Documents for "Textiles and Weaving":

• acetate one of the most important forms of artificial cellulose-based fibers; the ester of acetic acid. The first patents for the production of fibers from cellulose acetate appeared at the beginning of...

• acrylic artificial fiber made from a special group of vinyl compounds, primarily acrylonitrile. Acrylic fibers are thermoplastic (i.e., soften when heated, reharden upon cooling), have low moisture regain,...

• astrakhan [from Astrakhan ], pelt of the newborn Persian lamb, used like fur in garments, and also the woolen fabric woven to resemble real astrakhan. The cloth is woven on a cotton base entirely covered by a pile of closely...

• bark cloth primitive fabric made in tropical and subtropical countries from the soft inner bark of certain trees. It has been made and used in parts of Africa and India, the Malay Peninsula, Samoa, the...

• batik method of decorating fabrics practiced for centuries by the natives of Indonesia. It consists of applying a design to the surface of the cloth by using melted wax. The material is then dipped in...

• block printing see textile printing under textiles.

• bobbin implement on which thread is wound, used in sewing, spinning, weaving, and lace making. Sometimes the wooden spools of sewing thread are called bobbins. The bobbin of a sewing machine is a metal...

• brocade fabric, originally silk, generally reputed to have been developed to a high state of perfection in the 16th and 17th cent. in France, Italy, and Spain. In China the weaving of silk, which dates...

• calico plain weave cotton fabric in one or more colors. Calico, named for Calicut, India, where the fabric originated, was mentioned by historians before the Christian era and praised by early travelers...

• canvas strong, coarse cloth of cotton, flax, hemp, or other fibers, early used as sailcloth. Left in its natural color, bleached, or dyed, it has a wide variety of uses, as for game, duffel, sport, mail,...

• carding process by which fibers are opened, cleaned, and straightened in preparation for spinning. The fingers were first used, then a tool of wood or bone shaped like a hand, then two flat pieces of wood...

• chiffon plain-weave, lightweight, sheer, transparent fabric made of cotton, silk, or synthetic fiber; it is made of fine, highly twisted, strong yarn. Chiffon is difficult to handle, but it drapes and...

• chintz [probably Hindustani,=variegated], originally a painted or stained calico from India. Esteemed for its bright colors and designs, it was used in Europe for bedcovers and draperies. Reproductions of...

• cloth of gold fabric woven wholly or partly of gold threads. From remote times gold has been used as material for weaving either alone or with other fibers. In India tapestries were made from gold threads as...

• combing process that follows carding in the preparation of fibers for spinning, lays the fibers parallel, and removes noils (short fibers). The modern combing machine is a specialized carding machine. Combing produces a fine sliver...

• corduroy a cut filling-pile fabric with lengthwise ridges, or wales, that may vary from fine (pinwale) to wide. Extra filling yarns float over a number of warp yarns that form either a plain-weave or...

• crape see crepe.

• crepe thin fabric of crinkled texture, woven originally in silk but now available in all major fibers. There are two kinds of crepe. The hard-finished, typically dyed black and used for mourning (which...

• Dacron trademark for a polyester fiber. Dacron is a condensation polymer obtained from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Its properties include high tensile strength, high resistance to stretching,...

• damask [from Damascus ], fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or man-made fibers, with a pattern formed by the weaving; e.g., the ground may be in twill weave, and the contrasting design in satin. True damasks are flat...

• distaff see spinning.

• fabric see textiles.

• felt fabric made by matting or felting together wool , hair, or fur, most of which have a natural tendency to snarl or cling together owing to their notched or scaly surfaces. Processes of manufacture vary according to fibers used and purpose...

• fiber threadlike strand, usually pliable and capable of being spun into a yarn. Many different fibers are known to be usable; some 40 of these are of commercial importance, and others are of local or...

• flannel large group of napped plain-weave or twill-weave fabrics made of cotton, wool, or man-made fibers. Flannel fabrics vary in closeness or firmness of weave and in degree of napping. A French flannel,...

• fleece mat of wool formed by shearing a sheep in one continuous operation. The average fleece weighs from 5 to 10 lb (2.3-4.5 kg); in highbred wool sheep such as the American Merinos a ram's fleece may reach 30 lb...

• khaki [Hindi,=dust-colored], closely twilled cloth of linen or cotton, dyed a dust color. It was first used (1848) for uniforms for the English regiment of Sir Harry Burnett Lumsden in India and later...

• leather skin or hide of animals, cured by tanning to prevent decay and to impart flexibility and toughness. Prehistoric and primitive peoples preserved pelts with grease and smoke and used them chiefly for shoes, garments, coverings, tents, and...

• linen fabric or yarn made from the fiber of flax , probably the first vegetable fiber known to people. Linens more than 3,500 years old have been recovered from Egyptian tombs. Phoenician traders marketed linen in Mediterranean ports. Worn by...

• loom frame or machine used for weaving ; there is evidence that the loom has been in use since 4400 BC

• modacrylic synthetic copolymer fiber. Modacrylics are soft, strong, resilient, and dimensionally stable. They can be easily dyed, show good press and shape retention, and are quick to dry. They have...

• mohair hair of the Angora goat or a large group of fabrics made from it, either wholly or in combination with wool, silk, or cotton. The Angora goat, native of Asia Minor for 2,000 years, is bred in other...

• morocco goatskin leather, dyed on the grain side and boarded by hand or machine to bring up the grain in a bird's-eye effect. It probably originated with the Arabs in North Africa as an alum-tanned product...

