Nainsook. Nainsook is a light cotton fabric utilized for various purposes, such as infants’ clothes, women’s dress goods, lingerie, half curtains, etc. The striped and plaid nainsook are used for the same purposes. When the fabric is required for lingerie and infants’ clothes the English fabric is selected because of its softness. When intended for dress or curtain fabric, the French-finished fabric is chosen. The latter finish consists of slightly stiffening and calendering the cloth. The fabric may be distinguished from fine lawns, fine batiste, and fine cambric by the fact that it has not as firm construction or as much body, and the finish is not as smooth or as stiff, but inclines to softness, as the fabric has not the body to retain the finishing material.
Organdie. An organdie may be defined as a fine, translucent muslin used exclusively for dress goods. The fabric is made in a variety of qualities as regards the counts of yarn used, and in a variety of widths ranging from eighteen to sixty inches. The plain organdie is popular in pure white, although considerable quantities are dyed in the solid colors, pale blue, pink, etc., while the figured organdies are usually bleached pure white, then printed with small floral designs. The printed design is in from two to four colors, and in delicate shades in conformity with the material. Organdie considered in relation to cost as wearing material is rather expensive. The reason for this is that it has a finish peculiar to itself, so that when washed it does not have the same appearance as before. It loses its crisp feeling altogether.
Osnaburg. A coarse cloth of flax and tow, made in America of cotton, in checks or plaids, and used for furniture covering and mattress making. The town of Osnaburg, in Germany, made the fabric first.
Percale. Percale is a closely woven fabric made with a good quality of cotton yarn. The finer qualities are used for handkerchiefs, aprons, etc., and when used for these purposes are not printed, but bleached after the fabric comes from the loom. Percale is chiefly used for dress fabrics, and when used for this purpose is generally printed on one side with geometrical figures, generally black, although other colors may be seen. The fabric is bleached before it is subjected to the printing operations.
Percaline. Percaline is a highly finished and dressed percale. The first process to which the cloth is subjected is to boil it off, that is, to soak it in boiling water so as to relieve it from foreign matter that it may have gathered during the weaving, and at the same time to prepare it for dyeing. After dyeing it is sized to stiffen it, and also to increase the gloss on the cloth. After sizing it is ready for the calender. In order to give it the highest gloss the cloth is doubled lengthwise or the pieces are put together back to back, and as it passes through the rolls it is wet by steam, the rolls being well heated and tightly set together. Percaline is used chiefly for feminine wearing apparel, principally for linings, petticoats, etc. These purposes require that the cloth shall be solid color, the darker colors being preferred, as blue, green, and black. Sometimes it is seen in lighter shades of brown and tan. The most attention is given to the finishing process.
Piqué. Piqué is a heavy cotton material woven in corded or figured effects. The goods are used for such purposes as ladies’ tailor-made suits, vestings, shirt fronts, cravats, bedspreads, and the like. It was originally woven in diamond-shaped designs to imitate quilting. The name is French for quilting. The plainest and most common fabrics of piqué are those in which the pattern consists of straight cords extending across the cloth in the direction of the weft. In the construction of these fabrics, both a face and back warp are required, and the cords are produced by all the back warp threads being raised at intervals of six, eight, or more picks over two or more picks of the face cloth, which has a tendency to draw down on the surface of the fabric. The goods are always woven white and no colors are ever used. The face warp threads are generally finer than the back warp threads, and are in the proportion of two threads for the face and one thread for the back. On the heavier and better grades of piqué coarse picks called wadding are used to increase the weight, and also to give more prominence to the cord effect. They are introduced between the face and back cloths. In the lightest and cheapest grades neither any wadding nor back picks are used. In this case the back warp threads float on the back of the fabric except when raising over the face picks to form the cord. In the figured piqué the binding of the back warp threads into the face cloth is not done in straight lines as in plain piqué, but the binding points are introduced so as to form figures. These fabrics are woven in the white, and the figures are purely the result of binding the face and back cloths together.
Poplin. Poplin or popeline is a name given to a class of goods distinguished by a rib or cord effect running width way of the piece. It referred originally to a fabric having a silk warp and a figure of wool filling heavier than the warp. At the present time it refers more to a ribbed fabric than to one made from any particular combination of materials. Cotton poplin is usually made with a plain weave, the rep effect being obtained either by using a fine warp as compared with the filling, or a large number of ends as compared with picks per inch on both. Irish poplin is a light-weight variety of poplin, sometimes called single poplin, and is celebrated for its uniformly fine and excellent wearing qualities. It is principally made in Dublin.
Plumetis. Sheer cotton or woolen cloth having raised dots or figures in relief on plain ground. The design shows a feathery effect, as in embroidery tambour. The name is French for this kind of embroidery, and is derived from plume, French for feather.
Rep. A fabric having a surface of a cord-like appearance. The name is probably corrupted from rib. It is used in making shirtwaists and skirts.
Sateen. Twilled cotton cloth of light weight, finished to imitate silk satin. There are two kinds, viz., warp sateen and filling sateen.