All posts filed under: Learn

Terminology: Fourchette, quirks and other glove terms

For this terminology post, we’re looking at glove terms: fourchettes, quirks, tranks and points. I love these words just because they are so random and specific. Other than glove makers and fashion historians, who would know that there are specific words for the different parts of gloves? The main piece of a glove, with the back and front of the glove and the tops and bottoms of the fingers all cut in one, with only one side seam, is the trank. It’s shown in pretty pink in the photo above. Going between the fingers, and attached to the trank, is the fourchette (in lovely lavender in the coloured photo above), also called the fork or forge which is: A forked strip of material forming the sides of two adjacent fingers of a glove In other words, this bit: It is from the French, for forked, because a fourchette is forked, and allows the fingers to fork. Some fourchettes have an extra little V gusset at the bottom, called a quirk (shown in beautiful blue in …

The Sewing Workshop, 1760 Musee Reattu - Arles, France.

Terminology: What is sewing carbage? (or cabbage, or garbage)

Published by The Dreamstress

Carbage or cabbage, and more rarely garbage, is the name given to the bits of fabric left over from cutting out an item. You can see the box of ‘carbage’ under the tailors table in Amman’s woodcut. The term dates back to at least the 17th century, where it was also used for ‘shreds and patches used as padding’. In 1648 Robert Herrick wittily commented on tailors credit: Eupez for the outside of his suit has paid But for his heart, he cannot have it made The reason is, his credit cannot get The inward garbage for his cloathes as yet In another poem he complained of women’s fashions: Upon some women, Pieces, patches, ropes of haire, In-laid garbage ev’rywhere Some versions Herrick’s poems use carbage instead of garbage, and I would dearly like to know which were used in the original. Butler’s 1660s Hudibras makes clear how important cabbage was to tailors: For as tailors preserve their cabbage, So squires take care of bag and baggage In the mid-17th century play Hey for Honesty …

Terminology: What is blonde lace?

Published by The Dreamstress

One of the most striking features of Queen Adelaide’s frock in this week’s Rate the Dress is her glorious blonde lace sleeves. Perhaps you’ve read a Georgette Hayer novel and come across a description of the heroine heading out to a dinner party in a dress trimmed with blonde lace and wondered what that meant? Maybe you already knew! If not, wonder no more. ‘Blonde’ is the term used to describe the natural colour of undyed silk, and blonde lace was originally the name for a specific style of continuous bobbin lace made in France (primarily Chantilly, Caen & Bayeux) from natural, undyed silk thread imported from China. While blonde lace was originally made from undyed and unbleached silk the name later came to refer to lace in a particular style made from silk thread, even if it was bleached white, or dyed black (and occasionally other colours). In 1902 an ad offers it in white or ‘butter’, and a fashionable 1895 tea jacket is made up in ‘black blonde lace’. Sometimes different shades …