Fabrics of the week: Brocade and Damask

I’ve decided to show two fabrics from the VFG Fabric Resource today, because so often these fabrics are confused with one other. They are indeed similar, both woven on a jacquard loom.

Brocade

An elaborately-patterned fabric woven on a jacquard loom since the early 19th century, brocade uses color, texture or both to emphasize its figures. The figures and ground may be of contrasting weaves such as satin on plain weave. Brocade is not considered reversible; the reverse is often distinguished by long floating threads.

Brocade was originally made in Asia, of silk with gold or silver threads, and it may still be silk or a manufactured filament fiber with metallic threads. The original looming was done manually.

Uses: Evening wear, accessories, household items

See also:
Brocatelle
Damask (below)

 ©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photo by Hoyt Carter

50s brocade shoes in my Etsy shop

Damask

Damask differs from its jacquard relative brocade in that it can be reversed, although the reverse will feature the woven-in pattern in “negative.” Damask is characteristically one color but two different weaves, to set the patterns apart from the ground. If the pattern is satin on the face, it will be dull on the reverse. If two colors are used, these will be reversed on the back of the fabric.

The fabric gets its name from Damascus, Syria, a trade hub where this silk fabric from China was introduced to Europe. Starting in the 15th century, European damasks were made of linen; both staple fiber and filament fiber damasks are made still. Table linens of cotton and blends are often damask.

Uses: Table linens, household decorations, towels, wraps, evening wear, accessories

See also:
Brocade (above)
Jacquard, woven 

 ©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photo by Hoyt Carter

60s silver damask dress in my Etsy shop

 

Fabric of the week: Fleece

This week’s fabric from the new VFG Fabric Resource is fleece. No, not the fleece that takes up a disproportionate amount of space in fabric stores today. (That fleece’s full name is polar fleece, and I will get to writing about it for the fabric resource, but haven’t been in a rush about it...) The fleece I'm talking about is made of woven wool, and you are most apt to see it cut into a good-quality vintage coat.

Fleece

Fleece is made of wool, mohair (as well as other specialty hairs) and blends. The nap covers the fabric’s construction which is usually right-hand twill or satin weave. With its soft nap all brushed in one direction, woven fleece has a longer, hairier nap than duvetyn. 

Uses: Coats, hats 

See also:
Duvetyn 
Sweatshirt fleece

©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photo by Hoyt Carter

This gives me a chance to show off this 1950s Lilli Ann coat, new in my web store. The fleece used for this coat has a luxuriously long nap.

Fabric of the week: Burlap

In case you hadn’t seen the previous entries, I’m showing off a fabric from the new VFG Fabric Resource each week. This week’s fabric is not commonly associated with vintage fashion but I have seen burlap used for a most chic 1950s swing coat, so I know the irony of a rough fabric used for high fashion is not unheard of.

Burlap

Burlap is a coarse, plain weave fabric woven from jute fibers. It is often left undyed, but can be dyed or printed. Burlap is called hessian in the UK and Europe. Gunny sack or gunny cloth is course burlap used for bagging. 

Uses: Bags for commodities such as rice; upholstery lining; when printed, used for draperies and wall coverings. Very rarely used for clothing. 

See also:
Hopsacking

©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photo by Hoyt Carter

Burlap-covered Enid Collins style bucket bag with unicorn, in my Etsy store:

Hollywood Hed-Topper scarf - ingenious!

I recently acquired several mysterious scarves labeled Hollywood Hed-Topper - Arlis Mfg. Co. Los Angeles. Basically each scarf is a large square with a lined band that extends beyond the square and has a clear ring on one end, snaps on the other. Wrapping it around one’s head and snapping the band together made sense to me, but I just knew there was more to this.  Today I stumbled upon the instructions—what a coup for the manufacturers to have Jayne Mansfield show off their creation! 

From hakes.com, where a scarf with its original packaging was auctioned

 So I tried some stunts of my own and I am in love with this scarf! Thank goodness I have two more (navy with white polka dots and burgundy) to ease the pain of letting this one go! 

The Hollywood Hed-Topper (also good as a neck-ringer!) available in my Etsy shop

Etsy crafters take note...this design would be fun to make and stock in your store, would it not? 

Fabric of the week: Sateen

Continuing my series showcasing fabrics and fabric terms from the new VFG Fabric Resource, today is one of my favorites.

