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A to Z Challenge 2026 – “J” is for Jersey, Jute and Jamdami…

April 11, 2026April 11, 2026humanist55

“Choose any subject you would like to write about…” that is the object of the A to Z Challenge, and thinking of things that interest me is not a problem for me, but choosing a subject not only to write about, but to write in a way that other people will catch my interest – that is the real challenge! This year I turn to a subject, close to our skin if not our hearts, and yet, again, I wonder if this subject will get some people past the title on the list – dismissed as niche? For this year, my theme is What We Wear – Fabrics and Fibres

Jamdami

I am going to start with Jamdami, because, in many ways, it proceeds the techniques of Jacquard looms and machine Jersey Jacquard decorative fabric techniques which this post will cover. Jamdami is referred to as extra-weft ornamentation, on-loom embroidery, or discontinuous weft¹. Okay, let’s break down the jargon – on a loom which is set up for Muslin (a very fine fabric) portions of the weft are lifted up and threaded with a needle or very small shuttle to produce a design motif.

Left: *Close-up of* jamdani *weaving on muslin on the loom, showing the needle and the motifs akin to embroidery.* Right: Jamdani *weave on the* pallav (decorative end) *of a saree.*¹

This is a painstaking process and Jamdami was not cheap. Dhaka in Bangladesh was a centre of excellence and Daccia mul was so exquisite that when the city was under British rule, orders were given to cut off the thumbs of weavers to prevent competition with milled British fabrics.¹

*A rare* jamdani *piece with borders and* pallav *woven in a multitude of shades on fine cotton muslin.*¹

Amir Khusro, the famous thirteenth-century Sufi poet, described fine handspun, handwoven cotton so fine that 100 yards could pass through a needle, with a transparency more like water than cloth. He described a fabric so beautiful that it was likened to air, moonlight, clouds, and water: magnificent muslin. In reality, the fabric was so fine that several layers could pass through a signet ring, and it was so light that if washed and tossed in the air, it would dry before landing. Poetry, romance, royalty, legendary tales, trade worth a king’s ransom, secrecy, cutthroat competition—these are all part of the history of muslin and especially the decorative muslin known as jamdani.¹

Jacquard

There are a number of ways to introduce different coloured patches of colour into a fabric, we already encountered Intarsia under “I” – knitting, which changes yarn at the boundaries of a different colour and we also saw Jacquard under the decoration of Fabrics but when you have many repeated motifs in knitting, such as Fair Isle, then its easier to carry the yarn across the back (floats), which, however, carries the risk of snagging .

In this beautiful sweater brought for me from the Andes – in the top half you can see the repeated patterns including Llamas, whilst belowthe white line, i have folded it back to show a mirror immage of the reverse of the pattern showing the “floats” resultant from this form of Jacquard knitting.

The following video explains how to avoid long carry-over threads on the back of the work, which could be caught by fingers when putting on a sweater, say. Two techniques are mentioned – one is Ladder-backing which catches the carry-over threads (floats) at regular intervals and the other involves double knitting – a second layer of knitting behind the main layer in the second colour, which is then brought forward when required for the design. It raises the question of what is really the front and which the back of a fabric. for example, in a decorative fabric which is not for general wear, it might be fine to have, say, gold threads as floats across the front face without them being interrupted by warps.

Jacquard is also a feature of machine knitting, and in the next section, we shall see machines doing just that! In a way, machine-knit Jacquard is doing, effortlessly, in knitted form, what Jamdami weavers did so painstakingly on a loom…

Jersey – the fabric…

Jersey, named for the fisherman’s sweaters originating in the Channel Island of Jersey, is now given to a wide range of machine-knit fabrics and being knitted, it naturally has a very stretchy quality. Although originally knitted with wool, nowadays, cotton and synthetic yarns are used, and should they require more elasticity (being somewhat stifffer fibres), then Lycra, Spandex or elastane can be added (more of these later).

Arrangement of interlocking stitches in single jersey

So far we have seen a lot of woven fabrics – woven on looms, but in Knitting, we came to interlocked loops as a technique – one going back into pre-history, yet it was inevitable that, sooner or later, some ingenious fellow would work out how to mechanise the knitting process. As far back as the 16th Century, that fellow was William Lee was an Anglican clergyman, born in Calverton, Nottinghamshire. “By studying how the fingers of some local hand knitters moved, he came up with a ground-breaking mechanical device (the stocking frame knitting machine).”² Since then, a plethora of machines have developed and roughly 37% (and growing), of the world’s fabrics are knitted as opposed to woven. The video below shows some of the many types of knitting machines including ones that produce Jacquard decoration.

Note the many yarns being threaded into the machines – this is how most machine-knitting differs from hand-knitting – there a single yarn is worked backwards and forwards, row by row, whereas on these machines, every needle is fed a separate yarn which is passed onto the next needle with each pass.

Types of Jersey

Single Jersey
Double Jersey
Interlock Jersey
Jacquard Jersey
Stretch Jersey

For a full description of these types of jersey, go to How to sew jersey fabric: Everything you need to know about sewing with jersey

You can see that some of these machines produce giant tubes of knitted fabric so that it is possible to make the torso of a sweatshirt (providing it is straight and not shaped) to be seam-free and the same with the sleeves – made in a smaller diameter tube, however the following video shows T-shirts being made but cut into panels to allow heat-transfer printing to be put on before stitching the garment up.

If you want to learn how to make your own T-shirt – if, for example, you have one that fits you better than most bought ones, this blog post will show you how… How to Make Your Own T-Shirt Pattern using jersey fabric.

I compiled a list of as fabrics, fibres and related items as possible (278 items), from several sources, the most comprehensive of which was Wikipedia. Since there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, I could not write in detail about every instance so I have taken snippets of text for the brief descriptions and linked to the source in the name of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “I” is for Intarsia and Illusion Tulle…

April 10, 2026March 15, 2026humanist55

Intarsia – a knitting technique used to create large, distinct blocks or panels of colour within a garment without carrying yarn across the back, resulting in a smooth, non-bulky fabric. It involves using separate bobbins or balls of yarn for each colour area, twisting yarns at colour changes to prevent holes.

