10 Search Results for: Voile lawn

The ideal WWI figure Part IV: staying fashionable and supporting a full bust, 1910s style

In Part IV of The Ideal WWI Figure, let’s look at how women with full busts achieved support and the fashionable silhouette of the period. Part I: The Ideal WWI Figure: a range of Ideals Part II: Breaking Down the Elements that Made the ‘Ideal’ figure Part III: The Changing Ideal Figure, 1913-1921 One of the most common questions I get asked about the Rilla Corset is how to wear it/what you do for bust support if you are very full busted, as it sits below the bust. To answer that question, let’s go back to the source, and look at period accounts, illustrations, and extant examples of bust supporting garments. There is no better way to find out how to support your bust then to see how it was actually done in period. As we’ve seen from looking at the figure ideals in the 1910s over the last three posts in the series, the ideal WWI bust, whether small or big, was low and drooping, rather than high and perky, as is the modern …

Terminology: What’s the difference between worsted & woolen wool fabrics?

Published by The Dreamstress

If you have ever gone shopping for wool fabrics you may have seen some of the fabric described as worsted, and some of it described as woolen. If you are me, you may have wondered what this meant. Aren’t all wool fabrics woolen? I mean, they are wool, right? Not quite! In brief, worsted and woolen are different types of wool (long staple vs short staple), prepared in different ways, resulting in a different look and feel. Under magnification, worsted yarns look smooth with long fibres, and woolen yarns are much hairier, with lots of short fibres and more pokey-out bits. Worsted wools are slick when woven, woolen wools are knitted, crocheted, or woven into softer, fluffier fabric, or fulled fabric. Worsted wools are better at keeping out the wind and rain, but woolen wools are warmer, because they are full of air which acts as insulation. Worsted is also used to describe a particular way of spinning yarn, or weight of yarn, but I’m not going to go into that because it’s a modern …

Brocade and jacquard – what’s the difference? (or, the history of the jacquard loom, and all the weaves it can create)

Published by The Dreamstress

A long time ago, when I posted the difference and between muslin, voile, lawn, and batiste (among other fabrics), someone asked if I could explain the difference between brocade and jacquard. I took a deep breath, and say “Yes, but it will take a while.” It certainly has, because it’s actually quite a big question, and there is so much confusion around it! A lot of the confusion come from the fact that while the appearance of brocade has stayed very similar throughout history, the method of creating it has changed drastically. Prior to 1801 brocades were woven on hand operated draw-looms by master weavers, who manually created the elaborate brocade patterns as they were woven in with the help of a drawboy, who stood on a perch above the loom. Then, in 1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard demonstrated a new invention (albeit one based partly on a series of inventions from the 1740s-60s) – a loom which ran on cards with holes punched in them. Each card represented one line of a pattern, with the …