I love sateen. Looking for a dressy, elegant fabric, or are you looking for comfort and wearability? Sateen has a foot in both camps. I think I'd prefer to wear a party dress of cotton sateen rather than most any satin.

Sateen 

The name sateen means the diminutive of satin, which is traditionally made of silk, while sateen is made of cotton, sometimes a cotton blend. It is constructed in a tight satin weave with float threads that cross the face diagonally…sort of a satin/twill hybrid. Already lustrous and smooth by virtue of its weave, the best sateen is made of combed cotton and mercerized and can be very glossy. It can be printed, often with flowers, or plain. 

Uses: Dresses, skirts, jackets, household decorations

©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photo by Hoyt Carter

Sateen is one characteristic fabric for Hawaiian-made vintage fashions, combining as it does casual elegance with the coolness of cotton. This 1950s sarong-style long dress by Kahana Manufacturing - Honolulu, is a good example. 

Fabric of the week: Felt

In case you didn’t see the start of this last week: Each week I’m showcasing a fabric or fabric term from the new VFG Fabric Resource. 

This week’s fabric is nonwoven felt, a fabric that may surprise some. For instance, did you know that the felt that is widely available in fabric and craft stores is not a real felt, but an imitation? That’s because genuine felt is made of wool fibers (more rarely fur fibers) and is much more expensive to produce. 

Just this weekend I was talking with a vintage fabric store owner (Ethel of The Knittn’ Kitten in Portland, Oregon...a really neat lady and a great little shop!). She told me that she had been finding felt yardage at estate sales, and became aware that it was soft, springy, a little lustrous and of great quality. That’s when she knew she was finding real wool felt. If you haven’t felt it (no pun...) you are in for a treat.

Felt, nonwoven 

Nonwoven felt is a fabric made in a process that involves fibers of wool or fur being subjected to moisture, heat, friction and pressure. The minute natural scales on the fibers cause them to tangle and mat while the heat and moisture shrink and thicken the fibers to form a dense fabric. Felting is the name of this process. Wool felt is probably the oldest fabric known to man, referenced in ancient writings and found in Bronze Age tombs. 

Fine felts may use rabbit fur fibers, while the finest use beaver fur fibers. These fine felts are known for their use in hat making. 

The fabric called felt which is currently widely available for crafting is actually an imitation; usually made of acrylic fibers and adhesives, no natural fibers are present. Other felts available are made of part wool. Half of the fibers must be natural for the fabric to felt. 

Uses: Hats, bags, slippers, padding, crafts, and a wide range of household and industrial applications

©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photo by Hoyt Carter

Crafters know that felt does not ravel, so it can be cut and used without finishing its edges. Iconic 1950s poodle skirts were made of felt. Interestingly, wool and fur fibers are so capable of felting that even only 50% wool/fur fibers will entangle non-wool fibers sufficiently to produce genuine felt. Another interesting point: The soft matted nap surface of many wool fabrics is produced by the same method (heat, friction, moisture, pressure) in a process called fulling.

Dramatic late 30s stylized felt fedora in my web store

Fabric of the week: Taffeta

I just published the new Vintage Fashion Guild Fabric Resource, and although there are many, many fabrics and fabric terms I want to add yet, it is pretty big already. I hope you go have a look: VFG Fabric Resource.

To make reading through it a little more manageable, I want to introduce one fabric or fabric term to you per week. The first is a truly well known fabric among vintage wearers—taffeta. Many are the great party frocks made from it! Even though it is well known, you may not be familiar with certain aspects of taffeta—I certainly wasn't until I did some research.

All the links take you to definitions in the VFG Fabric Resource, in case you are not familiar with the meanings. For taffeta, there is a pretty lengthy list of fabrics in the same family (under “See also”).

50s taffeta dress and bolero in my Etsy shop

Taffeta

A crisp, tightly-woven plain weave fabric usually with very fine horizontal ribs, taffeta is made of filament yarns (silk, acetate or rayon), sometimes with staple yarn filling. It is often lustrous.

When woven of two different colored yarns, shot taffeta is created, also called changeable or iridescent. When the iridescent taffeta is silk, it can be called shot silk. Woven of three colors (two in the weft, one in the warp), it is called chameleon taffeta.

Taffeta is often the fabric used for moiré, and it can be processed to create ciré.