The diagram above shows how, when transitioning from one area of colour to another, the yarns are twisted around one another – the green will be picked up again on the return row. This is different from, say, Fair Isle knitting where the colour not currently in use, is carried across the back of the piece until it is required again – this suits patterns with a lot of tiny repeated motifs in each row whereas Intarsia could be used , say, to produce a map of the world with each country in a different colour. This means that the fabric is less bulky any and there are no loops across the back to get caught and pulled…

Illusion Tulle – Tulle is a family of semi-transparent fabrics similar to gauzes but finer and whilst made originally of silk, the advent of synthetic fibres, which tend to be translucent in the first place, has made them the fibres of choice for tulles; moreover, Illusion Tulle is made by fusing the yarns together, this tulle is very fine giving it the ability to disappear on the skin. This makes it ideal for wedding dresses, often embellished with embroidery which then seems to float and for those ballroom dresses you see on Strictly Come Dancing, which seem to have no visible means of support…

A wedding dress with illusion Tullee neckline

I will be making my list available at the end of the A to Z…

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “H” is for “Historical” Fabrics…

April 9, 2026April 8, 2026humanist55

What do I mean by “historical” fabrics? After all, many fabrics have a long lineage, in the case of the staples, cotton, linen, and silk, their history goes back many thousands of years and are still in production today, but there are some names that have fallen by the wayside and who only crop up in the context of old novels and histories – Brilliantine, Dowlass (Sailcloth), Holland cloth, Drugget and what the heck is Rum-swizzle? They may have modern equivalents, but these are the names consigned to history, and if they are still in produced today, however modified they may be, I have not included them here.

Broadcloth is a good example – woven at 50-75% wider than the finished width, this dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool, was “milled” – subjected to heavy hammering in hot soapy water in order to shrink it to the required width – in effect, it was felted with the thread count much denser than a loom could achieve, making it denser, tougher and more water-resistant. Broadcloth was a natural choice for items like naval uniforms where all those characteristics are needed.

Brilliantine – Lightweight, mixed-fibre fabric popular from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century. Brilliantine can be plain or twill woven, has a lustrous finish and is known for its dust-shedding properties; it was available in solid colors or printed, and was used for dresses, dusters, and linings.

Camlet – also commonly known as camlot, camblet, or chamlet, is a valuable woven fabric of Eastern origin, perhaps originally made from camel hair, but the term became one applied to all imitations of it.

Cannequin – A fabric of unknown origin, possibly a type of fine cotton

Chine – A type of silk fabric where the pattern was printed on the warp threads before weaving, creating a distinctive blurred design. This nugget of information came not from either of my two main lists and in the case of Wikipedia, sources of information. No! The joy of researching is that it connects you with far-flung areas of the internet, and in this case, far-flung geography – and an item about an obscure (today) technique of fabric production. The Dreamstress – sewing, history, and style, is a fabulous blogger, born in Hawaii, living in New Zealand and not only revealing the secrets of historical clothes and the fabrics they are made from, but even designing and selling patterns which you can use to replicate certain historical classics! Chine, on it’s own, as opposed to Crêpe de Chine, is not mentioned in either of my main lists and only a simple search for “Historic Fabrics” connected me with this awesome blog!

One of Leimomi Oakes historic designs at Scroop Patterns

So back to Chine, which together with the very similar Ikat and Abr, are examples of warp printed or pre-dyed (resist) fabrics – once the weft is woven in, the designs on the warp threads, show through in a blurred fashion. Leimomi tells us “The ikat dyeing and weaving technique goes back millenia, and was developed independently in different parts of the world: there are very old examples from Japan, Indonesia, Turkey, Yemen, and pre-Columbian South America. […] Ikat, under the name chine, became popular in Europe in the mid-18th century as part of the craze for Eastern designs and fabrics. The name chine literally means ‘Chinese’ in French, because of the fabric’s association with China and the East. Though the first examples probably did come from China, by the 1760s France was producing its own warp printed chine fabrics.”

Dowlass (Sailcloth) – Dowlas was a strong coarse linen cloth of the 16th and 17th centuries, and initially, it was manufactured in Brittany. In the 18th century the fabric was also produced in England and Scotland. Dowlas was identical to sailcloth. The cloth was also imitated in cotton for the same use.

Drugget – “a coarse woollen fabric felted or woven, self-coloured or printed one side”.Jonathan Swift refers to being”in druggets drest, of thirteen pence a yard”. Formerly, a drugget was a sort of cheap stuff, very thin and narrow, usually made of wool, or half wool and half silk or linen; it may have been corded but was usually plain. The term is now applied to a coarse fabric having a cotton warp and a wool filling, used for rugs, tablecloths, etc.

Dungaree – I will cover this in Working fabrics

Haircloth – this conjures up penitents wearing itchy hair-shirts but in fact there are two types of Haircloth that made from the outer, coarse outer “guard” hairs of camelids, bovines, horses, goats, rabbits, hares and reindeers, and that made from the softer (shorter) undercoat and these fabrics can be quite luxurious.

Himroo is a fabric made of silk and cotton, which is grown locally in Aurangabad. Himroo was brought to Aurangabad in the reign of Mohammad Tughlaq, when he had shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad, Aurangabad. The word himroo originated from Persian word Hum-ruh which means ‘similar’. Himroo is a replication of Kinkhwab, which was woven with pure golden and silver threads in former times, and was meant for the royal families.

Hodden (Wadmal – Scandinavian) – is a coarse, undyed cloth made of undyed wool, formerly much worn by the peasantry of Scotland from prehistory. Usually woven in 2/2 twill weave but are also known in plain or tabby weave. Both are a thick, coarse, fulled homespun cloth typically made of natural undyed wool of the vari-coloured Northern European short-tailed sheep breeds.

Lustestring – is another fabric that did not appear on either Wikipedia or the silk society’s list and the link is to an item in the Victoria and Albert Museum who have wonderful collections of fabric and fashions throughout the ages. The fabric below is described as “This delicate silk is from a dress said to have belonged to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, although this association cannot be proved. Charlotte was seventeen at the time of her marriage to the King in 1761, which was around the time when the silk was woven. It is a lustring, or lutestring, a lightweight silk with a glossy surface.”

