Yes, corduroy is warm - moderately so, and more than a plain cotton of the same weight. The reason is the pile: those raised ridges hold a layer of still air against you, and still air is what actually keeps you warm. How warm depends entirely on the wale. A 200gsm needlecord is a shirt. A 420gsm jumbo cord is a jacket.
That is the honest answer, and it matters because "corduroy" on a listing tells you almost nothing on its own. The same word covers a fine shirting at 190gsm and a heavy furnishing cord at 450gsm - more than double the weight, and a completely different garment. The number that separates them is the wale count, and it is worth five minutes of your attention before you order. Browse the corduroy range while you read.
What wale actually means
Wale is the number of ridges (the raised cords) per inch across the width of the fabric. It is counted in inches even in the UK, because the term is inherited from the mills and nobody has managed to change it.
The relationship trips people up constantly, so state it plainly: a lower wale number means fewer ridges per inch, which means each ridge is wider, which means a deeper pile and a heavier, warmer cloth. High wale number equals fine and light. Low wale number equals broad and heavy. Six-wale cord has six fat ridges in an inch. Twenty-one-wale cord has twenty-one thin ones in the same inch.
| Name | Typical wale | Typical GSM | Ridge width | Feels like | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babycord / pinwale | 21–28 | 170–220 | Barely visible | A soft brushed cotton | Shirts, children's dresses, quilting |
| Needlecord | 14–21 | 190–260 | About 1mm | Cotton drill with a nap | Pinafores, skirts, soft trousers, cushions |
| Standard / mid-wale | 8–13 | 260–330 | 2–3mm | Substantial, holds a crease | Trousers, dungarees, structured skirts |
| Jumbo/elephant cord | 3–6 | 330–450 | 4–8mm | Almost upholstery | Jackets, overshirts, bags, cushions, upholstery |
These GSM ranges are typical rather than universal. Cord is made in cotton, cotton-elastane, polyester blends and viscose mixes, and the same wale can vary by 60gsm or more between suppliers. Where a listing gives a GSM, use it. Where it does not, the wale plus the stated use ("dress weight", "furnishing weight") is your best guide, and it is worth ordering half a metre first if the project is going to take you a fortnight.
Warmth compared honestly
Corduroy sits in the middle of the autumn fabrics. It beats any plain woven cotton of equal weight, because the pile creates a still-air layer that a flat weave cannot. It loses to wool and to fleece, for two different reasons.
Wool wins because the fibre itself is crimped, so it traps air throughout the whole thickness of the cloth rather than only at the surface. Wool also stays warm when damp, which cotton does not — wet cotton pulls heat away from you fast, which is why a rained-on cord jacket feels colder than it looks. Fleece wins on warmth-for-weight because it is a lofted knit with an enormous volume of trapped air for very little material; a 280gsm polar fleece will feel warmer than a 330gsm cord, though it has no structure and no drape.
| Fabric | Typical GSM | Warmth for its weight | Warm when damp? | Wind resistance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brushed cotton | 130–200 | Low | No | Low |
| Needlecord | 190–260 | Low to moderate | No | Moderate |
| Standard cord | 260–330 | Moderate | No | Good |
| Jumbo cord | 330–450 | Moderate to high | No | Good |
| Polar fleece | 180–300 | High | Fairly | Poor — wind goes straight through |
| Wool coating | 350–600 | Highest | Yes | Very good |
The practical reading of that table: corduroy is a good outer layer and a poor sole layer. It blocks wind well because the ground weave is dense, which is exactly where fleece fails. So the warmest cheap combination in this whole cluster is a jumbo cord jacket with a fleece lining - cord on the outside to stop the wind, fleece on the inside to hold the air. At 2.2m of jumbo cord and 2.0m of fleece, that is 4.2m, or £4.20 at an indicative £1/m and £12.60 at £3/m. Compare the alternatives in Autumn Fabrics UK.
Sewing corduroy: nap, needles and stitch length
Corduroy is not difficult to sew. It is unforgiving about one thing, and that thing costs you fabric.