Taffeta makes a characteristic rustling sound when moved. The sound is called scroop (a late 18th-century word blending scrape and whoop) in the case of silk taffeta. The scroop sound results from an acid finishing treatment

The name comes from the Persian taftah, a 16th-century fine silk fabric.

Uses: Dresses, underskirts, linings, trims, umbrellas

See also:

 Bengaline

 Ciré

 Faille

 Grosgrain

 Moiré

 Ottoman

Acetate taffeta

Flocked taffeta

Embossed taffeta

Jacquard taffeta

Silk taffeta ©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain,  photos by Hoyt Carter

P.S. If you have a small piece—it doesn't need to be larger than about 2" x 2"—of chameleon taffeta (definition above) you would like to donate to the cause, I'd love it to photograph and add to the resource!

The new Fabric Resource

Excuse my absence for the past few weeks...I have been adding some finishing touches to the new Vintage Fashion Guild Fabric Resource, now published.

I say finishing touches, but really, this is the start. I hope to continue adding fabrics and fabric terms as I can. I began this project in 2007, and I have really learned a lot about fabrics, which fascinate me. I hope this resource helps others learn and enjoy fabrics too.

You can see the Fabric Resource, and all its components, by going to the Vintage Fashion Guild homepage and looking under VFG Resources.

Please let me know what you think!

Fabrics and me

photo courtesy of desktopretreat.blogspot.com

One summer, I read the Fairchild’s Dictionary of Textiles cover to cover (don't I know how to have fun?) and chose a collection of fabrics that seemed to come up in vintage clothing descriptions and in my observations. I didn’t, and don’t, consider myself an expert on the subject, but I love learning about fabrics.

I really have to know fabric better all the time. I sell vintage clothing, and my buyers and I want to know what a item is made from. To know this is to tell someone whether she will be allergic, how to wash or clean the item, predict how it will take dye. It is to know how fine it is, how long it will last, how the color will hold up. It helps make certain the vintage. It gives a better sense of how it will feel when worn. Buying clothing online is hard enough, and knowing all you can about the item is just smart.

The year after I read the Fairchild’s I was a board member of the Vintage Fashion Guild, and I proposed the idea of the VFG website having a fabric resource. For many years, the VFG Label Resource has made an inestimable contribution to vintage knowledge and interest, and the other resources (Fur Resource and Lingerie Guide) are also of tremendous value (heck, you should just go check out the whole site!). Everyone thought a fabric resource was a good idea, so I got started on it.

Fast forward to 2012, and I have been working bit by bit on a fabric resource for most of five years now. Fabrics are complicated. As one article in an issue of the great American Fabrics magazine begins:

The history of textiles is the history of the world...politically, socially, economically.

So much of human history has been interwoven with fabrics—any one fabric can take you back to ancient civilizations, or even prehistoric times. This makes many of them difficult to quickly summarize.  I noted one of the fabrics in the Fairchild’s that was particularly mind-boggling for me, frisé.

frisé [free-zay’] 1. Originally the finest grade of linen made in Friesland, The Netherlands. It was strong, stout, grained, and well-bleached. 2. A French term for curled. 3. A coarse ratiné fabric that is made with slub yarns in a plain weave ( See RATINÉ 1.) 4. A looped pile fabric usually of uncut loops that may have a pattern cut into them. This term sometimes is used for TERRY CLOTH or BOUCLÉ FABRIC. 5. A coarse, stout cotton or linen fabric that is made in a plain weave with a flat, wiry texture and a pronounced rep or rib. Made in imitation of the worsted or mohair pile fabric known as FRIEZE. All fabrics listed in 1.—5. are used for upholstery. 6. A cut pile carpet of twisted yarns in solid color or of varicolored yarns.

You can see there are divergent histories here, along with terms that may not be familiar (they certainly weren’t all familiar to me). There are comments about usage, origins of the name, related fabrics. Not all fabrics have this much complexity in their definitions, but some have more.

I’m not trying to make excuses for the long time I’ve been working on this; on the contrary, when the Fabric Resource is published in mid July it will just be a start—I plan to continue working on it. I really just mean to say it is a very deep subject, with much to know. My hope is that the Fabric Resource will provide basic information about fabrics, help people searching for the name of a “mystery” fabric, help with determining fiber types, and maybe even inspire some interest in further research.

I know I’m inspired by fabrics, and I hope others are too!

