Pill (textile)

Pills on a knit fabric

A pill, colloquially known as a bobble, fuzzball, or lint ball, is a small ball of fibers that forms on a piece of cloth. Pill is also a verb for the formation of such balls.[1][2]

Pilling is a surface defect of textiles caused by wear, and is generally considered an undesirable trait.[3] It happens when washing and wearing of fabrics causes loose fibers to begin to push out from the surface of the cloth, and, over time, abrasion causes the fibers to develop into small spherical bundles, anchored to the surface of the fabric by protruding fibers that have not broken. The textile industry divides pilling into four stages: fuzz formation, entanglement, growth, and wear-off.[4]

Pilling normally happens on the parts of clothing that receive the most abrasion in day-to-day wear, such as the collar, cuffs, and around the thighs and rear on trousers.[5]

  1. ^ "Pill." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference PopSci was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Ukponmwan, J. O.; Mukhopadhyay, A.; Chatterjee, K. N. (1998). "Pilling". Textile Progress. 28 (3): 1–57. doi:10.1080/00405169808688874. ISSN 1754-2278.
  4. ^ Shen, Gang, and Xiong Huang (2011). Advanced Research on Electronic Commerce, Web Application, and Communication, Part 1. London: Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht. p. 80. ISBN 978-3-642-20366-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Mehta, Pradip V., and Satish K. Bhardwaj (1998). Managing quality in the apparel industry. New Delhi: National Institute of Fashion Technology and New Age International Publishers. p. 110. ISBN 978-81-224-1166-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)