Outer skirt for an expandable prosthetic heart valve

A prosthetic heart valve comprising:

• an annular frame having an inflow end and an outflow end;
• and
• a skirt disposed around an outer surface of the frame, the skirt comprising a plurality of circumferentially-extending leno lines that are spaced axially apart from one another and a plurality of floating yarns disposed between adjacent leno lines, wherein a first grouping of the floating yarns are woven yarns that are woven into adjacent leno lines and a second grouping of the floating yarns are non-woven yarns that are not woven into at least one adjacent leno line.

A prosthetic heart valve comprising:

• a frame;
• and
• a skirt coupled to the frame, the skirt comprising circumferential leno lines and axial yarns extending between the leno lines, wherein a first grouping of the axial yarns are woven into the leno lines, wherein the first grouping of the axial yarns defines a barrier between a second grouping of the axial yarns and the frame.