Would you like one sneak peek? Just to explain, there will be a link to a definition in the resource for all the words in bold type, and a link to any related fabrics. It will be possible to click on all photos to enlarge them to 1000 x 1000 pixels.


Chinchilla cloth

Constructed like fleece, with a long nap, chinchilla cloth is given a machine finish which rubs the nap into nubs. It is made of wool, wool blends, and the warp may be cotton for strength. The town of Chinchilla, Spain is where the present fabric was first made.

Uses: Coats, hats

See also fleece

I thank you, the manatees thank you!

Because of your purchases in the last two weeks, I am able to write a check for $221 to the Save the Manatee Club. I know it will be used well!

If you like to add your donation to the cause, visit savethemanatee.org

9/11

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

On September 11, 2001, I sold this raspberry suit to a woman working in the Pentagon. A few days later I heard from her, apologizing for taking so long to pay, but she'd been very distracted by events. I don't even know how she remembered the suit at all.

I remember the reaction of the world to 9/11, particularly the raw, on-the-street reaction of ordinary people all over the world. To them, we were still an ideal. We were Hollywood, Mickey Mouse and Mickey Mantle, T-birds and T-bone Hawkins, Coca-Cola, Apple, Ella and Elvis, Martin Luther King, The Statue of Liberty, great teeming New York, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, golden waves of grain, cowboys and Indians, the railroad, good public schools and libraries, flight, baseball, front porches, The Blues, purple mountain majesty, Mustang cars and horses, Helen Keller, Star Wars, Marilyn Monroe, Broadway, jazz, rock-n-roll, hip-hop, sportswear, white hats and silver spurs, The Alamo, the circus, buffalo and Buffalo Bill, the Bill of Rights, beat poets, Janis Joplin, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, the gramophone and the light bulb, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Thoreau and Emerson, Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Michael Jordan, Kennedy, FDR, Oprah, Bob Hope, Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, emancipation, Muhammad Ali, the Smithsonian, the moon. We were hope. We were, as John Gunther reminded us in the 1947 Inside U.S.A., “the craziest, most dangerous, least stable, most spectacular, least grownup, and most powerful and magnificent nation ever known.”

That was what was attacked, and what remains. That is what is worth preserving and improving upon forever.

My shoes are museum pieces!

These 1950s lucite-heeled shoes (recently sold)
are in this exhibit:
and these early 70s Fox & Fluevog shoes (on loan from my collection)
are in this exhibit:

A tiny fraction of Mrs. Alexander's clothing

As promised, here are some of my favorite wins from the auction in which Helen South Alexander's clothing was sold.


Anne Fogarty



Fringed-skirt late 40s suit from Bernard's, Spokane



Adele Simpson



Claire McCardell



Another Claire McCardell



Ceil Chapman



Louella Ballerino for Jantzen



Louella Ballerino for Jantzen...in green



Hollywood Sport Life



Irish linen and silk



L'Aiglon



No-label 40s



Donald Brooks



Nani, Hawaii



Hand-embroidered Mexican



Morton Bregman



Pat Hartley



Marguerite Rubel



No-label but stunning 40s strapless



Edith Small



B.H. Wragge



Forstmann



Mustard wool unlabeled



Handmade taffeta



Malbe



David Crystal



Frederick & Nelson, Seattle



Unlabeled 40s wrap top



Red linen and wool



Miriam Gross



Hand-embroidered Mexican



Bernard's, Spokane



No label 40s jacket



Harvey Berin Designed by Karen Starck



Unlabeled



Then there are the two things I haven't been able to part with, an unlabeled 40s outfit...



...and a Patricia Lester silk outfit from the 70s

An Ode to Helen South Alexander

From the Spokesman-Review newspaper, September 28, 2004:

Of Helen South Alexander's many gifts to Spokane, the swans of Manito Park are perhaps her most manifest legacy.

They were given to the city in 1968 by her late husband, the longtime Spokane civic leader Philip Alexander. But it was Helen who became the ardent supporter of the graceful white birds, remaining a lifelong patron of a group called Manito Park Swans.

In fact, two of the original cygnets that swam at the pond were named in the couple's honor: Philip of Macedon and Helen of Troy.

In many ways, Helen South Alexander was a lot like the swans she loved: A woman of style and elegance, she walked through life with a majestic air, said those who knew her. She beautified her surroundings not only through her work as an interior designer, but also as a patron of the arts.

