Since 1945, we've been servicing American Made Businesses with their textile needs (From Flags to Camouflage, Bedding, Pillows, Apparel, Furniture, Hospitality, and Manufacturers of all kinds. You've see our prints on Troops, Doctors, in Hotels, Hospitals, displayed at High-End Stores, on Television, while Window Shopping, or watching a Political Debate. Our customer's confidently contact our Textile Experts in New York City to source, prep, dye, print & finish goods to their specifications. We specialize in Woven's, but are often developing new products. Our newest venture is in Digital Printing. The machines have arrived in South Carolina and we're excited to take this journey with you! Please call to find out more @ (212) 997-1570 or email us. LET'S GET STARTED! Below I will walk you through our process and some detailed information about yarns, weaves, and fabrics. But before you get started, if you let us know the end use of your product, we can guide you in the right direction. This will help to determine the type of finish, whether you need a Soil or Stain Release Finish, Water Repellent, Light-fast or Color-fast, Sanforized to give it a soft sheen, Flame Resistant, you name it! 1. Sourcing Greige Goods We use the best Greige Mills in the textile industry. Our Greige (the woven fabric in its natural form, right off the loom) is made with the finest yarns in the world. We do not jeopardize quality by using cheaper cloths. When purchasing Greige there are a few important things to consider, one being the yarn size. The lower the number, the heavier the weight of the yarn. To give you an idea: Our Cotton Ducks are made with 16's in the Warp and 8's in the fill, weighing at about 1.40 yards to the pound. Our 68 squares are made with 30's, weighing at 3.50 yards to the pound. And our Sateen's are made with 60's weighing at 1.30 yards to the pound (although the weight is higher, there are 300 picks in our Sateen's vs 136 picks in the 68's and 114 picks in our Cotton Duck). Another consideration is the fiber: if you only want the longest, strongest, and finest cotton fibers in the world, you can go with a Supima Cotton which is made with only long-staple cotton fibers, and is 100% Made-In-The-USA. However, this is usually overkill when comparing cost vs. quality. Our 300 count Sateen also use a long staple fiber and is produced with the finest quality combed cotton. When comparing bed sheets, not many fabrics feel nicer than our 300 count Sateen. If you ask, we can suggest the best fabrics for your money, give you an idea of what people are buying in the industry, and show you some new fabrics; we have dozens of fabric samples from the finest mills which haven't even begun to catch on. Thread Count is the number of threads woven together in a square inch of fabric. A higher thread count does not mean a higher quality fabric. Thread Counts advertised in excess of 300 are often misrepresented to customer as a marketing trick (counting each ply spun together to make a thread instead of the thread itself, or they're made with too fine of yarns, leading to a weaker fabric). There are several different weaves: plain, sateen, percale; which ultimately affects how the fabric looks and feels. Specialty fabrics can be woven with a stripe, producing a nice look to the top of a bed. Percale is a traditional one-yarn-over and one-yarn-under weave. Sateen is a one-yarn-under and three-yarn-over weave. More thread surface exposed by the three-over, one-under weave is what gives sateen its signature silky-soft feel; that, and the magic we create in South Carolina. Our prepping, finishing and Sanforizing are also key components to the silky soft feel and luminous sheen to our Sateen's. We do not work with the yarn makers, but the mill who weaves the fabric does and these are the ONLY mills we work with. The best cotton in the world is grown in America, however, all of our international partners use American Cotton. I've only mentioned a few types of fabrics here, however, I hope you get the idea of thread count, and types of fabric. This page will continuously be updated with Polyester's and Fabrics of all types so please check back frequently! And remember, if you let one of our experts help you, they will let you know what's hot and suggest the best product for your use. 2. Preparing the Goods This process is a series of cleaning operations used to remove impurities from the fibres to make the cloth dyeable or printable. To remove impurities such as dust, dirt, & dead cotton from the fabric will help to achieve the degree of desired whiteness needed to be consistent in our printing & dyeing process. We will use a mechanical process called Singeing to burn-off the loose fibres from the yarn. We will Desize the goods, removing the sizing materials from the warp yarns. The goods will continue through an oxidation process, removing starch and other added impurities from the weaving process. The goods will be scoured, removing any excess dirt, grease, and wax. Then we will bleach the goods, whitening the fabric. And lastly we will add Optical Brightners, providing the properties of a fluorescent compound which can emit more than the total amount of daylight that falls on it, giving an intensely brilliant white. Depending on the dyestuff's used and whether the goods are dyed or tinted, they may need to be Mercerized or Causticized. This is a checmical which swells the cotton fibers breaking the hydrogen bonds and weaken the cellulose chains. This process changes the chemical makeup of the yarns, allowing for penetration into the fabric. This chemical process makes the fabric denser, stronger and more elastic. 3. Printing 4. Dyeing 5. Finishing 6. Packing SANTEE PRINTWORKS, 58 WEST 40TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY, 10018, UNITED STATES(212) 997-1570HELLO@SANTEEPRINT.COM Santee Printworks copyright 2017