Mockado – Mockado (also moquette,moucade) is a woollen pile fabric made in imitation of silk velvet from the mid-sixteenth century. Mockado was usually constructed with a woollen pile on a linen or worsted wool warp and woollen weft, although the ground fabric could be any combination of wool, linen, and silk. Mockado was used for furnishings and carpeting, and also for clothing such as doublets, farthingales, and kirtles.

Osnaburg – a general term for coarse, plain-weave fabric. It also refers specifically to a historic fabric originally woven in flax but also in tow or jute, and from flax or tow warp with a mixed or jute weft.
In the Atlantic plantation complex, prior to the abolition of slavery, osnaburg was the fabric most often used for slave garments.
In the textile industry, a tow (or hards) is a coarse, broken fibre, removed during the processing of flax, hemp, or jute[1] and separated from the shives. Flax tows are often used as upholstery stuffing and oakum. Tows in general are frequently cut up to produce staple fibre.

Rum-Swizzle – Another outlier from my main sources comes from the Oxford English Dictionary in their page on Material world: the language of textiles where, like this post, they explore names of fabrics swirling in historical obscurity, but in the case of rum-swizzle, there is sufficient information preserved in the literary sources for us to have a clear idea of the type of cloth they were. To wit “A a very excellent brownish frieze made in Ireland from undyed foreign wool.” (Frieze: frieze (French: frisé) is a Middle English term for a coarse woollen, plain weave cloth with a nap on one side. The nap was raised by scrubbing it to raise curls of fibre,[1] and was not shorn after being raised, leaving an uneven surface.)
The OED article also mentions novato, puleray, cannequin, grogram, lockram, sannah, shagreen, wadmal, Ticklenburgs, prunella, kreyscloth, gulix, and huckaback (some of these are now under investigation by the Manchester Lexis Medieval Textiles Project). From that project I found another obscure fabric – Sarsnet – a tabby- woven silk cloth, a type of sendal, light and flimsy; made in Europe in the Middle Ages; imports to England probably came from Italy

Scarlet – a type of fine and expensive woollen cloth common in Medieval Europe – a broadcloth (see above) dyed with the red dye – Kermes derived from insects.

The Coronation Mantle of Roger II of Sicily, silk dyed with kermes and embroidered with gold thread and pearls. This kind of cloth seems to have been denoted by the Arabic siklāt. Royal Workshop, Palermo, Sicily, 1133–34. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Stuff – I couldn’t resist including this item which Wikipedia describes as: any manufactured material. This is illustrated from a quote by Sir Francis Bacon in his 1658 publication New Atlantis: “Wee have also diverse Mechanicall Arts, which you have not; And Stuffes made by them; As Papers, Linnen, Silks, Tissues; dainty Works of Feathers of wonderfull Lustre; excellent Dies, and many others.”

If there are items you expected to see here under “Historical Fabrics” it may be because, though steeped in history, like Calico, for example, they are still being produced today.

There are so many “Historic fabrics” that I couldn’t cover all of them, but they are in the Wikipedia List of Fabrics and include Gulix, Holland cloth, Kerseymere, Korathes, Lockram, Samite, Saye, Swanskin, Toile. At the end of this A to Z, I will include a link to the 248 item spreadsheeet I compiled…

Some non-Historical “H” Fabrics…

Habutai (Japanese silk) – a plain weave cloth commonly used for linings.

Herringbone – also called broken twill weave, describes a distinctive V-shaped weaving pattern usually found in twill fabric. It is distinguished from a plain chevron by the break at reversal, which makes it resemble a broken zigzag. The pattern is called herringbone because it resembles the skeleton of a herring fish.

Hessian (US – Burlap, Crocus – Jamaica) – a woven fabric made of vegetable fibres: usually the skin of the jute plant,] or sisal leaves. It is generally used (in the crude tow form known as gunny) for rough handling, such as to make sacks in which to ship farm products and sandbags (although woven plastics now often serve these purposes), and for wrapping tree-root balls

Houndstooth – Also known as dogtooth, traditional houndstooth check has its origins as far back as 360 BC. However, black and white houndstooth fabric became more mainstream in 19th century Scotland, before emerging into the fashion world in the 1930s.

Back then, houndstooth fabric was known as a symbol of wealth. It was picked up later on by world-famous designers such as Christian Dior, and has dominated fashion and home interior catalogues ever since.

https://www.thecuttingclass.com/houndstooth/

I compiled a list of as fabrics, fibres and related items as possible (278 items), from several sources, the most comprehensive of which was Wikipedia. Since there aer only 26 letters in the alphabet, I could not write in detail about every instance so I have taken snippets of text for the brief descriptions and linked to the source in the name of the item. I am indebted to all the contributors to those Wikipedia pages and the depth of knowledge to be found there…

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “G” for Gazar, Gauze and Gingham…

April 8, 2026March 15, 2026humanist55

Gauze

Gauze – The transparency of gauze, lends it, on the one hand to wedding veils and on the other, to wound dressings where a fabric that allows breathing without the fibres shifting. This is achieved by twisting the Weft threads after each timr they cross the Warps (as shown below) this locks the position of warp and weft in place and keeps the fabric stable but with very open structure.

Gazar

Gazar – If gauze is an old and functional fabric, even in the fashion sense, then Gazar is the polar opposite – a 20^th Century fabric brought into being to suit the very particular needs of an haute Couture fashion designer in order to create some iconic but hardly practical designs.

Gazar is a silk or wool plain weave fabric made with high-twist double yarns woven as one. Gazar has a crisp hand and a smooth texture. Balenciaga wanted a fabric he could sculpt and so he turned to Mr. Zumsteg, director of the Abraham company and a great collector of paintings, rightly thinking that he would understand the subtlety of his request. Together, they came up with an organza like fabric (another member of the guaxe family), stiff, unruly except in the hands of skilled seamstresses and it formed the basis of Balenciaga’s collections from 1960-68.

