Abstract: A substantially closed fabric with a soft hand is made by compressive redistribution of the filaments of at least some of the yarns of an open mesh fabric. In order to achieve the desired result, certain characteristics of the yarn and the fabric are necessary and are disclosed, e.g., continuous filament yarns having not more than one turn per inch, a fabric having a denier per inch of at least four thousand and a thermoplastic coating with a softening point less than that of the filaments. The thermoplastic coating is resoftened to the point where the filaments are capable of being spread apart. Compressive pressure then is applied to achieve this result. The redistributed yarns then are held in their new position until the thermoplastic coating has set to at least the point where it is capable of holding the filaments.