Lawn cloth or lawn is a fine plain weave textile, made with fine combed cotton. [1] [2] Terms also used include batiste and nainsook. Originally the name applied to plain weave linen, and linen lawn is also called "handkerchief linen". [3] [4] The term lawn is also used in the textile industry to refer to a type of starched crisp finish given to a cloth product. The finish can be applied to a variety of fine fabrics, prints or plain.
Lawn is a lightweight, sheer cloth, crisper than voile but not as crisp as organza. [5] Lawn is known for its semi-transparency, which can range from gauzy or sheer to an almost opaque effect, known as lining or utility lawn.[ citation needed ] The finish used on lawn ranges from soft to semi-crisp to crisp, but the fabric is never completely stiff. Lawn can be white, or may be dyed or printed. [6]
Lawn is designed using fine, high-thread-count yarns, which results in a silky, untextured feel. The fabric is made using either combed or carded yarns. When lawn is made using combed yarns, with a soft feel and slight luster, it is known as nainsook.[ citation needed ]
The term "lawn" derives from "Laon", a city in France, which produced linen lawn. [2] [3] Cotton lawn rose in popularity due to its breathable characteristics in warmer climates [7] particularly during the period of British rule in India and Pakistan. [6]
Lawn cloth commonly is used for infant wear, handkerchiefs, dresses, blouses, aprons and curtains. [8] Other uses are nightwear, underwear, lingerie, collar cuffs and shirting. It is also commonly used in vestments in Anglican churches, such as the surplice and episcopal rochet.[ citation needed ]
Lawn is a very popular fabric in Pakistan, with new fabrics released from February each year. [7] [9] In 2016, lawn cotton was worth $500 million to the Pakistani textile industry and employs more than 30,000 people. [6]
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.
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, and doctor's gowns.
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses. Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue.
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short, dense pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word velvety means "smooth like velvet". In the past, velvet was typically made from silk. Today, velvet can be made from linen, cotton, wool and synthetic fibers.
Muslin is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured.
A satin weave is a type of fabric weave that produces a characteristically glossy, smooth or lustrous material, typically with a glossy top surface and a dull back; it is not durable, as it tends to snag. It is one of three fundamental types of textile weaves alongside plain weave and twill weave.
Nainsook is a soft, fine, lightweight form of muslin. Muslin encompasses a broad range of fabrics of varying weight and fineness, but is always a plain weave, cotton fabric. The word 'nainsook' is first documented in 1790, and derives from the Hindi word nainsukh, which literally means "eye's delight".
Cambric or batiste is a fine dense cloth. It is a lightweight plain-weave fabric, originally from the commune of Cambrai, woven greige, then bleached, piece-dyed, and often glazed or calendered. Initially it was made of linen; from the 18th and 19th centuries the term came to apply to cotton fabrics as well. Chambray is the same type of fabric, with a coloured warp and white filling; the name "chambray" replaced "cambric" in the United States in the early 19th century.
Crêpe, also spelled crepe or crape is a silk, wool, or synthetic fiber fabric with a distinctively crisp and crimped appearance. The term "crape" typically refers to a form of the fabric associated specifically with mourning. Crêpe was also historically called "crespe" or "crisp".
Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods such as clothing, household items, upholstery and various industrial products.
Ninon is a lightweight, sheer fabric made with plain or leno weaving, it is a suitable material for curtains, evening wear and lingerie. Ninon is made with variety of filament yarns such as polyester, silk, rayon or nylon.
Bands are a form of formal neckwear, worn by some clergy and lawyers, and with some forms of academic dress. They take the form of two oblong pieces of cloth, usually though not invariably white, which are tied to the neck. When worn by clergy, they typically are attached to a clerical collar. The word bands is usually plural because they require two similar parts and did not come as one piece of cloth. Those worn by clergy are often called preaching bands or Geneva bands; those worn by lawyers are called barrister's bands or, more usually in Ireland and Canada, tabs. Preaching bands symbolize the two tablets of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses.
Plain weave is the most basic of three fundamental types of textile weaves. It is strong and hard-wearing, and is used for fashion and furnishing fabrics.
Organdy, also spelled Organdie, is a kind of sheer fabric. It is a lightweight balanced plain weave cotton with features of sheerness and crispness.
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.
Textile fibers, threads, yarns and fabrics are measured in a multiplicity of units.
Madapollam is a soft cotton fabric manufactured from fine yarns with a dense pick laid out in linen weave. Madapollam is used as an embroidery and handkerchief fabric and as a base for fabric printing. The equal warp and weft mean that the tensile strength and shrinkage is the same in any two directions at right angles and that the fabric absorbs liquids such as ink, paint and aircraft dope equally along its X and Y axes.
Monk's cloth is a loosely woven cotton or linen fabric made of coarser yarns that drape well.
Dotted Swiss, or Swiss Dot, is a sheer cotton fabric embellished with small dots. It is a fine, lightweight plain weave cotton fabric, ornamented with embroidery or flocking with dotted patterns.
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