Alberta Tiburzi in Harper’s Bazaar, June 1967. Photo: © Hiro 1967

Cristóbal Balenciaga, 1967 | *Silk Gazar One Seam Bridal Gown with Matching Hat* | Photos Tom Kubin

Cristobal Balenciaga, Indigo blue silk gazar evening dress, 1965 Alain.R.Truong Cristobal Balenciaga, Indigo blue silk gazar evening dress, 1965 (CBM 2000.23 ab) 2016 Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum It belonged to Mrs. Rachel L. Mellon.

Of course, the often impractical, immodest, exorbitantly expensive, wonderful creations of haute couture are said to filter downwards to influence High Street design and occasionally, fabrics from the world of popular fashion, are taken up by Haute Couture and one such staple, is Gingham…

Gingham

Around since the 17^th century, and possibly named for the French town of Guingamp, gingham was originally striped but evolved into the ubiquitous checked or tartan (plaid) pattern which is simple to achieve on an industrial loom. Indeed, by the 19^th century, gingham was a staple product of Lancashire cotton mills.

In fact, Gingham was introduced to France from Malaysia, where it started being produced in Vichy, France, under the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. In Spain the pattern is known as estampado vichy or cuadro vichy. With the industrial production of gingham, it became popular around the world and retained a special affection in the USA – so much so that on the one hand, the gingham shirt invited mockery, whilst on the other, haute couture rediscovers it periodically.

Judy Garland in her iconic blue gingham dress in The Wizard of Oz

Rei Kawakubo for her Comme des Garçons Spring/Summer 1997 collection. Known as the “Lumps and Bumps” collection…

Other “G” fabrics:

Georgette – (from crêpe Georgette) is a sheer, lightweight, dull-finished crêpe fabric named after the early 20th century French dressmaker Georgette de la Plante. Originally made from silk, Georgette is made with highly twisted yarns. Its characteristic crinkly surface is created by alternating S- and Z-twist yarns in both warp and weft.

Grenadine – is a weave characterised by its light, open, gauze-like feel, and is produced on jacquard looms. Originally produced in Italy and worn as a black silk lace in France in the eighteenth century, it is now woven with silk for use in ties.

For the most part, ties made from grenadine silk are solid in color with the visual interest being the unique weave.

Grosgrain – a type of fabric or ribbon defined by the fact that its weft is heavier than its warp, creating prominent transverse ribs.

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “F” for Fibres that make Fabrics and some “F” fabrics too.

April 7, 2026March 14, 2026humanist55

Before there were fabrics as we think of them today, that is, woven or knitted, there were skins, fur and leather and for fabrics to come about, the concept of “fibres” which could be combined to make a yarn – the basis of all fabrics, had to be conceived. The sources of fibres fell into two groups – animal and plant-based. One can imagine how plants such as cotton,simply cried out to find some way of making their fluffy bolls into some form that would allow them to be combined. The answer was of course, spinning… We all know about spinning wheels from fairy tales like Rapunzel, but before those quite elaborate inventions, there were simpler ways of spinning fibres – the spindle or drop spindle. What all spinning devices do, is to allow you take a pinch of, say, wool, and as you draw it out into a thinner configuration, the device spins the wool into a yarn, which causes the fibre to bind together into a yarn. The video below shows how to use a drop-spindle and the one after that shows some of the ways the process was elaborated on. As we said in the first post on Weaving – Stone Age tooolmakers grasped the significance of twisting, which increases strength by diverting part of any tensile strength into lateral pressure”.¹
The video below shows how to use the simplest and oldest form of spinning tool…

Next is a video which takes us through some of the more elaborate forms os hand-spinning tools, up to and including the spinning wheel.

These simple methods could work with animal or plant fibres and once a thin yarn was produced, then two or more thin yarns could be further twisted, or plied, together – hence 2-ply, 3-ply etc.

What happened after that, was simply increased mechanisation and in 1764, James Hargreaves of Lancashire, England, invented the Spinning Jenny, which could spin multiple yarns simultaneously which took the production of yarn from cottage industry where one yarn at a time was produced by hand, to a mill based industry.

In the 20^th Century, synthetic and semi-synthetic fibres were added to the possibilities, either by combining fibres in a blend with the natural ones to form blended yarns with improved performance characteristics, or used entirely on their own – I will cover them under “S”, but all I will say for now, is that synthetic fibres need not necessarily be spun since they can emerge as a coherent yarn in the first place and that due to the ability to extrude synthetic fibres at very consistent sizes, they can be used to relace or augment natural fibres from cotton to silk….

So what are the fibres that have clothed us for centuries? Well, on the animal side, the hairs from bovines, camels, goats (Angora, Mohair) horse-hair, rabbit, reindeer and of course sheep (wool) – all of which offer fibres straight from the hide, and, by a much more convoluted process, Silk, which is made from the unwound cocoons of the silk worm. Sinews and gut were also early sources of fibre. Even casein (milk protein) can be treated and spun into fibres.

A project of mine – knitted on large needles from Angora Wool – a very fluffy yarn…

On the plant side, nettles were an early source of fibre for string and rope whilst tree bark – bast, made early non-woven fabrics. Cotton, linen (flax), Jute, Sisal, Palm (Raffia) and Tow (coarse fibres extracted during the preparation of other fibres like linen) were the classic fibres, but today, bamboo, eucalyptus, soybean, aloe vera and even the dried leather from kombucha have been added to the repertoire! Some of these, are sources of cellulose and form the source material of the “semi-synthetics” which we will come to under “S”.

Fabrics beginning with F:

Faille – is a structured fabric characterised by very fine ribs, it is usually made from silk.

Faux Fur, Leather and Suede – these are all fabrics woven to simulate the appearance of other substances.

Felt – felting is a method of producing fabric without weaving by matting, condensing and pressing fibres. It allows fabric to be shaped directly into 3-dimensional shapes such as hats. Although initially produced from natural fibres, felting is a technique that works with almost any kind of fibre. It is fire-retardant and self-extinguishing; it dampens vibration and absorbs sound; and it can hold large amounts of fluid without feeling wet.

Boy George wearing one of his iconic Felt hats

Fibre Glass – Glass Re-enforced Plastic (GRP) begins with a matted fabric composed of fine glass fibres which are welded together with a plastic resin to make such things as sailing boats.

