Combed, carded and sanforized: three words on a cotton spec

Combed and carded describe how a yarn was prepared before spinning: carded yarn keeps the short fibers, combed yarn has them removed, which makes it smoother, stronger and more expensive. Sanforized describes a mechanical pre-shrinking process applied to cotton-containing fabric so it shrinks less in the first wash. Polyester and poly-viscose fabrics are stabilised by heat-setting instead, which is why sanforized is the wrong term to ask for on a poly-viscose suiting and heat-set is the right one.