OT word of the day

Reply to
Ginger in CA
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Your welcome. I have one that has the middle embroidered with an elephant and a lion. I don't have the 2 sides embroidered yet. Just can't decide what would look best.

Butterfly (I get it out every so often and the inspiration just isn't there.)

Reply to
Butterflywings

My mom has done TONS of blankets with the afghan stitch. She taught it to me as well. She usually does it with a regular weight wool or yarn and then cross stitches various designs on it to make nice patterns.

The kicker is that she had a stroke about 20 yrs ago and she crochets and cross stitches it all with ONE hand! Her paralyzed hand is tensed up almost into a fist all the time, so she just shoves the crochet hook in it and does all the work with her good hand! She has also recently discovered that she can still knit this way as well.

And blankets done in wool (or even polyester yarn which is what she usually uses) with the afghan stitch are SO warm!

Reply to
JPgirl

Body Canvas

A good quality suit coat is made with three layers of fabric, the one in the middle is the body canvas. The body canvas is the layer that gives the suit coat it's proper shape. Optimally the body canvas is a material that will hold a shape when ironed properly, yet have a good drape and be breathable. A cheap suit may imitate this layer by useing a coating of glue inside the outer suiting fabric, obviously this makes an uncomfortable garment. Actual body canvas may be made of a number of fabrics. Often wool, or camel hair, or various blends including these and/or horsehair and cotton are used. The prefered fabric, and of course thus the most expensive, is camel hair.

Reply to
NightMist

Rep

A weave of fabric wherein heavier threads are used in the warp than in the weft, giving a texture of crosswise ribs.

You see it often in decorater fabrics, and sometimes also in things like bathrobes or bedspreads.

Reply to
NightMist

Fustian

A piled fabric with a cotton weft and linen warp. In later times low quality wool may have been substituted for the linen, modernly when you can find a fabric called this it is probably 100 percent cotton. The highest quality resembled velvet the poorest quality resembled a napped fabric. Very popular a few centuries ago for linings and gowns. It was a fashionable substitute for silk velvet. Modern velveteen would make a good substitute.

Reply to
NightMist

These are so interesting, Nightmist. I'm seeing words that I have long ago heard, but never really knew the meaning of. Thank you ever so much. . In message , NightMist writes

Reply to
Patti

Understitching

A technique that keeps facings or linings from rolling to the outside of a garment.

Two excellent instructionals, including one from our own Kate, are here:

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Reply to
NightMist

Interlining

A layer of fabric between the outer shell and the lining of a sewn article that alters the drape of the article, and/or adds insulation.

An interlining may be a thin layer of silk or rayon, or it may be a sheepskin complete with fleece. It may be woven, non-woven or knit. Often it provides additional protection against UV when used in various curtains, drapes, and covers.

Is modern quilt batting interlining? Depends on who you ask. Some sources hold that if it must be quilted to avoid shifting, bunching, or disintegrating, then it is a seperate thing. Other sources disagree.

Reply to
NightMist

Aniline dyes

Dyes made from coal tar. Often fugitive many of them tend to fade or become brownish over time. They are still in use for coloring wood, but have fallen out of favor in textile dying. Advancements with dye technology have repleced them almost completely with more permanent and easier to use dyes.

It happened sort of like this. Excessive use of wood raised the possibility of a serious energy crisis in Europe. So people started playing around with coal to see if they could make it easier to use for some of the same stuff, particularly to replace charcol. To make charcol, you heat the bejeezus out of wood in a container, the bejeezical materials go up the chimmney, charcoal is left in the container. They tried it with coal and made coke and coal gas. Somebody got the bright idea to try and make a purer gas (the gas from making charcoal was good for burning for light, so coal gas ought to be, if they could get the nasty sulfer smell out), so they ran it through a condenser. It worked, and one of the things that was left over was coal tar. Being in a state of high excitement as a result of all this chemistry, people started playing with the coal tar to see what useful things could be made from it. Malaria was being a probelm in the British Empire due to all the rampant colonialism that was going on at the time, so Mr. Perkins took a notion to try synthesizing quinine out of coal tar. He failed completely, but he did make a nifty mauve dye and thereby caused the entire Mauve Decade. Fortunately they figured out how to make other colors pretty quickly.

