WEDDING GOWN FABRICS - Weddings & Honeymoons

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| WEDDING GOWN FABRICS

HELPING YOU SELECT FABRIC TYPES
for your gown, dress or suit

Fabric facts
Fashion designers have their favourite fabrics they use to create their spectacular and classic bridal gowns. Satin and silk are the traditional fabrics. They are also the most costly. Modern technology has created a variety of weights, blends, finishes and fibres - all reflected in costs and wearability. Even velvets have blends for seasonal weddings. Silk can be blended into chiffon, faille, organza, taffeta, crêpe de chine, brocade or peau de soie. Natural cotton, linens, polyester and rayon are used for dresses as well as linings, interlinings and interfacing. Craftspeople also use technology to help them accessorize the dresses with precious stones, ribbons, cording, braiding, embroidery or covered buttons.

Once you have chosen your dress, ask about the fabric in order to know how to keep it from wrinkling, snagging or tearing.

If your dress is being made at home there are several bridal gown or special occasion patterns, fabrics, and accessories that dressmakers' supply stores carry.

Alencon lace - Delicate lace with a pattern of neatly arranged flowers and swags outlined with cord.

Batiste - Soft, seer, lightweight fabric woven in cotton, wool, silk and rayon.

Battenberg lace - Type of lace made by applying battenberg tape to a design an linking it with decorative stitching.

Bengaline - Heavyweight ribbed fabric; may be wool, cotton, rayon or silk.

Brocade - Heavyweight fabric with raised design woven on a Jacquard loom; may be silk, cotton or synthetic.

Carrickmacross - A guipure lace made in scotland with line needlepoint stitches or applique.

Chantilly lace - Delicate bobbin lace with hexagonal mesh background and floral designs.

Chameuse - Lightweight, smooth fabric woven from silk, cotton, or rayon, with slight luster.

Chiffon - Light, transparent fabric of silk, cotton, rayon, or synthetics.

Crepe charmeuse - Pebbly-textured; lays flat and clings.

Crushed velvet - Velvet with an irregular surface.

Damask - Originally silk woven on a Jacquard loom, with high luster designs on a flat background; also made of cotton, linen, or synthetics.

Dotted Swiss - See point d'esprit.

Duchesse satin - Lightweight, glossy satin-weave fabric; may be silk or rayon.

Dupioni - A thicker, coarse, slubby silk weave.

Eyelet - Cotton or linen fabric with openwork pattern "punches' out and embroidery worked around each hole.

Faille - Thick, ribbed, crisp fabric of silk or silk-rayon. See also bengaline, gros de Londres.

Georgette - Very sheet; lightweight silk, cotton or synthetic.

Gros de Londres - Fine, flat ribbed silk or rayon; see also bengaline, faille.

Guipure lace - Heavy tape lace characterized by large motifs with few connecting bars. See also carrickmacross.

Illusion - Fine tulle, maline, or net.

Jacquard - Wide vaiety of patterned dress-weight cloth made on a Jacquard loom; may be silk, rayon or synthetic.

Lame - Fabric woven with metallic threads; often blended with silk or rayon to appear to be molten silver or gold.

Linen - Crisp, lightweight fabric woven from fibers of flax plants.

Maline - Very fine net.

Marquisette - Soft, transparent net; virtually weightless.

Matelasse - Originally, silk quilted to create puckered appearance, now made of silk, cotton, rayon, wood or synthetic fibers.

Moire - Stiff, heavy, ribbed fabric with a pattern that resembles melting jagged stripes; may be silk, rayon or synthetic.

Net - Heavyweight mesh-like weave.

Organdy - Crisp, sheet, lightweight cloth; can be woven from silk or cotton.

Organza - A transparent fabric that is heaver; stiffer, and more formal than chiffon; commonly woven from rayon.

Ottoman - Heavy, luxurious, ribbed weave of silk, rayon, cotton, wool or synthetic fibers.

Paper taffeta - Very crisp taffeta.

Peau de soie - Heavy satin woven with fine ribbing, giving it a distinctive dull luster; its name means "skin of silk."

Pique - Honeycomb weave, usually cotton; often used for cuffs and collars.

Point d'esprit - Sheer, almost transparent cotton flecked with white dots; also called dotted Swiss.

Ribbon lace - Modern derivation of Battenberg and renaissance lace.

Satin - Densely woven silk with one lustrous and one matte side. also made from rayon and synthetics.

Schiffi - All-over embroidery design with running stitches instead of knots.

Shantung - Plain-weave silk o synthetic fabric with rough, randomly nubby texture, produced by weaving uneven fibers together.

Silk-faced satin - See duchesse satin.

Taffeta - Crisp, lightweight fabric with a smooth finish, made in silk, cotton, rayon and synthetics.

Tissue taffeta - Thin, almost transparent taffeta.

Tulle - Sheer mesh-like weave with hexagonal holes; made of silk, nylon or rayon. also called illusion, maline or net.

Velvet - Originally silk, now also of rayon or cotton, double-woven with a short, thick pile; plus and soft to the touch.

Velveteen - Cotton or rayon velvet; single woven.

Venise lace - Needlepoint lace of floral motifs connected with irregularly spaced bridges.

Source: The Wedding Dress by Maria McBride-Mellinger (US$40, CAN$52, Random House ISBN 0-679-41884-9).

www.WeddingsHoneymoons.com | March 25, 2008

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