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Knit fabric is made by looping yarn together (like a t-shirt) — it stretches and feels soft. Woven fabric is made by interlacing two sets of yarn at right angles (like a shirt or trouser fabric) — it holds its shape and stretches very little unless elastane is added.
Whichever type it is, fabric is checked against the buyer's spec before it is allowed anywhere near the cutting table — because a fabric problem found now is far cheaper than the same problem found in a finished garment.
Grams per square metre — how heavy or light the fabric is. A common working tolerance many buyers use is around ±5%, though the exact allowed range is set per order, not a fixed global rule.
The usable width of the fabric roll. If it's narrower than ordered, it can throw off the cutting plan and waste fabric.
The actual fibre content (e.g. 100% cotton, or a cotton-polyester blend) — it must match what was ordered and what the care label will say.
Colour consistency, both against the approved lab dip and roll-to-roll within the same order. Shade mismatches are one of the most common fabric complaints.
How much the fabric shrinks after washing/drying. This gets tested on a small swatch first, and the result is used to adjust the pattern before bulk cutting.
How well the colour holds up to washing, rubbing, and light, without bleeding or fading. Poor colorfastness can stain other garments in the wash.
Before large-scale cutting, inspectors typically unroll and check a sample of the fabric rolls (commonly around 10% of a shipment) under good lighting, awarding penalty points for defects found along the way — more points for bigger or more serious flaws, capped at a maximum per 100 square yards checked. If the total penalty points for a roll stay under the buyer's agreed limit, the roll passes; if not, it's flagged for review or rejection.
The exact scoring scale and pass/fail limit are agreed between buyer and factory in advance — this is a widely used method, not a single fixed rule that applies identically to every order.
Every one of these problems has its own name, cause, and photo example in the Garment Defect Encyclopedia.