Reply to
NightMist

There is a newish book about the whole story - called "Mauve", unsurprisingly. I've only flipped through it but it looks good.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts

Reply to
Jack Campin - bogus address

Nightmist, I thank you for all the trouble you go to, to make sure we are educated! That sound like a smarty pants statement but I truly thank you. Barbara in FL

Reply to
Bobbie Sews Moore

Marled

Yarns made up of 2 different colors, produced by combining fiber strands (rovings) of 2 different colors, or twisting together 2 yarns of different colors, or by cross dyeing plied yarns of 2 different fibers.

Reply to
NightMist

If I have introduced the word "bejeezical" into anyones vocabulary then my job satisfaction is nigh unto complete.

NightMist when I have days like that the english language is in no way safe

Reply to
NightMist

Taffeta

A smooth, crisp, tightly woven, plain weave fabrc, noted for its body. Pre twentieth century references to it mean a silk fabric. Since the twentieth century however, it could mean a synthetic fabric.

References to rustling petticoats, or the rustle of silk, almost always refer to taffeta. It is almost as well known for its sound as its suitabilty for linings and middle garments.

Reply to
NightMist

Greige Fabric

Most literally griege fabrics are fabrics that are unfinished. They are unchanged from when they were rolled off the loom, and have not been washed, dyed, stretched, pressed, or treated in any way.

After washing the weave of griege goods will close up some, and may appear very different from the unwashed state. This also affects the shrink which will be more considerable in griege fabrics than in finished fabrics. Expect the shrink to be anywhere from five to fifteen, or even twenty percent, dependent on fiber composition and the weave. Depending on quality, content, and weave, griege fabric may shrink in unpredictable ways, thus retentering the fabric may become necessary.

Reply to
NightMist

Grading

Seams- Reducing the bulk of seams by trimming the individual seam allowances at different widths.

Patterns- altering a pattern to a different size. For example altering a pattern for 12 inch quilt block to make an 18 inch block, or perhaps a 10 inch block. Another example would be altering a garment pattern to fit a different size person, or just to fit different sized features, such as increasing or decreasing the bustline, and etc.

Reply to
NightMist

Sari Fabric

A length of uncut fabric, five to seven yards long, usually of thin cotton or silk. When worn, part of the fabric is wrapped around the waist to form a skirt, and one end is thrown over the shoulder. There are regional variants as to how to wear the end thrown over the shoulder. It is usually worn over a thin underskirt. The accompanying top is called a choli.

There are an amazing number of looming, dying, and embroidery techniques, again varying by region, that can go into a length of sari fabric. An astonishing amount of sari fabric, particularly silk, is still handloomed. Some techniques are being kept alive only by one or two familes. It may take six months or more for two people to complete a single length.

Reply to
NightMist

There are many sari shops along Devon Avenue, the commercial center for Chicago's Indian community. The saris range from cheap rayon ($10) to elegant silk ($$$$). There are also many salwaar kamiz (sp?)--the tunic/trouser combo, usually elegantly embellished.

At our AAUW state convention a couple of years ago two of the Indian members showed us how to wrap a sari. The models were non-Indian AAUWs--they showed that saris flatter everyone!

Nann P.S. Before you ask:

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will tell you more about the organization that has breaks through educational and economic barriers to give all women a fair chance.

Reply to
Nann

Raw Silk Silk Noil

I have to put these two together, because they are often used as synonyms, but they are not.

Raw Silk is silk woven from the strands as reeled straight off the cocoon. The strands are connected as they are thrown on the loom, they are comletely untreated and unspun. This is why raw silk is nubby and slubby, and has to be well washed before use. Reeled Silk is a synonym.

Silk Noil is silk spun from the interior fibers of the cocoons. These fibers are shorter, finer and softer than the outer fibers, and for a long time were regarded as a waste product because they are a pain to work with. Sometimes longer coarser fibers from broken cocoons are used with the inner fibers, this makes the inner fibers easier to work with and provides a use for the broken cocoons which were once also regarded as a waste product because they cannot be used in standard silk spining processes. Spinning using the short fibers creates a slubby, uneven yarn.

Both Noil and Raw silk have a similar appearance and weight, though they feel very different, and wear differently.

Reply to
NightMist

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