Serge is a type of twill fabric that has diagonal lines or ridges on both inner and outer surfaces via a two-up, two-down weave. [1] The worsted variety is used in making military uniforms, suits, greatcoats, and trench coats. Its counterpart, silk serge, is used for linings. French serge is a softer, finer variety. The word is also used for a high-quality woven woolen fabric. [2] [3]
The name is derived from Old French serge, itself from Latin serica, from Greek σηρικός (sērikós), meaning 'silken'. [4]
The early association of silk serge, Greece, and France is shown by the discovery in Charlemagne's tomb of a piece of silk serge dyed with Byzantine motifs, evidently a gift from the Byzantine Imperial Court in the 8th or 9th century AD.
It also appears to refer to a form of silk twill produced in the early renaissance in or around Florence, used for clerical cassocks. A reference can be found in Don Quixote :
I am more pleased to have found it than anyone had given me a Cassock of the best Florentine serge
From early Saxon times, most English wool ("staples") was exported. In the early 16th century it went mainly to a Royal monopoly at Calais (then an English possession) and was woven into cloth in France or the Low Countries. However, with the French taking possession of the town during the Siege of Calais on 7 January 1558, England began expanding its own weaving industry. This was greatly enhanced by the European Wars of Religion (Eighty Years' War, French Wars of Religion); in 1567 Calvinist refugees from the Low Countries included many skilled serge weavers, [5] while Huguenot refugees in the early 18th century included many silk and linen weavers. [6]
Wool worsted serges are known from the 12th century onward. Modern serges are made with worsted warp and a woollen weft. [7]
Denim is a cotton fabric with a similar weave; its name is believed to be derived from serge de Nîmes after Nîmes in France. [8]
Say or Saye was a lighter serge variety. It was thin woolen stuff of twilled structure. [3]
Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft, woof, or filling. The method in which these threads are interwoven affects the characteristics of the cloth. Cloth is usually woven on a loom, a device that holds the warp threads in place while filling threads are woven through them. A fabric band that meets this definition of cloth can also be made using other methods, including tablet weaving, back strap loom, or other techniques that can be done without looms.
Worsted is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, formed a manufacturing centre for yarn and cloth in the 12th century, when pasture enclosure and liming rendered the East Anglian soil too rich for the older agrarian sheep breeds. In the same period, many weavers from the County of Flanders moved to Norfolk. "Worsted" yarns/fabrics are distinct from woollens : the former is considered stronger, finer, smoother, and harder than the latter.
Poplin, also called tabinet, is a fine wool, cotton or silk fabric with crosswise ribs that typically give a corded surface. Nowadays, the name refers to a strong material in a plain weave of any fiber or blend.
Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of varying fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, bed sheets, sleepwear, and several other uses.
A shawl is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular piece of cloth, but can also be square or triangular in shape. Other shapes include oblong shawls. It is associated with the inhabitants of the northern Indian subcontinent—particularly Kashmir and Punjab—and Central Asia, but can be found in many other parts of the world.
Damask is a woven, reversible patterned fabric. Damasks are woven by periodically reversing the action of the warp and weft threads. The pattern is most commonly created with a warp-faced satin weave and the ground with a weft-faced or sateen weave. Fabrics used to create damasks include silk, wool, linen, cotton, and synthetic fibers, but damask is best shown in cotton and linen. Over time, damask has become a broader term for woven fabrics with a reversible pattern, not just silks.
Bombazine, or bombasine, is a fabric originally made of silk or silk and wool, and now also made of cotton and wool or of wool alone. Quality bombazine has a silk warp and a worsted weft. It is twilled or corded and used for dress-material, and was commonly used for dresses, skirts, and jackets. It was a heavy and dense fabric, with a fine diagonal rib that ran through the weave of the fabric. Black bombazine was used largely for mourning wear in 16th century and 17th century Europe, but the material had gone out of fashion by the beginning of the 20th century.
Double cloth or double weave is a kind of woven textile in which two or more sets of warps and one or more sets of weft or filling yarns are interconnected to form a two-layered cloth. The movement of threads between the layers allows complex patterns and surface textures to be created.
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".
Dimity is a collective term for figured cloths of harness loom decorated with designs and patterns. It is a strong cotton cloth with various stripes and illustrations. It is bleached or washed after looming, less often dyed, unlike fustian, which is usually dyed.
Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool. The defining characteristic of broadcloth is not its finished width but the fact that it was woven much wider and then heavily milled in order to shrink it to the required width. The effect of the milling process is to draw the yarns much closer together than could be achieved in the loom and allow the individual fibres of the wool to bind together in a felting process, which results in a dense, blind face cloth with a stiff drape which is highly weather-resistant, hard wearing and capable of taking a cut edge without the need for being hemmed.
Cloth of gold or gold cloth is a fabric woven with a gold-wrapped or spun weft—referred to as "a spirally spun gold strip". In most cases, the core yarn is silk, wrapped (filé) with a band or strip of high content gold. In rarer instances, fine linen and wool have been used as the core.
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 it 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.
A woven coverlet or coverlid is a type of bed covering with a woven design in colored wool yarn on a background of natural linen or cotton. Coverlets were woven in almost every community in the United States from the colonial era until the late 19th century.
Samite was a luxurious and heavy silk fabric worn in the Middle Ages, of a twill-type weave, often including gold or silver thread. The word was derived from Old French samit, from medieval Latin samitum, examitum deriving from the Byzantine Greek ἑξάμιτον hexamiton "six threads", usually interpreted as indicating the use of six yarns in the warp. Samite is still used in ecclesiastical robes, vestments, ornamental fabrics, and interior decoration.
Mockado is a woollen pile fabric made in imitation of silk velvet from the mid-sixteenth century. Mockado was usually constructed with a woollen pile on a linen or worsted wool warp and woollen weft, although the ground fabric could be any combination of wool, linen, and silk. Mockado was used for furnishings and carpeting, and also for clothing such as doublets, farthingales, and kirtles.
Cheviot, Wool Woolen fabric originally made from Cheviot sheep wool and now also made from other types of wool or from blends of wool and man-made fibres in plain or various twill weaves. Cheviot Sheep originate from the border of England and Scotland, and their name is derived from Cheviot Hills, a range of hills in north Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. Cheviot wool possesses good spinning qualities, since the fibre is fine, soft, and pliable. It has a crispness of texture similar to serge but is slightly rougher and heavier.
Bourette is a silk fabric with bumps often blended with other yarns made of Bourette fibers. The name "Bourette" is from its constituting fiber. It has a rough surface incorporating multicolored threads and knots of spun silk. The fabric is made with silk bourette and wool or cotton yarn. Bourette is a lightweight single cloth with a rough, knotty, and uneven surface.
Bure was an old heavy woolen woven cloth that has undergone many changes since the Middle Ages. Hence, It was called with many names such as Bura, Burel, Burian, Burly, Burlesque, Burratto, Bournous, Burratine.
Batavia, also known as Batavia silk and Levantine, was initially a silk fabric used for dresses in 18th-century France.