Fishnet – is a machine knitted fabric with a diamond shaped hole pattern and has become a staple of hosiery and especially beloved as part of punk fashion.

Siouxsie Sioux photographed by Joe Bangay , 1981

Flannel (and Flannelette) – is a soft woven fabric of varying fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fibre. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, bed sheets, sleepwear, and several other uses.

Jenny Agutter waving her red petticoat to prevent disaster in the Railway Children (1970) https://katedaviesdesigns.com/2023/11/02/red-hats-and-petticoats/

Fustian – Fustian means thick cotton cloth – an old fabric, it ranges from straightforward twilled fabric such as denim, to cut textiles that are analogous to velvet and have names such as velveteen, moleskin. In the first fustian fabric, which dates back to the medieval ages, cotton was used for the weft, and linen was used for the warp. It would appear that the phrase quickly lost some of its distinctiveness and eventually came to be used to designate a coarse cloth that was made of wool and linen.

Fustians such as Corduroy, that have added long fibres as well as Faux Furs, require special looms that incorporate the additional fibres which after weaving in, are cut to produce the ridges in the corduroy.

Corduroy: This modern diagram shows the warp (3) and the long (red-4) and short (green-5) weft threads; traditionally the knife (1) and the guide (2) are attached and the cutting motion is upwards.

World Textiles by Mary Schoeser – A Concise History, Thames & Hudson world of art 2003 pp. 10

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “E ” Fabrics and Embroidery

April 6, 2026March 31, 2026humanist55

Once the weaving (or knitting) of fabrics had been mastered, it was but a short step to embroidering them with other threads. This may have come about by conducting small repairs, either post weaving to correct flaws, or post wearing, to repair damage, and indeed this phenomena is alive and well in the digital age with movements like “Creative” or “Visible” mending.

Creatively repaired Denim (note the Twill weave with its diagonal lines)

From a wonderful collection of rare images at Woodstock

Traditional cultural clothes often rely on complicated embroidery to signal their origins, often showing not only national, but regional and even local identifiers. The embroidery may embody stories from history or signify the status of women v. girls. Such traditional clothes come in and out of mainstream fashion and one example, is the promotion of Mexican Huipil embroidered clothes by the artist Frida Kahlo.

The huipil is traditionally made up of two or three sections of fabric sewn together. A large opening is designed for the head and two lateral openings for the arms.

Frida Kahlo wearing one of her huipil creations.

“E Fabrics”

Eolienne (also spelled aeolian; similar to Poplin) is a lightweight fabric with a ribbed (corded) surface. Generally made by combining silk and cotton or silk and worsted warp and weft, it is similar to poplin but of an even lighter weight. In “B” we saw that different fibres could be combined in the yarn which is used toe weave or knit a fabric which combines the properties of the constituent fibres, but here, by using different fibres yarns for warp and weft, it produced a brocade-like surface decoration and lustrous finish. This made it popular for formal gowns such as wedding attire, especially during the Edwardian era.

Etamine is a loosely woven fabric with a similar structure to voile or a mesh. It is an open fabric structure manufactured with plain weaving by using hardly twisted cotton or wool yarns. Etamine was initially used as filtre cloth, but became popular in women’s skirts from 1910. Etamine was used in a variety of applications, including garments, nun’s veils, and even flags.

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “D” for the Decoration of Fabric

April 4, 2026April 6, 2026humanist55

Almost as soon as the art of weaving or knitting fabrics was mastered, then the possibilities of creating decorative effects with the craft, blossomed. Mary Schoeser in her World Textiles – A Concise History¹, says of the period between 3000BC and 400BC, that although normally categorised historically as the Bronze and Iron Ages, they might equally be termed the Dye and Loom Age. Whilst it is true that iron shears were necessary to shear livestock for fibres to make fabric, the technological and chemical developments are at least as impressive and important as those in Metallurgy.

**Ciba 9: Dyeing and Tanning in Classical Antiquity**

Dyeing is the simplest of ways to decorate a fabric and if the fibres/yarns are dyed first, before weaving, then the second way of producing decorative effects becomes possible by using different coloured yarns in the same piece of cloth – think stripes, plaid. Tartan not to mention fabrics that use different colours for warp and weft and that is before you use the lifting of some selective warps to give a design. There is alternating stitch patterns in knitting or weave types in weaving, introducing thicker threads – the variety of ingenuity is incredible!

Beyond dyeing, there are ways of embellishing fabrics such as embroidery, adding in beads, using a fabric as a base for some other technique – lacemaking, needlepoint tapestry, hooking or rag-rugging, but let’s start with the advances in chemistry brought about by dyeing.

There are three types of Dye which are each suitable to be applied to different types of fibre using different chemical methods:-

Reactive Dyes: Primarily used for cellulose (plant derived) fibres such as cotton, linen and semi-synthetics like rayon, where the dyes form strong covalent bonds with fibre hydroxyl groups (-OH) resulting in high, wet, fastness of colour.

Direct/Acid dyes:- Utilise hydrogen bonding and Van der Waals forces, to attach to proteins (animal derived) – amino acid groups attract dyes through ionic interactions.

Disperse Dyes:- Non-water-soluble dyes used for hydrophobic synthetic fibres like polyester, dyes which are absorbed as a solid solution under high heat and pressure.

Of course, the early dyers didn’t know the meaning of all this chemistry, they discovered things empirically, no doubt early results were a result of accidental contamination, but the dyer’s vats became the crucible for chemical experimentation. Other chemical factors which were discovered and deployed in dyeing include:-

pH Adjusters: Acids or bases (eg. Acetic acid, urine, caustic sods) crucial to initiate bonding of dyes to fibres.

Electrolytes: Salt (NaCl or Na₂ SO₄) used to force dyes out of solution and onto the fibres

Mordants: Metal ions (Aluninium, copper, iron) which act as a bridges between natural dye molecules and fibre – these illustrate how empirical learning can occur as simply conducting dyeing in different containers made of different metals would produce more or less effective results.