A longtime Spokane resident, Alexander died last Friday. She never disclosed her age and was adamant before her death that it didn't appear in her obituary.

Mrs. Alexander, I salute you...nay, I worship you. I actually met Mrs. Alexander in my capacity as Principal Horn of the Spokane Symphony, while she was in her long-time capacity as patron of the Symphony, and of all arts in Spokane. She was beautiful, ageless, and impeccably gracious, always distinctive in her dress, however I had no idea of the contents of her closets until the auction in which her clothing was sold, some months after her death in 2004.

At this point it has been a couple of years since that auction, and more than ever I feel that it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There were 3,000 to 4,000 clothing and accessory items of the most glorious nature, chosen with a designer's eye and in almost exclusively ideal condition.

Mrs. Alexander's second husband was chairman of one of Spokane's big department stores, and she had ultimate access to the best clothing of the time even though she was living in relative isolation in Spokane. That alone would not have guided her taste...she was a prolific artist of dress.

While wearing the most beautiful and forward-thinking clothing as a young woman in the 30s and 40s, it was the 50s through present at this auction that most impressed. it would be hard to name an important designer from the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s that was not represented in Mrs. Alexander's wardrobe...at least several times. There was an entire table of Ferragamo pumps, a rack just of 70s Diane von Furstenburg wrap dresses, some with tags. I yearned for a quintessentially Mod red coat by Pierre Cardin, an unused, iconic Bonnie Cashin coat, a WWII-era Red Cross hourglass suit/uniform with all kinds of interesting pins and patches. Frankly, I yearned for everything from a 30s velvet gown to an ornate Christian Lacroix suit from the 80s...in short, for everything!

An early 1970s Oscar de la Renta hand-painted black leather coat was probably the biggest sale of the auction, at $6,000. One buyer--reputedly (my friend quizzed him) with stores in Los Angeles, London and somewhere in Asia--spent voluptuously, as if there were no limits with items of this quality. There were buyers from many places, all there just for vintage clothing from one woman's highly distinctive closets.

Next time: A sampling of what I was able to take home from this great collection.

Concerning the fiber content of a fabric

The information we most want to know about a fabric is the fiber content; knowing this is to know a fabric's characteristics and advantages and disadvantages.

There are a number of tests, some along the lines of folklore (dampening and creasing a fabric to see how it behaves) and some more scientific (exposing a fabric to certain chemicals and examining it under a microscope), but by far the most accessible test is burning.

One web offering, Ditzy Prints Fiber Burn Chart is a great resource. You should know that burning fibers takes practice, and you must start with a little caution. You should burn over a sink or bucket so that if you get what seems like a fabric inferno you can ditch! Most necessary is a tweezers to hold the little fabric swatch, and a lighter. If you burn matches of any sort you will pick up the scent of burning paper or wood, throwing you off for discerning the burning fabric's odor.

If you are really serious about learning how a fiber burns, I recommend taking known fabric samples and examining how they smell and behave while burning, and look, feel and smell once burned.

Many fabrics are blends and will have characteristics of more than one fiber when burned. If you are lucky, the fibers are distinct in the fabric, so that you can separate the weft from the warp and discover the content of each fiber.

One giveaway is acetate, which is the only fiber that dissolves when dampened with acetone (i.e. nail polish remover).

To do a burn test, do your best to find as big a swatch as possible without damaging or conspicuous loss to a garment. Even a few threads are "readable" once you get good at this, but a piece of about 1" X 1/4" is a minimum necessity if you are just getting started. Hold one end of the fabric with the tweezers and expose the other end to the flame of a lighter. Notice if the fabric readily burns or takes some effort to light. Also, note if the fire burns out or continues until all the fabric is burned. Smell the burning fabric.

Then, once the fire is out, notice whether the remains are black or grey, and feel to decide if is harder (bead-like) or soft (ash-like). On the fiber burn chart all these elements will help you narrow the choices.

Your senses also will help determine a fabric's fiber content without burning, given a chance to learn. With experience a silk, wool, rayon, polyester or acetate are discernible just by look and feel...but the details of their look and feel are so much harder to describe online.

I wish everyone who cared to learn about fabrics could have a mentor lead them. From what little I know, a knowledgeable person and a guided experience with fabrics makes a very complex project so much easier and memorable. If you have a chance, be taught first hand!

Time out from fabrics to say: Please Vote

In this world it's such a privilege.

