Plush Fabric Types

Plush fabrics can be distinguished by their surface construction, not just by their appearance in photographs. Minky features a cut pile, which is shaved to an even length. Fleece has a brushed nap that is raised from the knit itself. Sherpa has a curled, looped surface. Faux fur has a long pile on a knit backing. Once you identify the type of plush fabric you’re holding, all other characteristics of the fabric become apparent.

Plush fabrics are sold under a long list of names, many of which are trade names registered by the mill that produces them. These names don’t always accurately reflect the actual fabric. For instance, two bolts labeled with the same word can be different fabrics, while two labeled differently can be almost identical.

We have specialized in plush fabrics from the Los Angeles Fashion District since 1995, so this guide sticks to the structural differences that survive whatever the label says.

The two-second test

Run your hand across the surface, then look at the back.

• The surface has a direction. If stroking one way feels smooth and the other way feels like it is pushing back, you are holding a cut pile. That is minky, or faux fur if the pile is long. The fibers stand up and lie in a direction, which is called the nap.
• The surface feels the same in every direction. That is fleece. The nap is brushed up out of the knit rather than cut to length, so it is fluffier and less uniform, and it has no strong direction.
• The surface is curled or looped. That is sherpa, made to imitate shearling. It reads as bumpy rather than smooth.
• The back is a flat, smooth knit. True of minky, fleece and most faux fur. If the back looks like the back of a T-shirt, you have a knit, and it will not fray when you cut it.

Plush fabrics compared

All five are knits, and none of them fray. That is the single biggest practical difference between this whole family and quilting cotton: a cut edge needs no finishing, and a raw hem will not unravel.

Mink fabric or minky: which are you looking for?

These are two unrelated things, and the search box confuses them constantly.

Mink is an animal, and mink fur is a real pelt. Minky is a modern synthetic knit made from polyester microfiber, with no animal product in it at all. The plush fabric almost everyone is looking for is minky. The spelling with a Y is the fabric.

The confusion is not accidental. The fabric name is descriptive, borrowed from the look and hand of mink fur, which is exactly what it was designed to suggest. Autocorrect does the rest. If you search for mink fabric by the yard and land on plush polyester, that is why, and it is almost certainly the fabric you actually wanted.

Because minky is fully synthetic, it is also vegan, machine washable and far cheaper than any real fur.

Why two fabrics with the same name feel different

This is the part that costs people money, and it has nothing to do with the label.

Plush cut pile is made by many mills, and mills register their own trade names for their own versions. Those names describe a company's product line, not a specification. Meanwhile the generic word for the category gets used loosely across the whole market. So the word on the bolt end tells you which company made it, or sometimes nothing at all, and it does not tell you what you are buying.

Three numbers do.

• Pile height is how long the fibers are, measured in millimeters. Ours runs from 2.5mm on the printed base up to 30mm on our longest texture. This is the number that decides whether a fabric reads as sleek or as deep and shaggy.
• Density is how tightly those fibers are packed, and it is set in the knitting rather than the shaving. Two fabrics at the same pile height can feel noticeably different because of it.
• Width decides your yardage. At 58 to 60 inches you get roughly a third more fabric per yard than at 44 inches, which changes the real cost of a project more than the price per yard does.

Ask for those three and the name on the label stops mattering. Our texture guide lists them for the plush textures we carry.

Which one for your project

How each one sews

They are all knits, so none of them fray and none of them need edge finishing. Past that they behave differently under a needle.

Minky needs two small adjustments and then behaves. The pile is slippery, so layers travel against each other as you sew, and the fix is to feed both layers at the same rate. A walking foot does that, and if your machine has a built-in top feed, sometimes called dual feed, it does the same job. Add a stretch or ballpoint needle, more pins than feel reasonable and a longer stitch length, and it sews cleanly. It sheds a little at the cut edge for the first couple of washes, then settles.

Fleece is the forgiving one. It grips itself rather than sliding, holds a knot, and tolerates a plain straight stitch. This is why almost every no-sew blanket tutorial uses it.

Sherpa and faux fur are bulky rather than slippery. The usual trick with long pile is to cut from the back with the tip of a small pair of scissors, cutting only the backing and not the fibers, so the pile stays intact across the seam instead of being chopped into a visible line.

Buy a swatch before you buy yardage

Every one of these differences is obvious in your hand and invisible on a screen. Pile height, density and drape do not photograph, and color reads differently on plush than it does flat, because the nap changes how light comes off the surface.

If you are deciding between two options, order swatches of both. It costs very little compared with three yards of the wrong fabric. Our minky fabric is cut continuously from the roll, so you can order exactly the length your project needs once you have decided.

Frequently asked questions