Silks
Many silks can be washed without injury to the fibers, but they cannot be boiled without destroying the luster. Silks may be had in various widths and endless variety of weaves. Many are reversible.
Loading Silk
Silks are adulterated with cotton and ramie fibers. The chemicals used in “loading” or “dynamiting” to give the weight lost by cleaning or removing the gum from the raw silk give to the cheaper grades the stiff, harsh feeling and cause the splitting and cracking of the silk, hence the quality of the fiber should be considered when selecting a silk, not the weight. Taffeta is often heavily loaded.
Foulard and surah are twilled silks. Corded silks are woven with a cord running from selvage to selvage. To this class belong the grosgrains, Ottoman, faille Francaise—a silk resembling grosgrain, but softer and brighter. Irish poplins and bengalines have wool for the filling instead of silk.
Wash Silks
Great improvement has been made in the manufacture of wash silks. They are fine in color and have a glossy surface. Pongee is a beautiful, durable silk in different shades of natural color. It is woven in different widths. This silk is especially valuable for underwear. The first cost is greater, but it outwears muslin or linen. It is also used for children’s garments and for outside wraps. For many purposes, no better textile can be found.
Crepe de Chine is an incomparable textile possessing as much softness as strength. It is always supple, never creases, launders well, and comes in the most beautiful soft shades as well as in black and dark colors.
Satin is distinguished by its glossy, lustrous surface, obtained in the weaving.
Piled Fabrics
Piled fabrics are rich, thick materials made of silk, wool, mohair, and cotton, comprising the velvets, velveteens, plushes, corduroys, and wilton and velvet carpets. The soft, raised pile is first woven in loops—Brussels carpet is a good example—and the loops are cut. The back of the goods is plain.
Velvet
Velvet has always and justly been regarded as the most beautiful of textiles. No matter how fashions change in regard to other materials, velvet never loses its vogue. For robes and cloaks, for mantles and jackets, for hats and bonnets, for trimming and decoration, velvet has been popular for a greater period than the life of any living mortal, but never before has it been so cheap, so varied and so beautiful as it is now. One can in the passing throng of pedestrians on any crowded street see the use and abuse of this noble material. There is scarcely an article of dress into whose composition it does not enter and it is worn upon all occasions. Many things have brought about this result. The tendency of fashion is towards the decorative and picturesque and in these qualities velvet excels all other fabrics. Silk waste and thread are cheaper than ever before so that velvet costs much less than formerly. The men behind the looms have evolved more designs and novelties in the making of velvet than has ever been known and colors beautiful in themselves are seemingly enhanced when applied to velvet.
Velveteen
All that has been said in favor of velvet applies equally as well to the best velveteen,—in fact it is a textile of even greater value and beauty than velvet. The best grades are not cheap, but they wear better than silk velvet, are fine and silky, excellent in color and sheen, launder well, and do not press-mark as does silk velvet. Velveteen takes the dye so beautifully and finishes so well that it has taken rank with our best standard fabrics. It is made entirely of cotton. It varies in width but is always wider than velvet.
Widths of Fabrics
A knowledge of the various widths of textiles is important in buying. Transparent fabrics are usually wider than heavier goods made of the same fiber. Muslin is wider than calico or ordinary print, and thin silk fabrics such as mull and chiffon are wider than velvet.
In wool dress goods various distinct widths are known as single—thirty and thirty-six inches—double fold (forty-five and fifty-four inches), etc. Silk, velvet, and velveteen are single width. The velvet ranges from eighteen to twenty-four inches in width and velveteen twenty-seven. Bodice linings vary from thirty-five to thirty-eight inches; skirt linings come in both single and double fold.
Household linen including bedding varies in width from one yard to two and one-fourth and two and one-half yards for sheeting and from thirty-eight to fifty-four inches for pillow case muslin.
Table linen is woven in both square and circular cloths of various sizes, and napkins vary in width from the small sizes to a yard square.
No fixed widths can be given for any textile as width often changes with the weave.