My "first impression" concept for ID-ing fabrics

One summer I read the Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles cover to cover (don't I know how to have fun?) and chose a collection of fabrics that seemed to come up in vintage clothing descriptions and in my observations. I whittled down the definitions to what I think is the basic for making an identification, then I arranged these by first impressions. This is really a very simple concept, looking for the best category, then scanning the list for the best possible choice. So, if your fabric is really light, but there isn't anything particularly pronounced about its look or texture, check FINE, LIGHT FABRICS. If it is ribbed, is it horizontally or vertically ribbed? Check the ribbed category that fits. This tactic for narrowing down the fabric type is inspired by bird identification, where the most pronounced feature is the starting point. In some cases, fabrics fall into more than one category; still I'd suggest grabbing what you think is its most notable aspect as a starting point. For instance, percale with an ombre pattern is more likely to be called--and be wanted--by its most obvious feature, the ombre pattern.

I have a long way to go, but I have positively identified examples of most of these fabrics, and I mean to grow the list and swatch samples. I hope that even the descriptions help others.


NETS
Illusion - Very fine, sheer net
Point d'esprit - Net with dots scattered all over
Tulle - Fine net with a hexagonal mesh.

LIGHTEST, OPEN WEAVE OR SHEER FABRICS
Crepe de chine - Plain weave with fine crepe effect
Gauze - Thin, sheer open weave of plain or leno weave
Georgette - Sheer plain weave with a fine crepe surface
Handkerchief linen - Sheer linen
Mousseline - Broad classification of lightweight, sheer crisp fabrics
Organdy - Sheer, plain weave stiffened lawn
Organza - Transparent, crisp plain weave
Voile - Sheer plain weave with crisp, wiry hand

FINE, LIGHT FABRICS
Batiste - Plain weave, with subtle lengthwise streaks
Cambric - Soft plain weave, slight luster
Challis - Soft plain weave, often printed w/ small florals
Charmeuse - Soft, drapey, smooth, semi-lustrous satin face, dull back
Crepe-back satin - Reversible satin weave, smooth & lustrous on one side, crepe on other
Gabardine - Twill weave w/ distinct rib
Lawn -Fine, plain weave, relatively sheer. Close construction
Percale - Plain weave, firm, balanced construction
Sateen - Cotton in satin weave
Surah - Silk or silky manufactured fabric in twill weave. Soft, lustrous

COARSER, HEAVIER FABRICS
Buckram - Plain weave, coarse, open, heavily sized, used as a stiffener interfacing
Cavalry twill - Strong, rugged, pronounced double twill at 63° angle
Cheviot - Hairy nap wool or worsted, rough surface, fulled. Plain or twill weaves
Chino - Twilled mercerized cotton
Denim - Right-hand twill weave, colored warp, white filling (compare to drill)
Drill - Resembles denim, but left-hand twill
Duck - Plain weave, light canvas
Homespun - Plain weave, course, uneven yarns, similar to tweed
Hopsacking - Same as burlap. Basket weave, coarse, loosely woven
Lodencloth - Coarse wool coating fabric woven in the Tyrols w/ natural water repellancy
Melton - Plain weave, completely smooth, short nap, at least partly wool
Muslin - Firm, plain weave cotton; broad category from sheer to heavyweight
Serge - Most commonly twilled worsted suiting dyed navy blue
Whipcord - Twilled rugged fabric w/ wiry hand

PILES AND TREATED FABRICS
Burn-out fabric - Made w/ 2 different yarns w/ pattern made by destroying one of the yarns in a printing process which uses chemicals instead of color.
Crushed velvet - Velvet processed to have irregular surface
Panne velvet - Flattened pile velvet
Plush - Surface longer than velvet, less closely woven
Velvet - Short cut warp pile fabric

PATTERNED OR PUCKERED TEXTURED FABRICS
Crepe - Wrinkled or grained surface effect
Embossed fabric - Raised design made by passing cloth through hot, engraved rollers
Matelassé - Puckered, quilted, waded effect
Plissé - Puckered stripes made by applying caustic soda
Seersucker - Puckered stripes made by weaving tension variations

SLUBBY TEXTURED FABRICS
Butcher cloth - Linen like, strong, heavy, plain weave
Donegal tweed - Plain or twill weave medium to heavy wool with colored slubbing
Doupioni silk - Irregular, rough silk reeled from double cocoons
Pongee - Plain weave, light to medium-weight irregular silk, often natural ecru color
Shantung - Rough, plain weave silk, heavier than pongee