Let’s look at just one dyeing process – that of wool, to understand what happens…

The illustration shows the three stages of wool dyeing, firstly the Dye Approach, in which wool is added to the dye solution and heated up. The dye molecules immediately coat the wool surface but water then moves into the fibre making it swell up and allowing the dye to better penetrate the fibre. Dye Migration – the dye molecules move in and out of the fibre and even themselves out, migrating from darker to lighter areas until an equilibrium of molecules both in the wool fibres and the solution is reached. Dye Fixation – the wool is temporarily removed form the dye bath and a mild acid is added such as citric acid – a mordant that lowers the pH of the bath so that when the wool is returned to the dye bath, the dye molecules are forced to bond with the wool fibre – the bath is heated slightly more and “cooked” for another 60 minutes until the bonding has occurred both on the surface and inside the wool fibres.

**Some tanneries, such as that in Fès, Morocco, still rely on vat dyeing to tan leather.**

and a more modern version from an article on standardisation-of-dyes

Textured Weaving Effects are the next simplestway of decorating fabric and we have already encountered the Twill Weave which has produced such classic fabrics as Denim, a tough working fabric which in terms of dyeing, may be warp dyed, undyed, or dyed after weaving – more of denim when we get to working fabrics… but corduroy, cambric (basket weave), and Georgette (made with highly twisted yarns) are all examples of textured weaving.

Next, patterns may be woven in – Damask, for example, which at its simplest, achieves patterns with a limited or single coloured yarn by varying the weave texture between satin and plain.

https://tableclothsonline.co.uk/shop/fabric-per-metre/damask-rose-white-fabric-per-metre/

Another fabric in which highly patterned effects are woven in on the loom, is Jacquard – using a Jacquard loom. Producing tough, brocade like fabrics often used for furnishing and curtains.

https://sewport.com/fabrics-directory/jacquard-fabric

Once you start introducing different coloured yarns you are into a world of plaids and tartan before you even start on more complicated weave patterns like houndstooth.

*Clan MacDonald Tartan and Clan Campbell Tartan*

Plaid knickers for the true gentleman of the countryside or golf course.

Troon Houndstooth

This example of houndstooth clearly shows the classic, two-colour weave pattern.

Once a fabric is finished, in can then be embellished with further stitched patterning – Embroidery:- The word embroider has come to mean the addition of anything to anything in order to make it more attractive, detailed, or meaningful – but originally it meant stitching additional threads onto a material. There is so much to say about Embroidery that I am going to give it, it’s own slot tomorrow and Printing on fabrics will be covered when we get to “P”…

P.S. As Anne M. Bray points out in the comments below, I misssed out Ikat – one of the oldest fabric dyeing techniques – in Ikat, either the warp threads or the weft threads, or both which is the most complex, are bound together in bundles pre-weaving, and treated with wax in patterns that resist the dye and create a pattern in the weave. the patterns have a blurry quality which is quite different to patterns printed on after weaving…

Also from Anne – this excellent link to her SpyGirl: Know Your Plaid…

The decoration of fabric merits n A to Z of its own, but I will leave it there and cover a few “D” fabrics.

Damask Fabric with the pattern woven in. It is reversible, hardwearing and usually made with cotton, silk or linen.

Dimity Collective term for figured cloths of harness loom decorated with designs and patterns. It is a strong cotton cloth with various stripes and illustrations. Dimity is bleached or washed after looming, less often dyed—unlike fustian, which is usually dyed.

Dobby (see also Piqué) a woven fabric produced on the dobby loom, characterised by small geometric patterns and extra texture in the cloth, The warp and weft threads may be the same colour or different. Satin threads are particularly effective in this kind of weave as their texture will highlight the pattern.

Double cloth is a lightweight, sheer cotton fabric, having at least two warp threads thrown into relief to form fine cords. Chiefly, dimity is fashioned into white bed upholstery and curtains, though it is occasionally imprinted with a colourful pattern. Dimity was historically made of silk or wool; however, since the 18th century, it has been woven almost exclusively of cotton.

Double Crepe Heavy textured fabric that is drapey, usually made with silk and wool fibres

Double Georgette Heavy denser version of georgette, characterised by its texture and transparency.

Duchesse Satin weave construction it is a structured cloth characterised by its high shine on one side and matte on the reverse

Dupioni a Plain weave cloth, is characterised by the slubby effect created when raw yarns are woven with more refined silk yarns.

World Textiles by Mary Schoeser – A Concise History, Thames & Hudson world of art 2003 pp. 28

Gratitude

April 3, 2026April 3, 2026humanist55

Dear Mum and Dad
I carry you in my heart and head
for I neither believe
and most certainly hope
that you not looking down
from some heavenly crows-nest

for most of your lives
you did not believe either
and your latter-day church going
was, I think, more social
– a way to integrate in
the many places you moved to

but your taking us to church
not only gave us the choice
but sharpened my scepticism
into a personal humanist credo
according to which
I carry you in my heart and head

I thank you, Mum
for refusing to teach me to cook
reserving that for my sisters
and for launching my student cuisine
with the gift of a Sabbatier knife
and the condescending choice

of “Cooking in a Bedsit”
which made me seek out
the racier author Elizabeth David
sailing round the Med with her married man
garnering recipes to change
the cooking of a nation

and Dad, though you never
took me sailing, you taught me
to whip finish a rope and splice an eye
to coil a cable neatly and I took
pride in your designing a dinghy
and slipped into design too

I carry you in my heart and head
but I wanted to make concrete
these, amongst many things
I am grateful you gave me
– to put them out into the world
just as you birthed and shaped me…

You can read more about my parents in my last year’s A to Z
https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2025-challenge-dad-draughtsman-designer/
https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2025-challenge-elsie-jill-mum/

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft, invites us to write an Epistolary Poem, either as a Verse Epistle, or, as I have chosen to do, a Prose Poetry Epistle. I will also share this with my Ten Things of Thankful group…

A to Z Challenge 2026 – “C” Fabrics and King Cotton

April 3, 2026March 31, 2026humanist55

This A to Z is about both “fabrics” and the “fibres” that make them, but there are some fabrics where the fibre is synonymous with the fabric – silk, wool, and perhaps most of all Cotton. Different species of cotton were present and utilised to make fabric in both New and Old Worlds – the earliest being in Peru, but also in the Middle East and wild species of cotton grew in South Asia and beyond – but the archaeological record is mainly limited to hot, dry countries where the cotton fibres did not rot away and were preserved for the record.