• mule in manufacturing: see spinning.

• muslin general name for plain woven fine white cottons for domestic use. It is believed that muslins were first made at Mosul (now a city of Iraq). They were widely made in India, from where they were...

• net mesh fabric, known from prehistoric times. Nets have been made of many materials, including sinews, strips of hide, silk, vegetable and synthetic fibers, and metallic threads. Their earliest use...

• nylon synthetic thermoplastic material characterized by strength, elasticity, resistance to abrasion and chemicals, low moisture absorbency, and capacity to be permanently set by heat. After 10 years of...

• oilcloth originally, cloth treated with oil or other substances so as to be waterproof and used for fishermen's and sailors' wear, for coach robes and covers, and later as a floor covering, called...

• Orlon trademark for an acrylic fiber available in filaments (long single strands) or staples (bundles of short fibers). Orlon is resistant to sunlight and atmospheric gases, which makes it ideal for...

• plaid a long shawl or blanketlike outer wrap of woolen cloth, usually patterned in checks or tartan figures. Now a distinctive feature of the Highland costume, it was formerly worn in all parts of...

• polyester synthetic fiber, produced by the polymerization of the product formed when an alcohol and organic acid react. The outstanding characteristic of polyesters is their ability to resist wrinkling and...

• raffia or raphia , fiber obtained from the raffia palm of Madagascar, exported for various uses, such as tying up plants that require support, binding together vegetables to be marketed, and weaving baskets, hats,...

• rainproof fabric see waterproof and water-repellent fabrics.

• ramie see nettle.

• raphia see raffia.

• rayon synthetic fibers made from cellulose or textiles woven from such fibers; more rayon is manufactured than any other synthetic fiber. The name was adopted (1924), in preference to "artificial silk," by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and various commercial associations. As early as 1665 the English naturalist Robert Hooke had suggested the possibility of making artificial silk, but the first...

• satin lustrous silk in which the filling is so arranged as to bind the warp as seldom as possible and so spaced that practically nothing shows but the warp. Satin was first woven by the ancient silk...

• shuttle see loom.

• silk fine, horny, translucent, yellowish fiber produced by the silkworm in making its cocoon and covered with sericin, a protein. Many varieties of silk-spinning worms and insects are known, but the...

• spindle see spinning.

• spinning the drawing out, twisting, and winding of fibers into a continuous thread or yarn. From antiquity until the Industrial Revolution, spinning was a household industry. The roughly carded fiber was at...

• synthetic fur see fur.

• synthetic textile fibers have revolutionized the textile industry. Such artificial fibers are usually long-chain polymers , produced industrially by the condensation of many small units. Orlon is the trade name for a polyacrylonitrile fiber made from natural gas, oxygen, and nitrogen. It combines bulk with light weight and is resistant to acids and sun damage. It is used for sweaters and...

• taffeta cloth, originally silk but now also made of synthetic fibers, supposed to have originated in Persia. The name, derived from Persian, means "twisted woven." Taffeta is in the same class and demand as satin made of silk. The cloth is made of a plain or tabby weave, and the textures vary considerably. In addition there are two types of silk taffeta...

• tanning process by which skins and hides are converted into leather. Vegetable tanning, a method requiring more than a month even with modern machinery and tanning liquors, employs tannin; its use is shown in Egyptian tomb paintings dating from 3000 BC Mineral...

• tapa see bark cloth.

• tapa cloth see bark cloth.

• tartan see plaid.

• textiles all fabrics made by weaving, felting, knitting, braiding, or netting, from the various textile fibers (see fiber ).

• thread a fine twist of fibrous material, distinguished from yarn in general by being smoother, stronger, and more pliable; it is also better suited to sewing, embroidery, and lace making. Sewing or spool cotton is made by twisting several fine strands into three-cord or six-cord thread, the latter being three two-ply strands twisted together. The size is controlled by the twisting process. The fine linen...

• tie-dyeing dyeing method used by hand-loom weavers of ancient times. It became popular during the craft revival of the 1960s. The fabric to be colored is tied or knotted at intervals before being placed in...

• tweed rough, unfinished woolen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is made in either plain or twill weave and may have a check, twill, or...

• velvet fabric having a soft, thick, short pile, usually of silk, and a plain twill or satin weave ground. The pile surface is formed by weaving an extra set of warp threads that are looped over wires as...

• viscose process method widely used for the commercial preparation of rayon. Cellulose, prepared from either wood pulp or, less commonly, cotton linters, is treated with sodium hydroxide (an alkali) and then with carbon disulfide, the resulting product being a substance...

• warp see weaving.

• waterproof and water-repellent fabrics materials treated with various substances so as to make them impervious to water. Permanent waterproofing is achieved by first coating fabrics with rubber or plasticized synthetic resins, then...

• weaving the art of forming a fabric by interlacing at right angles two or more sets of yarn or other material. It is one of the most ancient fundamental arts, as indicated by archaeological evidence...

• weft see weaving.

• woof see weaving.

• wool fiber made from the fleece of the domestic sheep.

• worsted see wool.

• yarn fibers or filaments formed into a continuous strand for use in weaving textiles or for the manufacture of thread. A staple fiber , such as cotton, linen, or wool, is made into yarn by carding , combing (for fine, long staples only), drawing out into roving, then spinning. Continuous filaments, such as silk, rayon, and nylon, may be formed directly into yarn or may be cut into short lengths and prepared like staple fibers. Yarns are twisted to give them strength and...