Anyone have a reference book on fabric types that comes with swatches?

Claire Shaeffer is in the process right now of gathering information for a book much like what you want.

don't know what her publication timeline is, and I'm not at all sure she is intending to incorporate fabric swatches, but if you ask in the SewBiz list might be able to provide you with details.NAYY,

Beverly

content

If you live near New York City, the college book store at the Fashion Institute of Technology has a Textiles 101 course book that has swatches of various weaves of fabrics. IIRC the book is a quite large loose leaf binder sort of thing and covered most all the basis from home furnishing to apparel textiles. Book also told what weaves and textiles were commonly used for such as Damask, Wool Crepe, etc. Would think any college book store where the school offers textile, interior decorating, and or fashion courses would have the same sort of book.

Candide

Some online and book helps: Julie Parker's All About (cotton, silk, wool) series of books -- with swatch sets if you can manage

A pair of "pro" books by Debbie Gioello:

-- Understanding Fabrics, from Fiber to Finished Cloth (Fairchild) 1982 covers fibers, yarns, fabric structure, color and dye, performance, hand, texture, luster, opacity, drapability and care

-and-

Profiling Fabrics: Properties, Performance and Construction Techniques. (Fairchild, 1981)

For each fabric, there's a photo of a swatch draped over a dressmaker's form, one hanging straight of grain (like a gathered skirt) and the other on the bias. Tells you about suitable construction techniques and needle types, etc. for each type.

These two are perhaps not for everyone's library, but order them on interlibrary loan if you have to, and study them. The second title is sort of the "pro sewing" version of Betzina's and Shaeffer's fabric books, and more useful to me.

Some websites:

collecting fabric swatches, too... label and tuck them away someplace safe. Unravel them and see if you can work out why it's a jersey, or a basketweave, or a denim. Warning: a fair amount of fabrics are mislabeled.... I've seen chambray labeled as denim (plain vs twill weave), jersey called interlock, etc., so it also helps to shop with reputable dealers who know their fabrics. And you can always ask here or in mailing lists or discussion websites.

Dear Sewfine,

I don't know what happened to my post, so I'll repeat. Joseph Pizzuto's book, Fabric Science, along with a swatchbook of fabrics, are available at Amazon.com. There are also three books entitled All About Silk, All About Wool, and All About Cotton, that come with swatches of all the types of fabric and weaves for these three natural fibers. If I were going to invest, however, I think I'd go for the Fabric Science book, as it covers all types of fabrics from natural to specialty synthetics. These books are not cheap, but well worth their price if you need to see and feel the fabrics.

Teri

cea, I was buying fabric recently (NOT for myself, I'm on a stash reduction mission- it's bursting out of the door) and when the very young man serving me finished cutting the 100% cotton I'd bought, he asked if I needed anything else - like the 100% poly "silk" or " 'linen' blend" that had no linen content that the last customer had oohed and aahed over. He had tried to explain to her that it wasn't really a fabulously priced silk but she wasn't interested in the roll label at all. He spent several minutes telling me how he's making it his mission to explain the fibre content to customers so they understand what they are buying. He was quite disparaging of his employers labelling system and disappointed that most customers lack basic knowledge of what they're buying and how to launder it. This was at Spotlight, which is our equivalent to Joannes.

So be comforted that on this side of the world there's another voice, yelling indignantly.

chris (in Oz)

:-)

Nothing new -- "butcher linen" was rayon when I was growing up.

Down through the ages, fabric vendors have been mis-labeling their wares -- to the despair of historians and re-enactors, who haven't the foggiest idea what various fabric terms meant to the people who used them. The trend is for a name to mean a coarser or thinner or otherwise cheaper fabric as time goes by.

I once came across an old set of instructions that said to use "a sturdy fabric such as gingham or ticking". Gingham was about as thick as chambray when I read that -- far from as sturdy as ticking -- and the fabric we now call "gingham" was "tissue gingham".

Muslin on the other hand, got coarse -- one of the Samantha books ("by Josiah Allen's Wife") referred to sillies dressing up in robes of "book muslin" -- took me ages to find out she meant what we call organdy. This was about a century after a girls best gown was apt to be white muslin.