GW Researcher Identifies Oldest Textile Dyed Indigo

European countries came to know cotton fabric comparatively late and through trade with Arab countries where it had been woven for thousands of years, and yet, geopolitically, cotton, through slavery and the industrial revolution, would change the world. “King Cotton”¹ was a term coined by by Southern US politicians and authors to describe the economic, political, and social dominance of cotton production in the American South. It signified the crop’s supremacy as a cash crop and its vital role in the global economy, particularly in supporting slavery and driving Southern confidence in secession. The cotton produced in America was shipped to England, in particular, where it powered the Industrial Revolution and turned out cheaper cotton fabric that in turn, fuelled the British Empire.

Previous to the 19^th Century, the largest producer of cotton, the fibre and the fabric, was India². From the late 17th century to the early 18th century, Mughal India accounted for 95% of British imports from Asia, and the Bengal Subah province alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia². Calicos and Chintzes (see below) from India became so popular that in the 18^th century, the government tried to outlaw their use for clothing or domestic purposes – not least because, the trade, facilitated by the East India Company, was one way – India had no use for many British goods and so vast quantities of gold and silver were heading to India.

Meanwhile, in newly independent America, the machine that transformed cotton production by mechanising the preparation of the fibres and replacing a labour intensive process, was the Cotton Gin³. Many attempts to create such a machine had been made, but the modern mechanical cotton gin was created by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. Cotton grows in “bolls” where some dozen seeds are tightly enclosed amongst the cotton fibres and must be removed before the fibres can be spun into a yarn.

So great was the export flow of cotton from America to France and Britain, that Southern slave owners were convinced they had the leverage to guarantee those countries support in the forthcoming Civil War, largely fought around the issue of slavery.(Cotton Diplomacy) They were incorrect, as European mills turned to importing cotton from India and Egypt, and although slavery came to an end, the trade in cotton did not and America resumed supplying Europe with the raw material and the trade with Egypt was dropped leading to a financial crisis there which led, in part, to it’s absorption into the British Empire.

However, by the 19^th century, the East India Company imposed protectionist policies combined with the Industrial Revolution in Britain, turned India from the main supplier of manufactured cotton goods, into a supplier of raw cotton and a massive market for the now cheaper British goods of all kinds – though not so much fabrics where local industry held it’s own.⁴

In the 20^th century, the arrival in America of the Boll Weevil from Mexico, caused a Cotton Famine before it was brought under control and this issue, together with the advent of mechanised picking methods finally eradicated the need for human picking, the former slaves, now turned share-croppers, were no longer needed and many moved to urban industrial centres like Chicago.

So when you think of Cotton, think not only of the versatile fabric that it undoubtedly is, with an ancient lineage to boot, but as a game changing, empire building and crushing geopolitical force…

“C” Fabrics:-

Calico – cheap cotton fabrics from Kozhikode, then known as Calicut, in India, found a mass market among the poor in Europe. A heavy plain woven textile, it is made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton and may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is coarser than Muslin, but less coarse and thick than Canvas or Denim. It’s cheapness comes from its unfinished and undyed appearance. When glazed, calico becomes Chintz which can then readily take decorative printing.

Chintz – The import of cheap calicos and chintz from India, was an enormous threat to the manufacturers of Woolen and Worsted fabrics for which 18^th century England was famous. In 1700, the first attempt to suppress these imports, lobbied for by the wool industry in towns like Norwich, was the Calico Act which banned the import of Calico prints⁵ (Chintz). So the East India Company simply switched to unprinted calico – Greige or “grey” fabric. Greige cloth was already being produced in the newly mechanised mills of Lancashire so they received a boost from the Calico Act and sent their cloth to London to be finished. Griege or grey fabric can refer to any unfinished woven or knitted fabric, cotton, wool silk or any other kind. The Lancashire mills often used grey cloth with linen warp and cotton weft, known as fustian.

Chintz. Block printed cotton. India, 18th century.

Early Indian Chintzes were hand painted which graduated to wood-block printing – a technique that spread to England but was eventually relaced by a printing technique in 1783 that used copper rollers invented by Thomas Bell. Production in Lancashire shot up from an estimated 50,000 pieces of 27 metres (30 yards) to 20,000,000 pieces in 1850!⁵

From an excellent article that tells the full story of Chintz fabric including the derogatory term “Chintzy” and the reason chintz became “The floral fabric that was banned”

Chintz fabric is still popular today and is often associated with furnishing and curtain fabrics in which context it has given rise to the word “chintzy”, meaning fussily floral décor.

Contemporary curtain fabric from Terrys – featuring a Jacobean design.

There are a great number of other “C” fabrics including:-

Camberwick – or Candlewick is made from a traditional weaving technique called candlewick. This technique involves using a soft, thick yarn that is woven into a loose, looped pattern to create a raised, textured surface. Typically used for bedspreads.

Camel Hair – specifically refers to the fur from the body of a camel, but more generally refers to the fibre (and cloth) that may be made from either pure camel hair or a blend of camel hair and another fibre. Camel hair coats were considered a status symbol…

Camlet, Cannequin, Chine and Crash will be covered in H for Historic Fabrics

Canvas and Cheesecloth will be covered in W for Working Fabrics

Cavalry Twill, Clocqué, Cordura will be covered in M for Military Fabrics

Challis (Challie, Chally) – a soft and lightweight, woven fabric originally made from a silk/wool blend but can also be made from a single fibre, natural or synthetic.

Chambray and Cambric – Chambray, though the same type of fabric as Cambric, has a coloured warp and a white weft, though it may be “made from any colour as you may wish, in the warp, and also in the filling; only have them differ from each other.”⁶Originally made from linen but later cotton too.

Change will be covered in O for Other fabrics

Charmeuse, Crepe Back Satin – Similar in nature, Charmeuse satin fabric is known for its lightweight, silky-smooth surface and high-gloss sheen. It feels incredibly soft against the skin, making it a popular choice for lingerie, slinky gowns, and blouses. The front side shines with a brilliant luster while the back is matte and slightly dull.
Crepe back satin is generally heavier than charmeuse. It offers better structure and slightly less fluid drape, making it easier to sew for tailored designs that need a bit of body without being stiff.

