TextileGlossary.com

A blouse most commonly refers to a woman's shirt, although the term is also used for some men's military uniform shirts. Blouses are often made of cotton or silk cloth and may or may not include a collar and sleeves. They are generally more tailored than simple knit tops, and may contain "feminine" details such as ruffles or embroidered decorations. Blouses have buttons reversed from that of a men's shirts. That is, the buttons are normally on the wearer's left-hand and the buttonholes are on the right. The reasons for this are unclear, however. Some suggest this custom was introduced by launderers so they could distinguish between women's and men's shirts, and could thus charge more for women's blouses, supposing women are more gullible and submissive. Another theory purports that the tradition arose in the middle ages when one manner of manifesting wealth was by the number of buttons one wore. Female servants were in charge of buttonning their mistresse's gowns (since the buttons were usually in the back). Tiring of attempting to button the buttons backwards, they started reversing the direction of the buttons, therefore, easing their jobs considerably.

A woven is a cloth formed by weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions (between the warp and weft directions), unless the threads are elastic. Woven cloth usually frays at the edges, unless...

A jumper dress or simply jumper (British English: pinafore dress, pinafore, pinny), is a sleeveless, collarless dress intended to be worn over a blouse or sweater. There is sometimes confusion over...

Chaps (pronounced 'shaps', and short for chaparajos) are sturdy leather coverings for the legs. They hang from one's belt, but unlike trousers they are not joined at the crotch. The most sturdy kind...

The shorter fibres separated from the longer fibres by combing during the preparatory process before spinning. Noils are a mixture of short and broken fibres, neps and vegetable matter. Noils may be...

The process of applying dyes to fibres, yarns, fabrics or garments. The type of dye, method used and liquor ratio (i.e. The amount of water used relative to the amount of fabric) has a huge influence...