Are they smushed together to make a single material or do my 95% cotton 5% lycra undies have 5 strands of lycra for every 95 strands of cotton?
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It‘s the latter. It‘s a bit oversimplified, but yes. The yarn itself consists of strains of cotton and Lycra and this mix is then woven into your fabric.
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When it comes to underwear in particular, the 5% man made fibre is usually the elastic in the waistband (and leg holes in some type of undies). The majority of the garment, especially that touches your sensitive parts, is pure cotton.
Now, stuff like jumpers that are 40% wool and 60% acrylic are different; I expect they either weave the strands in regular intervals, or more likely twist the 2 materials together so each strand has the correct proportion
Heathered jersey fabrics (frequently used in t-shirts) are usually 60% Cotton / 40% polyester and are knit with heathered yarn. This is a yarn made by twisting together strands of cotton and (usually) a lighter colored polyester into a new two-colored yarn. The yarn is then used like any other the knit the jersey fabric.
Blended fabrics will always be made in this way, there is no fusing them together into a new material. If they are synthesizing a new material, they will list the new material’s name on the label, not the ingredients.
A lot of this information isn’t correct. I have degrees in textile science.
Generally speaking those percentages are calculated by weight, starting at the stage of yarn spinning. Elastomeric yarns like Lycra are continuous filament products, either mono- or multi-, and those are combined / integrated into the short-staple fiber spinning process. There is a process called core spinning, where the elastic is put into the middle of a yarn and covered by the cotton or polyester or whatever fiber touches the skin. That’s why you don’t see or feel those yarns in the garments. If you isolate one and untwist it, you’ll usually find a white stretchy filament in the middle.
Other items, like 50/50 (or whatever percentage) cotton / polyester blend, are mixed by weight prior to yarn creation while they are still fibers, if the product is made with short-staple yarn. That way you get a more homogenous blend for both properties and dye consistency. Dyes that work on cotton don’t work with polyester because chemically they’re older opposites.
Anyone saying they “assume they just alternate yarns” or anything similar is 99% likely to be dead wrong for garment products. Also, sweaters are not woven, they’re knit. This is because all different yarn and fiber types have pretty different mechanical properties, especially in terms of elongation. Mixing very different properties are varying intervals will give a very inconsistent product, in terms of stretch, shrinkage, puckering, etc in all the processes that come after fabric creation. It just doesn’t work like that for the majority of cases.
*You shall not wear a garment of cloth made with two kinds of material – Leviticus 19:19*
It means you’re going to hell!
; )
Based on u/platanosinpantalon ‘s answer, but ELI5 mode:
The two materials are wieghed, and then they get mixed at the ratio that the fabric demands.
In some cases the threads are woven together, so that the flexible materials is in the center of the thread, and the cotton is spun around it.
If there is a lot of stretchy material, then the two materials are all mixed willy nilly before you make threads out of it.
Once the thread is made, they go into a t-shirt making machine and you get a cool th-shirt! With ninjas on it!
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