Chenille

The name is given both to the fabric and the yarn fromwhich it is made – a fuzzy, soft pile yarn which gets its name from the French word Chenille meaning caterpillar refers to the furry look of the yarn.

Chiffon

Plain weave fabric. It can be made of any fibre and is a very soft, drapey and transparent fabric.

Chino

Twill fabric originally made from pure cotton. The most common items made from it, trousers, are widely called chinos. Today it is also found in cotton-synthetic blend

Cloth of Gold

Cloth of gold or gold cloth (Latin: Tela aurea) is a fabric woven with a gold-wrapped or spun weft—referred to as “a spirally spun gold strip”. In most cases, the core yarn is silk, wrapped (filé) with a band or strip of high content gold. In rarer instances, fine linen and wool have been used as the core.

Corduroy

Whilst a Twill weave produces fine ridges, in Corduroy, a special loom introduces a weft pile that make ridges called wales thus creating a very strong and durable fabric. Many are the corduroy trousers I have worn until the pile ridges have worn away and still the underlying fabric is sustained… However, I shall speak more about corduroy under F, for Fustian.

Crêpe

A fabric with a crisp appearance and particularly associated with mourning clothes. It is woven of hard-spun yarn, originally silk “in the gum” (silk from which the sericin had not been removed).
The Wikipedia entry for Crêpe (textile), details an enormous number of variants of Crêpe whilst the Silk Society list of fabrics has this to say: a weave defined by its uneven surface, it is the twisted yarns that create the texture. It is usually made from fibres such as silk and wool and comes in many different weights.

Cretonne

Originally a strong, white fabric with a hempen warp and linen weft. The word is now applied to a strong, printed cotton cloth, which is stouter than chintz but used for very much the same purposes. It is usually unglazed and may be printed on both sides and even with different patterns.

Crochet and Tunisian Crochet I shall deal with these under K for Knitting and Crochet.

David Christy’s – Cotton Is King (1855)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cotton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin
“Cotton – a history”. New Internationalist. Vol. 399. 1 April 2007.
Turnbull, A History of Calico Printing in Great Britain, 1951.
Bronson, J. and R. (1977) [First published in 1817]. Early American Weaving and Dyeing: The Domestic Manufacturer’s Assistant and Family Directory in the Arts of Weaving and Dyeing. New York: Dover Publications. P 21.

30th March: Ten Things of Thankful

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – So we are currently on holiday in the Netherlands in which case, this is a TTOT travelogue…

https://youtu.be/ltd34wDpnTE sorry the embed is not working but click the link please to see the massive port of Rotterdam…

2 – Gouda is the nearest city and here is its impressive Town Hall…

3 –

3 – https://youtu.be/B3xx5dH8u0k sorry the embed is not working but click the link please to see a street organ playing the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction (I can’t get No…)”

4 – Barbara in handbag heaven! She had purchased a suede handmag some weeks ago and asked me to get some waterproofing spray. I duly sprayed it and thought that the darkening was the wetting effect of the spray – only to find thar, in very fine print, the spray was labelled “Black” – so I owed her a handbag…

5 – After a quick trip to the local supermarket to practise on her new “Boot-Scooter”, Gouda was her first experience of driving round a busy town and she passed with flying colours! Note all the bicycles outside the Library/Cafe… Bicycles often have a separate, parallel road and where they crossover the car roads, each a re traffic-lighted. Families drive bikes with large child pods and youngsters graduate to riding at an early age! This is a country where cycling is truly important…

6 – The Gouda LEGO shop…

7 – Just to prove I know how to take a selfie – still working on the smiling bit…
We drove to look at the flower growing area and these are fields of Hyacinths. Whilst buying some tulip bulbs nearby (its a bit too early to see the tulips) the shop owner told us a lot of interesting stuff including the fact that these hyacinths are being grown for the bulbs, not the flowers – so all the flowers in the bicture will be picked and thrown away in order for the bulbs to grow quickly – its still a three year plus project to grow them to a saleable size…

Note the windmill in the background – these windmills are for pumping water, not grinding corn and there is water everywhere, here – all in the process of draining the land (largely below sea-level) and raising the water to higher and higher channels before pumping it into the sea!

Even in the centre of town – nearby Leiden – there is a large windmill for pumping – they are kept working as a backup for the electric pumps – the Netherlands are very flat – we have yet to see a hill – and there is a lot of wind!

8 – Monday we drove to Amsterdam (under an hour away) to visit the Rijksmuseum. We had discovered that the Van Gogh Museum is booked up ten days ahead which was a disappointment, however we did see four Van Goghs in the Rijksmuseum…

The location of the four Van Goghs was marked by a small crowd! Barbara slipped in from the side since she was low enough on the scooter not to get in the crowd’s line of sight!

We also chatted to the Museum Attendant who was full of stories which he was dying to tell but most people ignore him. The small painting in this picture was painted in twenty minutes by Van Gogh while he waited for a friend to join him in visiting the newly opened Rijksmuseum. Also, The painting at left in the crowd picture, is one of the few paintings Van Gogh sold during his lifetime – to his sister.

Not “The Girl With the Pearl Earing” but painted in the same spot, I think, “The Milkmaid” by Vermeer – this was Barbara’s favourite painting. It cost us 50 euros to visit the museum which made us very grateful for the free entry to British Museums (though they are talking about charging tourists in future…).

Sunset from the living room window of the houseboat which is our home for the week…

9 – The A to Z Challenge 2026 started today (April Fool’s Day – perhaps because many participants are wondering why they have let themselves in for this – again!) – ! have got 16 0f the 26 posts in the bag though… https://how-would-you-know.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-weaving/

10 – And we visited Utrecht…

Utrecht’s Dom Tower, the remnant of a cathedral destroyed in a storm in 1674…
Needless to say, we did not attempt the 465 steps despite the promise of an unparralel view from the top…

…and I leave you with this rather cute building!

Wishing all of you a very happy week ahead…