double yarn and twist yarn

A two-ply yarn made from single yarns of different colors. A mottled effect is produced.

buttonhole twist

A thick, twisted silk cord. Buttonhole twist is lustrous and is used for topstitching. lt is also used for sewing buttons onto a garment as well as for making buttonholes or embroidery.

twist

A technical term referring to the way in which yam is turned during the course of its manufacture. It is the number of times (turns) one inch of yarn is twisted. In carpeting, twist is a corkserew-like, uncut pile. Yarns of different colors may be twisted together to form pile loops causing a pebbly appearance. It resists footmarks and is good for high traffic areas.

z-twist

Z-twist is a right-hand twisted yarn.

cable cord

Cable cord is the result of twisting singles together in various directions, e.g. S/Z/S or Z/S/Z. Connected to: S twist, Z twist

chiffon

Chiffon is an extraordinary lightweight and thin crepe fabric. Originally, chiffon was made of silk, but today also wool, rayon, nylon and other fibers are used for the production of chiffon. It is an open weave with slightly twisted yarns and can have both, a soft or stiff finish. Chiffon is often used for dresses and scarves.

crepe

A lightweight fabric of silk, rayon, cotton, wool, man-made, or blended fibers, and characterized by a crinkled surface. This surface is obtained through the use of crepe yarns (yarns that have such a high twist that the yarn kinks), and by chemical treatment with caustic soda, embossing, or weaving (usually with thicker warp yarns and thinner filling yarns). Although crepe is traditionally woven, crepe yarns are now used to produce knit crepes.

crepe-backed satin

A two-faced fabric that can be used on either side. One is satin whereas the reverse, made of twisted yarns, is crepe.

denim

A cotton twill weave fabric made of single hard-twisted yarns. The staple type has colored warp and white or undyed filling thread. When the fabric (and the look) became popular, the name denim was given to many other types of fabric, including cross-dyed fabrics and brushed fabrics, both knit and woven, that resemble true denim. Most jeans are made of denim and the most popular and traditional denim color is blue. Sports denim is softer and lighter in weight. It is now available in many colors, and in plaids and stripes. Woven-in stripes and plaids are popular for draperies, upholstery, and bedspreads.

flat crepe

A firm, medium-weight silk crepe with a soft, almost imperceptible crinkle. It has creped fillings alternating with two S and two Z twists. The surface is fairly flat. Flat crepe may also be made of man-made fibers. It is used for dresses, negligees, and blouses. See crepe de chine,

floss silk

Tangled silk waste. Floss is also a twisted silk yarn used in art needlework.

georgette

A soft, sheer dull-textured silk fabric, similar to chif­fon, made with a crepe yarn to give the fabric a crepe appearance. The crepy surface is obtained by alternating right-hand and left hand twist yarns in warp and filling. It is used for summer and evening dresses. See chiffon and crepe.

grenadine

A tightly twisted ply yarn composed of two or three singles.

homespun

Originally, fabrics made from yarns spun by hand. Today, homespun is used for fabrics that imitate this look. It is a very coarse, rough, plain-weave fabric, loosely woven with irregular, tightly twisted, and nubby, unevenly spun yarns. It is made from linen, wool, cotton, or man-made fiber, or blends in varied colors and is used for coats, suits, sportswear, draperies, upholstery, and slipcovers.

lace

A decorated openwork fabric created by looping, interlacing, braid­ing, or twisting threads. [t is made (either on a background fabric of net or without a background fabric) with a design formed by a net work of threads made by hand or on special lace machines, with bobbins, needles, or hooks. The pattern in lace is usually open and most often floral in design. Machine-made lace is most commonly seen today and many patterns formerly only made by hand, are imi­tated by machine. hace is the traditional bridal fabric, but it is also used for other nonformal clothing such as sports clothes. The fol­lowing entries are some of the major types of lace.

leno

An open, lacy woven fabric made with a special loom at­tachment. In a leno weave a pair of filling yarns twist around the warp yarns in various patterns to achieve the lacy effect. A leno weave is also made by twisting adjacent warps around each other like a figure eight. The filling passes through the twisted warps. l.eno fabrics are popular for curtains and summer dresses.

lisle

A hard, usually long-staple cottan ar wool yarn of defined length im two or more ply and with a minimum twist far a given count speci­fied by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules for hosiery.

