn is specific to wovens. What changes between orders is the agreed maximum score, not the names of the faults themselves.
The case we followNorthline Apparel is the buyer on Order A, the basic cotton T-shirt made from single jersey 180 GSM fabric. Rowad Knits, the knitting mill, inspects and scores each roll of Order A's fabric for common faults before it is released to Delta Garments' cutting room. Because this is an export, made-to-order shipment, Northline Apparel's own quality team reviews Rowad Knits' fault scores before the shipment is accepted, since a roll that fails Northline Apparel's agreed maximum should never reach the cutting table in the first place.
Rowad Knits' inspectors name each fault they find, using the same four types every mill in the trade uses, and record a point value for each one on a fault report. Northline Apparel's quality team reads that report against the maximum score the two companies agreed before production started, rather than re-inspecting every roll from scratch. Reading the report correctly, fault by fault and point by point, is what lets the buyer's team trust the mill's own pass or fail decision instead of repeating the whole inspection itself.
The worked numberThe numbers below are an illustrative example of how a fault-scoring method works, not a claim about Rowad Knits' or any mill's own fixed point values or maximum. In this illustration, a hole scores 4 points, and each stain scores 1 point, against an agreed maximum of 6 points per 100 metres.
| Fault found | Illustrative point value | Points on this roll |
|---|---|---|
| 1 hole/tear | 4 points each | 4 |
| 2 stains | 1 point each | 2 |
| Total for this 100 m roll | — | 6 |
| Agreed maximum for 100 m | — | 6 |
A common mistake is counting how many faults a roll has and judging it on that count alone, without weighting each fault by its point value. Under this mistake, a roll with three small stains, at 1 point each for 3 points total, looks worse than a roll with one hole, at 4 points, simply because "three faults" sounds worse than "one fault," even though the one-hole roll actually scores higher and is the more serious roll. This mistake costs a mill or buyer the accuracy of its own pass or fail decision: it risks failing a roll that is actually within the agreed maximum, or passing a roll that has quietly gone over it, because the headcount of faults was never the number the agreed maximum was set against in the first place.
A fabric roll can have different kinds of marks and marks are not all equally bad. A hole is worse than a small stain, because the hole makes that piece of fabric useless while the stain might wash out or be cut around. A band of uneven colour across the roll can be just as bad as a hole, since a whole panel might not match. A mill gives each type of mark its own number of points, adds up the points for a length of the roll, and compares the total to an agreed top limit. If the total stays at or under the limit, the roll passes. Counting marks instead of their points is a mistake, since three small marks can add up to fewer points than one bad one, even though three sounds like more.
Rowad Knits sends Northline Apparel's quality team a fault report for one roll of Order A's fabric:
The document the learner reads, Rowad Knits' fault report for this roll:
Does this roll pass? Decide before you open the answer.
Yes — the roll's total score of 6 points is exactly at the agreed maximum of 6 points per 100 metres, so it passes.
The two facts that decide this are the fault report's own total, 4 points for the hole plus 1 point for each of the two stains, and the agreed maximum of 6 points per 100 metres. Adding the points: 4 points + 1 point + 1 point = 6 points, which sits at, not over, the agreed maximum, so Northline Apparel's quality team should accept this roll under a scoring rule where "at or under" the maximum passes.
Had the team judged the roll by fault count alone, three faults on one roll might have looked worse than it actually is; reading the report by its weighted points instead shows the roll is exactly on the line the two companies agreed, and passes.
This risk is framed qualitatively, since fault-scoring point values and maximums are agreed per order and are not part of this academy's fixed cast figures. Failing a roll that is actually within its agreed maximum, because it happened to carry several small faults, wastes fabric that was good enough to ship and delays cutting while a replacement roll is sourced. Passing a roll that has quietly gone over its agreed maximum, because it carried only one or two faults and looked acceptable at a glance, risks shipping a garment with a serious defect that a buyer's own later inspection or the final customer discovers, a cost that is far more expensive to fix once the goods have left the factory. Scoring every roll by weighted points against the agreed maximum, the method this lesson teaches, is what avoids both of these avoidable costs.
This course's fabric inspection checklist includes a row for fault count, checked against an agreed tolerance for the length inspected. This lesson's skill, naming each fault correctly and totalling its weighted points, is what makes that row meaningful: a "within tolerance" or "fail" result only means something once every fault on the roll has been correctly named, weighted, and totalled against the agreed maximum.
| Column | Order A roll (this lesson's example) | Your order |
|---|---|---|
| Faults found | 1 hole, 2 stains | |
| Points assigned | 4 + 1 + 1 | |
| Total score (100 m) | 6 points | |
| Agreed maximum (100 m) | 6 points | |
| Result | Pass |
Download the fabric inspection checklist linked from this course; lesson 5.5 builds its full version, covering fabric weight, width, shade match, fault count, shrinkage and overall roll condition.
1. Which of these is one of the four common fabric fault types this lesson names?
2. Why does a fault-scoring method give each fault type its own point value instead of simply counting the number of faults on a roll?
3. A different 100 m roll's fault report shows 2 holes (4 points each) and no other faults, against an agreed maximum of 6 points per 100 m. Does this roll pass?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hole/tear | ثقب/تمزق | Trou/déchirure | Delik/yırtık | A break in the fabric structure that leaves an actual gap, usually the most serious common fault since it makes that section of fabric unusable. |
| Stain | بقعة | Tache | Leke | A discoloured mark on the fabric surface, such as an oil mark, that may or may not wash out or be avoidable when the piece is cut. |
| Shade band | شريط تفاوت اللون | Bande de nuance | Ton bandı | A visible band of uneven colour running across or along a fabric roll, from uneven dyeing, that can make a whole panel unusable even though the fabric structure itself is not damaged. |
| Structural defect | عيب إنشائي | Défaut de structure | Yapısal kusur | A fault in how the fabric was built: a broken yarn leaving a gap in a woven fabric, or a dropped stitch leaving a hole in a knit fabric. |
| Fault scoring | تقييم العيوب بالنقاط | Notation des défauts | Kusur puanlama | A method that gives each fault type its own point value and totals the points for a length of fabric, so a roll is judged by its weighted score rather than by a simple fault count. |
| Agreed maximum | الحد الأقصى المتفق عليه | Maximum convenu | Üzerinde anlaşılan azami sınır | The highest total fault score a length of fabric may reach and still pass, fixed between the mill and the buyer before inspection starts. |
| Roll | لفة القماش | Rouleau | Top | One continuous length of fabric wound onto a tube, the unit a mill usually inspects and scores. |
You now know how to name a fabric fault and how a mill's fault-scoring method weighs it by severity, not just by count. The next lesson moves from the fashion fabric itself to the supporting materials, such as interlining and lining, that go into the same garment. Back to the course map