Woven and interlocking materials
Plastic canvas is an embroidery canvas made from plastic. It has been commercially available since the 1970's. It is made from a lightweight vinyl with regularly spaced holes. It comes in various mesh counts, notably 5, 7, 10 and 14 holes per inch. The most widely used form is the 7-mesh version.
Plush is an English term used to describe a shaggy, hairy kind of cloth that is used for clothing or upholstery. The pile or nap is softer and longer than that of velvet and resembles fur. There are accounts of plush dating back to at least the sixteenth century. Plush can be made of a variety of fibre types, including camel hair, cotton, goat hair, silk, wool, or some combination of these. In addition, the length of the pile can also vary.
Poplin, also known as popeline or tabinet/tabbinet, is a type of plain weave that produces a fine, but thick cloth. It is generally made of cotton, but the most expensive, and original poplin is made from silk with wool.
Rug canvas has a meshof strong, cotton threads. This type of canvas is made by twisting two warp threads around each other lengthwise, and locking them around two weft threads at regular intervals. This locking action is required to ensure that the threads cannot be separated and that they make a stable ground material.
Sammal is an obscure late nineteenth century term for a type of woollen cloth used for certain types of ecclesiastical embroidery in Northern Europe.
Satin cloth is a type of woven material that has a glossy surface and a dull reverse. This effect is achieved through a satin weave.
Saai is the name for a type of woollen serge, produced widely in Britain and Ireland in the late Medieval and later periods. It was also produced, among others, in the Dutch city of Leiden, where it was one of thes even principal textiles industries.
Serge is a twill weave cloth with diagonal lines on both sides. The worsted woollen variety was used in Britain for military uniforms, right until the second half of the 20th century; silk serge was used for linings. Sturdy, but itchy, and absorbing huge amounts of water, which made it difficult to dry out.
In the late nineteenth century, the term stamped plush was used to describe strips about 10-15 cm wide that were used to decorate the borders of curtains, upholstery and so forth.
Stamped Utrecht velvet is a mid- to late nineteenth century term for a type of stamped velvet that was used to decorate furniture. It was often embroidered.
Taffeta is a general term for a group of fabrics that are smooth, thin and shiny. They are made from a tabby weave (as opposed to satin cloth, which is a shiny fabric made from a satin weave). It normally has a finely ribbed effect created by the weft threads being heavier than the warp threads.
Tamis is a coarse worsted cloth, originally used for straining sauces. The term derives from the French word tamis (‘sieve’). It is now sometimes used as the ground material for coarse forms of embroidery. The word is also used for a sieve, especially for Indian cooking (also known as a drum sieve or chalni).
Tammy cloth is a coarse, union (a mixture of two different types of fibres) cloth made of cotton and worsted (wool). The word derives from tamis, which is a cloth originally used for sieving (see French tamis, ‘sieve’). It is also called tammies. It should not be confused with ‘tammy’, the abbreviation for a Tam o’Shanter, a form of woollen bonnet used in Scotland.