This paper is concerned with an analysis of uniaxial tensile deformation of filament woven fabrics in terms of dimensionless load and elongation parameters. Fabrics produced under laboratory conditions on a conventional shuttle loom and on a high performance water-jet loom with different basic weaves (plain, 2/2-twill and 2/2-hopsack), variable weft density and different weft yarns had been tested for uniaxial, low stress tensile behaviour. Dimensionless load extension curves had been plotted and the influence of the ratio of modular lengths of warp and weft yarns of loom-state and laboratory finished fabrics on initial fabric modulus and initial elongation (both dimensionless) had been investigated. In order to quantify the cross thread effect, uniaxial tensile behaviour of fabrics is compared with the decrimping behaviour of threads unreavelled from the fabrics.