Edexcel GCSE Design and Technology key terms

A pre-cut piece of fabric supplied in set dimensions, such as a square for patchwork.

A treatment applied after fabric has been made to improve its appearance, feel or other properties.

Applying textile paint to fabric to create colour, images or patterns.

A length of fabric wound around a tube and usually sold by the metre.

Large, sharp scissors used to cut fabric manually.

The measurement across a fabric roll, from one side edge to the other. Standard widths specified here are 90 cm, 137 cm and 154 cm.

Lathe work in which timber is secured to a plate attached to the headstock, allowing shapes such as bowls to be produced.

A trading principle that aims to give producers fair payment and workers fair wages and safe working conditions.

A certification system with social, economic and environmental standards intended to make trading relationships fairer for farmers and workers.

Additional money received by Fairtrade producer organisations or workers, who decide how to invest it in improvements such as education, healthcare or their business.

The part of a cam's cycle during which the follower moves downwards.

A style widely favoured at a particular time.

The ability to withstand repeated loading or flexing without failing.

A design that can realistically be made to meet its requirements within the available resources and constraints.

A raw material used to manufacture another material; crude oil provides feedstock for many polymers.

A seam in which one allowance is trimmed and enclosed by the other, which is folded and stitched down flat.

A dense non-woven fabric made by consolidating wool fibres using moisture, heat and pressure.

The interlocking and matting of wool fibres, which can cause irreversible shrinkage.

A metal containing iron. Ferrous metals are usually magnetic.

A fine, hair-like strand used as the raw material for yarns and textile fabrics.

A composite containing reinforcing fibres within a polymer resin. The fibres carry loads and provide stiffness, while the resin transfers loads between fibres and protects them.

A layer of loose fibres arranged into a sheet before they are consolidated or bonded into fabric.

A long, continuous fibre that can be used to make yarn.

Removing small amounts of material using the teeth of a file to adjust a shape or smooth an edge.

Metal added to a joint to help join the parent metal parts.

A very thin, flexible sheet of polymer, commonly supplied on a roll.

A surface treatment applied to a material to change its appearance, protect it, or both.