VERY TEXTURED FABRICS
Bouclé - Woven or knit fabric using rough, curly, knotted, fancy yarn
Ratiné - Plain weave, loosely constructed fabric using curly, knotty fancy ratiné yarn

HORIZONTALLY RIBBED FABRICS
Bengaline - Plain weave, filling courser than warp, but more warp yarns used, covering picks
Broadcloth - Unbalanced plain weave, finer rib than poplin
Faille - Plain weave, like grosgrain only flatter rib
Grosgrain - Firm, closely woven plain weave ribbed fabric or ribbon
Ottoman - Plain weave, cords larger & rounder than faille or bengaline
Poplin - Subtle but noticeable rib warp plain weave fabric, more rib than broadcloath
Rep - Plain weave, close spaced narrow ribs, less than bengaline, more than poplin
Taffeta - Broad category of plain weave, fine, smooth, crisp fabrics, usually w/ fine cross rib

VERTICALLY RIBBED FABRICS
Bedford cord - Heavy, plain weave corded fabric
Corduroy - Pile ribbed
Pinwale corduroy - Finely ribbed
Piqué - Light bedford cord, or also in fancy patterns (i.e. bird..s eye)

FABRICS WITH SPECIAL FINISHES
Brushed fabric - Softened feel from wire brushing process
Chintz - Plain weave cotton or cotton blend w/ glaze treatment
Flannel - Light to medium weight plain or twill weave fabric, slightly napped
Moiré - ..Watered.. finishing process, usually applied to ribbed fabric
Polished cotton - Luster from satin weave, or smoothing roller finish
Suede cloth - Woven or knit fabric finished to resemble suede
Sueded silk - Soft nap finish silk

PRINTED PATTERN FABRICS
Calico - Plain weave cotton or blend with small, busy, printed pattern
Foulard - Lustrous twill w/ small printed design on plain ground
Toile de jouy - Floral or scenic designs, classic motifs finely detailed

WOVEN PATTERN FABRICS
Brocade - Rich, heavy jacquard-woven fabric w/ raised patterns emphasized by contrasting surfaces or colors (see jacquard, damask)
Chambray - Plain weave w/ colored warp, white filling
Damask - Similar to brocade, but flatter
Dobby weave - Specific, small, geometric figures in fabric woven w/ dobby loom
Gingham - Plain weave, even check plaid
Heather effect - Vari-colored effect from blended woolen yarns, often greens, browns
Houndstooth check - Twill woven in characteristic pattern
Jacquard - System of weaving capable of producing complex and large woven designs
Oatmeal weave - Uneven weave in small repeat which produces speckled surface
Ombré (woven or printed) - Gradual shading from light to dark, or hue to hue
Shadow stripe weave - Indistinct stripes produced by using different yarns, in a plain weave
Sharkskin - Most often blk & white in close plain weave worsteds
Ticking - Strong, durable, close woven in any basic weave, characteristic stripe

OTHER PATTERNED FABRICS
Batik - Wax-resist dying
Birds eye - Small indentations
Dotted swiss - Can be woven or flocked dots on plain weave
Eyelet - Edge-embroidered cut-outs or eyelets
Flock - Fuzzy pile decoration applied with adhesive, not woven
Honeycomb - A woven in waffle appearance
Ikat - Resist dying employing tying fabric
Waffle weave - Cotton in honeycomb weave

KNIT FABRICS
Double knit - Thicker knit, made in knitting machine with two sets of needles
Interlock - Thick, firm, double rib knit
Jersey - Single, plain knit
Tricot - Knit w/ pronounced crosswise ribs on back

MISCELLANEOUS
Lamé - Fabric w/ flat, metallic yarns woven in

These descriptions do not cover the fiber (i.e. wool, rayon, silk, polyester). Next time: How to tell the fiber from which a fabric is made.

A few fabric definitions

These few definitions (derived from Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles) don't cover fabrics themselves, but seem to me to be important for understanding fabrics:

Brushed: A finish produced on knit or woven fabrics in a process in which brushes or other abrading or brushing elements are used to raise a nap.

Calendered: A finish produced by passing fabric under pressure between cylinders. The number of cylinders varies, and the greater the heat and pressure, the greater the luster. The process produces a flat, glossy and smooth surface on the fabric.