In another old book (perhaps "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm"), the heroine resorted to making her graduation gown from "butter muslin" found among left-over merchandise from a friend's father's former general store. Much plowing among dictionaries suggested that this was a fine grade of bleached cheesecloth. Unlike current special-occasion gowns, the gown made future appearances in the book as her best party dress; in one scene she and said friend are about to hug one another in transports of joy and the friend reminds her: "remember our butter-muslin fragility".

In Britain, "muslin" came to mean "butter muslin"; in America, it descended from dress goods to sheeting, and by the 21st Century meant only the unbleached variety. (In the fifties, one could buy white "muslin" sheeting. It also came in "unbleached" at a cheaper price; if you wanted finer sheets, there was "percale", which came in bleached white and, in the narrow widths, solid colors.

"Percale" defied the trend to cheaper fabric by moving to ridiculous-count cotton sheets. 200-count sheeting was packed so tight you could run it through a computer printer *without* ironing it to freezer paper -- I won't even look at the polyhecto-count sheeting they are pushing these days. If my scenery-muslin sheets (which I made when Dharma was the only source of wide fabrics) ever wear out, I'll go back to using quilt lining. Doesn't wear any time at all, but it doesn't crackle when you roll over.

Joy Beeson

Heavy better muslin was what one used for inexpensive but serviceable linens before polyester and cotton/polyester blends came upon the scene. One found them every where from hospitals, to the nursery/children's rooms, sick rooms, and as the main linens for homes that couldn't afford percale. Though only 140 threads per square inch, good muslin will out last many of today's high thread count bed linens.

Only problem with the better grade/heavy muslin is it requires ironing while damp with a hot iron. On the bright side it can withstand repeated harsh (read hot to very hot/boil washes, and dryers) and still last. Have several vintage Pequot sheets and pillow slips and one just cannot kill them. Feel quite nice after laundering, and damp ironing. Also have a 100 (give or take) yard bolt of vintage Pequot sheeting fabric, (old store stock), packed away in my stash, along with several Pequot sheets and pillowslips in their original boxes, also old store stock. Haven't decided what to do with them all, suppose one is hoarding for the duration. *LOL*

Muslin was the "polyester" of it's day in that it was cheaper than linen, and one of the more inexpensive weaves of cotton goods that held up to any kind of wear, especially the harsh laundering of days gone by.

Candide

I'm still using muslin sheets from my trousseau (assembled in England) all those years ago. The bottom sheets wore out, but most of the flat ones are still good. The "quality" percale ones just are not as nice - I find the heavy muslin ones are cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Mind you, I don't iron them completely, just pull them out of the dryer the minute it stops, iron a 12" strip across the top of the sheet, then smooth them and fold them, put them at the bottom of the stack in the linen cupboard and by the time they come to the top they are just fine.

When I needed a king-size top sheet (for dd coming to stay and wanted to push twin beds together) I bought three yards of 108" muslin quilt backing from the quilt shop. Worked quite well.

Sooooo ..... if you were wondering what to do with your stash, I can promise it a good home..... Were you going to write your will anytime soon? :-) :-)

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

serviceable

winter.

Hmm, was going to sit down for quiet cup of coffee and watch Monty Python, but now don't think I'll bother! *LOL* May have to go and mark my muslin stash in case Pequot Bandits strike during the night. *LOL*

Really have no idea what am going to do with all that Pequot fabric, it is still in the shipping box and hasn't been touched since it arrived. Same for the Pequot sheets and pillow slips in their boxes. Have so much linens in my linen press, and their all either vintage Pequot,Wamsutta "Supercale" or linen, and the stuff just does not wear out.

Candide

Seal the box back up and ship it over here. I'll make costumes out of it... :)

Seriously, would be be interested in selling some of it to someone who would appreciate it? If so, send me an e-mail.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Pequot,Wamsutta

I'll keep the thought in mind! Really should open up the box of sheeting fabric to see the condition. Candide