The nap rule
Run your hand up and down a piece of cord. One direction feels smooth, the other feels slightly rough. That is the pile lying down one way, and it changes how the fabric reflects light. Cut two panels facing opposite directions and they will look like two different shades of the same colour once they are sewn together — not subtly, obviously, and there is no fixing it afterwards.
So every pattern piece must be laid out with its top pointing the same way. You cannot rotate a piece 180 degrees to nest it into a gap, which is the trick that normally saves fabric. That is the cost of a napped fabric, and it is real: a one-way layout typically adds 15–25 per cent to the metreage compared with the same pattern in a no-nap fabric. On a 1.5m skirt, that is 20–35cm more. At an indicative £1/m, that extra costs you 20–35p, which is the cheapest insurance in dressmaking — but you have to remember to order it.
Which direction should the pile face? Convention on garments is pile running upwards, because it makes the colour look richer and deeper. Pile running downwards wears slightly better and shows marks less. Either is correct; what is not correct is mixing them. Mark an arrow in chalk on the wrong side of every piece as you cut so you can still tell which way is up at the machine.
Velvet, velveteen, moleskin, fleece and brushed sweatshirting all have a nap too, and the same rule applies to all of them.
Machine settings
- Needle. 80/12 universal for babycord and needlecord. 90/14 for standard cord. 90/14 or a 100/16 jeans needle for jumbo. If your cord has elastane in it, use a stretch needle at the same size.
- Stitch length. 2.5mm for the fine wales, 3.0–3.5mm for standard and jumbo. A short stitch on a thick pile fabric packs the seam and puckers it.
- Thread. Ordinary all-purpose polyester is fine. Topstitching on jumbo cord looks better in a heavier thread with the stitch lengthened to 3.5mm.
- Pressure and feed. Pile fabrics creep, so the top layer walks forward against the bottom one. A walking foot solves it. If you do not have one, pin at right angles to the seam every 5cm and sew slowly.
- Pins. Pin inside the seam allowance only. Pins leave visible holes in the pile on jumbo cord.
- Seam finishing. Cord frays readily. Overlock or zigzag every raw edge, or use flat-felled seams on trousers where the seam takes strain.
Bulk is the other thing to manage. Where four layers meet - a waistband over a side seam, a cuff, a hem corner - grade the seam allowances to different widths so they do not stack, and hammer the intersection flat with a tailor's clapper or the back of a wooden spoon before you sew across it.
What to make from each wale, with metreage and cost
All figures assume 150cm-wide fabric, a one-way nap layout, and roughly 10cm of safety margin. The two price columns are worked examples at indicative rates, not live prices — check the listing on the day.
| Make | Wale | Metreage | At £1/m | At £3/m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child's pinafore, ages 3–6 | Babycord | 0.9m | £0.90 | £2.70 |
| Cord shirt, long sleeve | Babycord / fine needlecord | 1.9m | £1.90 | £5.70 |
| Pinafore dress, sizes 8–14 | Needlecord | 1.8m | £1.80 | £5.40 |
| Pinafore dress, sizes 16–24 | Needlecord | 2.1m | £2.10 | £6.30 |
| A-line skirt, knee-length | Needlecord | 1.4m | £1.40 | £4.20 |
| Trousers, sizes 8–14 | Standard 8–13 wale | 1.7m | £1.70 | £5.10 |
| Trousers, sizes 16–24 | Standard 8–13 wale | 2.0m | £2.00 | £6.00 |
| Dungarees | Standard 8–13 wale | 2.4m | £2.40 | £7.20 |
| Unlined overshirt / shacket | Jumbo 3–6 wale | 2.0m | £2.00 | £6.00 |
| Lined jacket | Jumbo + 1.8m lining | 2.2m + 1.8m | £4.00 | £12.00 |
| Two 45cm cushion covers | Jumbo 3–6 wale | 0.8m | £0.80 | £2.40 |
| Tote bag, lined | Jumbo + 0.6m lining | 0.7m + 0.6m | £1.30 | £3.90 |
Work through the trousers as an example, because it is the one most people get wrong. On 150cm-wide cord, the front and back leg pieces will lie side by side across the width for most sizes. A leg piece is around 105cm long, so one row of pieces uses about 1.1m. Add a waistband, two pocket bags and facings — another 40cm — and you are at 1.5m. Because you cannot flip a piece to nest it, add nothing back for clever nesting, and add 10cm of margin. That gives 1.7m for sizes 8–14. Sizes 16–24 need two rows for the legs in wider sizes, hence 2.0m. At an indicative £1/m, that is £1.70 to £2.00 of fabric for a pair of trousers. High-street cord trousers were sitting around £30–£45 at the time of writing.