Filling: The yarn that runs from selvage to selvage at right angles to the warp. Each yarn of the filling is called a pick (most common), shoot, shot, or shute.

Fulled: A finish produced on woolens or worsted in which the newly woven or knitted cloth is felted or compressed. The material is subject to moisture, heat, friction and pressure, causing it to shrink considerably in both directions, becoming compact and solid. In heavily fulled fabrics, both the weave and yarn are obscured entirely, giving the appearance of felt.

Napped: A finished produced on certain woolens, cottons, spun silks and spun rayons, consisting of raising a nap on the fabric. A napper machine has rapidly revolving cylinders covered with fine wire brushes which lift loosely twisted yarns from the fabric to form the nap.

Mercerized: Cotton yarn or fabric which has been treated by swelling in strong alkali. The material in the form of warp, skeins or piece goods is immersed in sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) solution. Later this is neutralized in acid. The process causes a permanent swelling of the fiber, increasing its luster, strength, and affinity for dyes.

Slub: A thick, unevenly twisted place in yarn. May be deliberately inserted in a fancy yarn or a flaw in yarn that is supposed to be of uniform diameter.

Wale: One of a series of ribs, cords, or raised portions usually in the fabric length.

Warp: A yarn that runs lengthwise in a woven fabric, parallel to the selvages. Warp ends interlace with the filling yarns (picks) in different patterns to form different weaves.

Next: My "first impression" method for determining a fabric.

Basic fabric weaves

Before I write any more let me say don't you dare think I know tons about fabrics! I feel like a student with a huge amount of studying yet to do! I'm looking forward to it!

I remember wondering not so long ago what a person meant by, say, "silk satin jacquard," or "wool crepe." Trying to figure out these definitions I started breaking down the categories into which each fabric falls. Leaving aside the fiber content (wool, poly, cotton, etc.) for the moment, I used an idea I got from bird identification books, of looking for the most noticeable feature and working out from there.

I came up with a list of "first impression" groupings of fabrics, and I'll get to that soon. First, these are the basic weaves, showing illustrations from Fabrics and How to Know Them by Grace Goldena Denny, 1928 edition. Keep in mind this is what the fabric looks like through a magnifying glass!:

And a knit is not a weave at all. This is its basic structure:

These are the basic weaves as more graphically illustrated in the Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles:



Next time: Some fabric definitions

How I am getting to know fabrics, part 2

I learned quite a bit by tagging along with my mother in fabric stores as a child. (I absolutely loved fabrics with two distinct and usable sides, like crepe back satin!) Touching fabrics is something that we all just get without need for too many words.

Unfortunately, tagging around with an expert is unlikely to get you terribly far these days, unless you are lucky enough to be near a very fine fabric store, or if you are very lucky, a museum with a textile collection. The usual chain fabric stores are pretty slim on the variety of fabrics that were used for vintage clothing, or for better modern clothing.

A terrific resource then is a book of fabric swatches, and there is a series of three by Julie Parker: All About Silk: A Fabric Dictionary & Swatchbook (Fabric Reference Series, Volume 1), All About Cotton: A Fabric Dictionary & Swatchbook (Volume 2) and All About Wool: A Fabric Dictionary and Swatchbook (Volume 3). All, Rain City Publishing, Seattle, Washington, in multiple printings.

These three books have swatches of the most commonly found fabrics in pure silk, pure wool and pure cotton. There is also a lot of other information, written and printed in an easily digested, enjoyable way. Included is a rating of each fabric for sewing, fit, suggested styles, cost, wearability, suggested care and where to find. These books are pretty costly, about $25 to $35 each, either new or used, yet they are priceless resources for getting to know fabrics.

The only drawback that I can find is that these only take a very curious soul so far; if you want to know even more about fabrics, you will need to widen your net. What, for instance, of all the wonderful blends? What of synthetics and rayon?

I started my own swatch library, index cards on which I sewed swatches of fabrics when I was absolutely sure I had an example. The collection is pretty large by now. A great find was a 1950 swatch book of Fabrics For Fall (McGreevey, Werring & Howell Co.), 70 pages of good-sized pieces of fabric in a fine array of prints, weaves and fibers, all named. If you can find this sort of book at an antique shop, yard sale, or equivalent, I highly recommend you grab it!

Next time: Fabric basics.