Terrycloth, terry cloth, terry cotton, terry towelling, terry, terry towel, Turkish towelling (formerly), or simply towelling is a fabric woven with many protruding loops of thread which can absorb large amounts of water. It can be manufactured by weaving or knitting. Terrycloth is woven on special looms that have two beams of longitudinal warp through which the filler or weft is fired laterally. [1] [2]
Fabrics with a pile formed from loops of loosened, uncut warp threads were woven in ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Peru; there is linen terrycloth from 4000 BCE.
The modern form, however, was introduced to the West in the mid-19th century. The English towel manufacturer Christy started industrial production in 1850, based on observations of handwoven terrycloth in Turkey, and produced using a machine designed by one of their staff, Samuel Holt. Queen Victoria approved the name "Royal Turkish Towels".
In the United States, they became popular after World War I. [3]
The origin of the word is unclear; it may derive from French tiré 'drawn', and was originally used for uncut velvet, called terry pile or terry velvet. [4]
There are two types of terry fabrics:
It is the length of loops that determines how much fluid is absorbed by the cloth as longer loops provide more surface area to absorb and come in contact with the fluid.
Items that may be made from terrycloth include babies' reusable diapers (or "nappies" in British English), towels, bathrobes, and sweatbands for the wrist or head. Terrycloth is also sometimes used to make sweat-jackets. Terry-toweling hats with a shallow brim were once popular with cricketers (like English wicketkeeper Jack Russell), but are no longer in fashion.
A slow method of machine-making French terry results in a soft, sturdy variety called loopwheel. Loopwheel machines can only produce one yard an hour. It was invented in the 1920s and was at the height of its popularity in the forties and fifties, at which point it was overtaken by side-seam manufacturing. Only two factories remain. [5]
Another fabric used for towels is waffle fabric. A modern cheaper alternative is a short-loop tight-woven nonabsorptive (but somewhat wicking) fabric made of synthetic microfiber.
Velvet is a type of woven fabric with a dense, even pile that gives it a distinctive soft feel. Historically, velvet was typically made from silk. Modern velvet can be made from silk, linen, cotton, wool, synthetic fibers, silk-cotton blends, or synthetic-natural fiber blends.
A towel is a piece of absorbent cloth or paper used for drying or wiping a surface. Towels draw moisture through direct contact.
Woven fabric is any textile formed by weaving. Woven fabrics are often created on a loom, and made of many threads woven on a warp and a weft. Technically, a woven fabric is any fabric made by interlacing two or more threads at right angles to one another. Woven fabrics can be made of natural fibers, synthetic fibers, or a mixture of both, such as cotton and polyester.
Ikat is a dyeing technique from Southeast Asia used to pattern textiles that employs resist dyeing on the yarns prior to dyeing and weaving the fabric. In Southeast Asia, where it is the most widespread, ikat weaving traditions can be divided into two general groups of related traditions. The first is found among Daic-speaking peoples. The second, larger group is found among the Austronesian peoples and spread via the Austronesian expansion to as far as Madagascar. It is most prominently associated with the textile traditions of Indonesia in modern times, from where the term ikat originates. Similar unrelated dyeing and weaving techniques that developed independently are also present in other regions of the world, including India, Central Asia, Japan, Africa, and the Americas.
A bathrobe, also known as a housecoat or a dressing gown, is a loose-fitting outer garment worn by people, often after washing the body or around a pool. A bathrobe is considered to be very informal clothing, and is not worn with everyday clothes.
Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting using needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand, but using a sewing machine is also possible. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simple running stitch in which the thread is "woven" in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row, and then filling in the framework thus created, as if weaving. Darning is a traditional method for repairing fabric damage or holes that do not run along a seam, and where patching is impractical or would create discomfort for the wearer, such as on the heel of a sock.
Pile weave is a form of textile created by weaving. This type of fabric is characterized by a pile—a looped or tufted surface that extends above the initial foundation, or 'ground' weave. The pile is formed by supplemental yarn running in the direction of the length of the fabric or the width of the fabric. Pile weaves include velvet and corduroy fabrics and machine-woven Berber carpets.
Warp knitting is defined as a loop-forming process in which the yarn is fed into the knitting zone, parallel to the fabric selvage. It forms vertical loops in one course and then moves diagonally to knit the next course. Thus the yarns zigzag from side to side along the length of the fabric. Each stitch in a course is made by many different yarns. Each stitch in one wale is made by several different yarns.
A selvage or selvedge is a "self-finished" edge of a piece of fabric which keeps it from unraveling and fraying. The term "self-finished" means that the edge does not require additional finishing work, such as hem or bias tape, to prevent fraying.
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, with color and patterns, which turns it into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of coloring 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.
Pile is the raised surface or nap of a fabric, consisting of upright loops or strands of yarn. Examples of pile textiles are carpets, corduroy, velvet, plush, and Turkish towels (terrycloth). The word is derived from Latin pilus for "hair".
Primarily, nap is the raised (fuzzy) surface on certain kinds of cloth, such as velvet or moleskin. Nap can refer additionally to other surfaces that look like the surface of a napped cloth, such as the surface of a felt or beaver hat.
In textile manufacturing, finishing refers to the processes that convert the woven or knitted cloth into a usable material and more specifically to any process performed after dyeing the yarn or fabric to improve the look, performance, or "hand" (feel) of the finish textile or clothing. The precise meaning depends on context.
Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human activities. The oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving to create cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. Cloth is finished by what are described as wet process to become fabric. The fabric may be dyed, printed or decorated by embroidering with coloured yarns.
Waffle fabric, also known as honeycomb fabric, has raised threads that form small rectangles. It can be made by either weaving or knitting. Waffle weave is a further exploitation of plain weave and twill weave which produces a three-dimensional effect. The combination of warp and weft floats creates the structure. It is woven partly on tabby areas surrounded by ridges of long floats. The weave consists of warp and weft floats arranged around a plain weave center. The warp and weft threads are interlaced and floating in a way that creates small square ridges and hollows in the fabric in a regular pattern.
Christy is a manufacturer of household linens and is known as the inventor of the first industrially produced looped cotton (terrycloth) towel. It was founded in 1850 in the English mill town of Droylsden, Lancashire.
A pick glass also known as a piece glass is a magnifying glass helpful in counting thread count. It is used to determine the number of yarns in warp and weft in woven fabrics and courses and wales in knitted fabrics. Compact constructions of fabrics may have a higher thread count. That is also called "cloth count."
Huckaback fabric or Huck is a type of toweling cloth with a bird's eye or honeycomb pattern. It is a loosely woven fabric made of cotton or linen with Huckaback weave.
Samuel Holt was a British weaver, inventor and industrialist who emigrated to the United States in later life.
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