longdoth

A fine, soft, cotton cloth woven of softly twisted yarns. It is simi­lar to nainsook but slightly heavier, with a duller surface. Longcloth is so called because it was one of the first fabrics to be woven in Iong rolls. lt is also a synonym for muslin sheeting af gaod quality. The fabric is used for underwear and linings. See nainsook and muslin sheeting.

loop yarn

The slack-twisted strand is twisted to form loops or curls. This strand is held in place by one or two binder yarns.

multifilament yarn

A yarn made of two or more filaments (long threads) of man-made fibers (monofilaments) that are joined together, usually by twistingally by twisting.

rag rug

A floor covering woven with strips of twisted rags made of cotton, wool, ür synthetic fabrics braided, crocheted, or bound and used as the filling on a cotton or synthetic yarn warp. Rag rugs are made by hand or machine, and with the exception of some handmade antique rags, usually are the most inexpensive rugs.

rough crepe

A heavy fabric of rayon, acetate, or mixtures made with alternately twisted fillings, two right and two left (2x2).

roving frame

A machine that puts a loose twist in the drawn-out sliver.

shadow stripes

Faint impressions of stripes achieved by using yarns of the same color but different twists in weaving a fabric. The shadow effect comes from the way in which the light strikes the yarns of varying twists. See twist.

sharkskin

(1) A heavy weight, fairly lustrous cotton, linen, silk, or man-made fiber fabric with a sleek, hard-finished, crisp, and pebbly surface and a chalky luster. Today, it is almost always made of acetate or triacetate. Filament yarns, when used, are twisted and woven tightly in a plain-weave or basket-weave construction, depending on the effect desired. Staple fiber yarns are handled in the same manner, except for wool. Sharkskin is best known in its stark white color especially popular for tennis outfits and for permanently pleated white skirts when they are in fashion. (2) A wool fabric in twill weave, originally made of yarns of two colors.

single yarn

One strand of fibers or filaments grouped or twisted together. See singles.

singles

A strand of several filaments held together by twist.

spinning

A method of drawing out and twisting together fibers to make a continuous thread or yarn. Spinning also refers to the manufacture of man-rnade fibers as they are formed by fcucing the material from which they are rnade through a spinneret. In conventional spinning, the tighter the twist, the stronger the yarn, but too tight a twist can weaken the final yarn. Crepe yarns have such an extremely high twist that the yarn actually turns back on itself (kinks), producing the characteristic crepe or corksc_rew look. Pabrics can be given shadow effects by the Lise of two yarns which have been twisted in opposite directions during spinning. This will strike each of these yarns in a different way producing this effect. See spinneret.

splash yarn

An elongated nub yarn that has been tightly twisted around a base yarn.

spun fiber yarn

(1) A yarn twisted by spinning. (2) Yarn made from staple lengths of man-made fibers instead of the long fiIaments in which man-made fibers are formed. To accomplish this, long filament fibers are chopped into staple lengths and spun to imitate natural fiber yarns. See filament arrd staple.

stretch fibers

Rubber or man-made plastik fibers (such as spandex and anidex) that are naturally elastic or man-rnade fibers, highly twisted, heat-set, and untwisted to leave a strong crimp. Polyester has a certain degree ol natural streich and more can iue given to the yarn in the processing or in the finishing of the fabric. Occasionally, polyester woven fabrics are described as stretch fabrics. Usually, stretch implies a degree of visible give in a fiber or fabric that stretches and then returns quickly to its original shape. Stretch fabrics are sometirnes described as elastic. Sec elastic, crimp, and recovery. See also spandex and anidex.

thread

A special type of a thin, continuous length of tightly twisted ply yarn used primarily for sewing. Thread occasionally is used instead of yarn, as in the terms warp thread and filling thread.

buttonhole twist

A thick, twisted silk cord. Buttonhole twist is lustrous and is used for topstitching. lt is also used for sewing buttons onto a garment as well as for making buttonholes or embroidery.

throwing

The combining and twisting of strands of reeled silk into tightly twisted yarn.

tow

Short flax fibers, separated by hackling (combing) from the longer fibers. Also, the poorly hackled, uneven linen yarn made from these short fibers. lt may also refer to a continuous loose rope of man made filaments drawn together without twist to be cut in lengths for spun yarn.

tram silk

A low-twist, ply silk yarn formed by combining two or three single strands.