Drill is stout, durable cotton fabric with a strong bias (diagonal) in the weave. [1] It can be used unbleached, although it is more often bleached or dyed. [1]
Light weight drill is used in clothing items such as shirts, safari jackets, blouses, and some types of sports clothing. [1] [2] The heavier weights were often used in corsets, [3] and are commonly used in work clothing and uniforms. [1]
The most common use of drill in uniforms and casual wear is in the form of khaki drill. Learning from this practice, British troops took to dyeing their white drill uniforms to obtain more serviceable campaign clothing; this practice became widespread during the crisis of the Indian Mutiny. Initially, improvised dyes produced clothing that ranged in shade from lavender grey to earth brown, although all were referred to as "khaki". In the mid-1880s, standardised cotton drill uniforms were produced using a colourfast mineral dye of the shade now recognised universally as khaki. The fabric soon became a popular material for military uniforms, and in the United States following World War II, as veterans returned to college campuses, it became popular in casual dress as well . [4]
Drill is a versatile fabric that has been used in a variety of applications. Boat sail drill is a lightweight, unbleached drill used to make sails for sailing craft. [1] [5] [6] Although duck (canvas) was more commonly used for these purposes, [7] drill has also been used to make tarpaulins, tents, awnings and canopies, [8] but the use of both fabrics has been supplanted in modern times with synthetic fabrics. Like duck, drill is used as a covering for furniture and cushions. [9]
Calico is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than canvas or denim. However, it is still very cheap owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance.
Jeans are a type of pants or trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with copper-riveted pockets which were invented by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by Davis and Levi Strauss on May 20, 1873. Prior to the patent, the term "blue jeans" had been long in use for various garments, constructed from blue-colored denim.
Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weave produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. While a denim predecessor known as dungaree has been produced in India for hundreds of years, denim as it is recognized today was first produced in Nîmes, France.
A T-shirt is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a crew neck, which lacks a collar. T-shirts are generally made of stretchy, light, and inexpensive fabric and are easy to clean. The T-shirt evolved from undergarments used in the 19th century and, in the mid-20th century, transitioned from undergarments to general-use casual clothing.
The color khaki is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge.
A tracksuit is an article of clothing consisting of two parts: trousers and a jacket usually with front zipper. It was originally intended for use in sports, mainly for athletes to wear over competition clothing and to take off before competition. In modern times, it has become commonly worn in other contexts. The tracksuit was one of the earliest uses of synthetic fibers in sportswear.
Seersucker or railroad stripe is a thin, puckered, usually cotton fabric, commonly but not necessarily striped or chequered, used to make clothing for hot weather. The word originates from the Persian words شیر shîr and شکر shakar, literally meaning "milk and sugar", from the gritty texture ("sugar") on the otherwise smooth ("milk") cloth. Seersucker is woven in such a way that some threads bunch together, giving the fabric a wrinkled or puckered appearance. This effect is often achieved during weaving by warp threads for the puckered bands being fed at a greater rate than the warp threads of the smooth stripes. The unevenness causes the fabric to be mostly held away from the skin rather than being plastered on it when wet with sweat, facilitating heat dissipation and air circulation. It also means that ironing is not necessary.
A combat uniform, also called field uniform, battledress or military fatigues, is a casual type of uniform used by military, police, fire and other public uniformed services for everyday fieldwork and combat duty purposes, as opposed to dress uniforms worn in functions and parades. It generally consists of a jacket, trousers and shirt or T-shirt, all cut to be looser and more comfortable than more formal uniforms. Design may depend on regiment or service branch, e.g. army, navy, air force, marines, etc. In the army branches, fabrics tend to come in camouflage, disruptive pattern or else green, brown or khaki monochrome, in order to approximate the background and make the soldier less visible in nature. In Western dress codes, field uniform is considered equivalent to civilian casual wear. As such, field uniform is considered less formal than service dress uniform, generally aimed at office or staff use, as well as mess dress uniform, and full dress uniform.
The United States Army in World War II used a variety of standard and non-standard dress and battle uniforms, which often changed depending upon the theater of war, climatic environment, and supply exigencies.
Cotton duck, also simply duck, sometimes duck cloth or duck canvas, is a heavy, plain woven cotton fabric. Duck canvas is more tightly woven than plain canvas. There is also linen duck, which is less often used.
The Army Service Uniform (ASU) is a military uniform for wear by United States Army personnel in garrison posts and at most public functions where the Army Combat Uniform is inappropriate. As of 2021, the Army has two service uniforms for use by its personnel. The Army Green Service Uniform, announced in 2018 and authorized in 2020, is used primarily for daily use in situations where civilians wear business attire, such as office settings or official meetings.
The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.
Service Dress is the style of khaki service dress uniform introduced by the British Army for use in the field from the early 1900s, following the experiences of a number of imperial wars and conflicts, including the Second Boer War. This variant of uniform continues to be worn today, although only in a formal role, as No. 2 Pattern dress.
Duck Head is a brand name for clothing and shoes in the United States. First registered as a trademark in the late 19th century, the name has been used by several different manufacturers and retailers of apparel, primarily in the southern United States. Duck Head apparel had a period of great popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Rayadillo was a blue-and-white striped cotton or flannel material used to make the military uniforms worn by Spanish colonial soldiers from the mid 19th century until the early 20th century. It was commonly worn by soldiers posted in overseas Spanish tropical colonies and later, Spanish Morocco and Spanish Guinea.
Khaki drill (KD) is the British military term for a type of fabric and the military uniforms made from them.
Aertex was a British clothing company based in Manchester, established in 1888, and also the name of the fabric manufactured by the company. It owned the trademark for Aertex fabric, a lightweight and loosely woven cotton material that is used to make shirts and underwear.
Waxed cotton is cotton impregnated with a paraffin or natural beeswax based wax, woven into or applied to the cloth. Popular from the 1920s to the mid-1950s, the product, which developed from the sailing industry in England and Scotland, became commonly used for waterproofing. It has been replaced by more modern materials but is still used by the country sports community. The main drawbacks are two: waxed fabric is not very breathable and tends to be heavier and bulkier than modern synthetic waterproof materials.
Madurai Sungudi is design of Madurai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which is an exclusive textile product traditionally produced using tie and dye method by the Saurashtrians who migrated to Madurai under the patronage of King Thirumalai Naicker in the 17th century. The fabric's traditional popular use is as a saree; the fabric is now also used to make shirts, salwars, shawls, handbags, bed sheets and pillow cases. The product has been given protection under the GI registration act.
A tanmono is a bolt of traditional Japanese narrow-loomed cloth. It is used to make traditional Japanese clothes, textile room dividers, sails, and other traditional cloth items.