If you are making more than one cord item — and once you have set the machine up for it, you will — the corduroy multi-buy deal is the cheaper route. Two pinafores and a pair of trousers are 5.6m in total. For the general method of working out any pattern's metreage from scratch, see how much fabric you need.
One more pairing worth knowing: cord and tartan sit together well because one is texture without pattern and the other is pattern without texture. A needlecord pinafore over a tartan shirt is the cheapest autumn outfit in this cluster, at about 1.8m plus 2.0m. See what to make with tartan fabric for the check-matching side of it, and how fabric weight affects drape and fit for choosing between the wales on a given pattern.
Care: washing, ironing and crushing
Corduroy's enemy is pressure on the pile. Everything below follows from that.
- Prewash before you cut. Cotton cord shrinks, typically 3–5 per cent on the first wash. On a 1.8m cut, that is up to 9cm, which is the difference between a pinafore that fits and one that does not. Wash it the way you intend to wash the finished garment. There is more on this in how to wash fabric properly.
- Wash inside out, at 30°C, on a gentle cycle. Turning it inside out protects the pile from abrasion against the drum and stops it collecting lint from everything else in the load.
- Do not tumble dry hot. Heat flattens the pile permanently. Line dry, or tumble on cool and take it out damp.
- Iron on the reverse, always. A hot iron pressed directly onto the pile crushes the ridges into shiny flat tracks, and once that shine is there it does not come out. Press from the wrong side, with steam, over a folded towel so the pile has somewhere to sink into rather than being squashed against a hard board. A velvet board or needle board does the same job properly if you own one.
- Hang, do not fold, for storage. Fold creases in cord set hard.
- Reviving a crushed patch. Hold a steam iron a couple of centimetres above the pile without touching it, let the steam soak in, then brush the pile up with a soft clothes brush while it is damp. This works on light crushing. It does not work on iron shine.
Frequently asked questions
Is corduroy warm enough for winter?
Standard and jumbo cord at 300–450gsm are warm enough for British winter trousers, pinafores and jackets worn over a jumper. Corduroy is not warm enough on its own for a winter coat — for that you want wool coating at 450gsm or more, or a cord jacket lined with fleece, which is the cheaper route.
What is the difference between needlecord and jumbo cord?
Wale count. Needlecord has roughly 14–21 fine ridges per inch and weighs around 190–260gsm. Jumbo cord has roughly 3–6 broad ridges per inch and weighs 330–450gsm. Fewer ridges per inch means each ridge is wider, the pile is deeper, and the cloth is heavier and warmer.
What wale corduroy is best for trousers?
Standard cord at 8–13 wale, around 260–330gsm. It is heavy enough to hold a trouser shape and hard-wearing at the knee and seat, without the bulk of jumbo cord at the crotch seam. Allow 1.7m on 150cm-wide fabric for UK sizes 8–14, and 2.0m for sizes 16–24.
Does corduroy need to be cut with the nap?
Yes. Corduroy has a pile that lies in one direction, so panels cut facing opposite ways will look like different shades of the same colour. Lay every piece with the pattern top pointing the same way. This adds roughly 15–25 per cent to the metreage compared with a no-nap layout.
How much corduroy do I need for a pinafore?
On 150cm-wide needlecord, allow 1.8m for UK sizes 8–14 and 2.1m for sizes 16–24. Those figures already include the one-way nap layout and about 10cm of safety margin. At an indicative £1 per metre, that is £1.80 to £2.10; at £3 per metre, £5.40 to £6.30.
