This is also where the saying 'get down to brass tacks' started. The

general store would have the measurements on counter marked off, or a

yardstick tacked to the counter. The measurements would be marked off in

sections with the yard distinquisted by a brass tack from the inch to

the 36 inch mark. If the shop keep was lazy, or didn't want to bother,

and try to use the nose to the finger, or whatever, they'd tel

him..."Get to the brass tacks"....they wanted an ACCURATE yardage!

hahaha..kb

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 00:08:45 EDT

From: @aol.com

We do it in New England, too, so it's probably universal....

Karen Evans

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 00:58:13 -0400

From: "J. G. Row" <Judygrow@blast.net

they also taught me that from thumb knuckle to fingertip was an inch.

I just measured both my thumbs, nuckle to tip.  One thumb was over an inch,

the other under.  Spooky

Judy in Ringoes, NJ

judygrow@blast.net

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 12:02:36 -0600

From: Maury Bynum <maurybynum@textileconservators.com

As we are all different, I would suggest taking a tape or yard stick and

measuringfrom the tip of our fingers to some known place that would be a

yard, or from fingertip to elbow (Maybe a half yard?)  Maury

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 13:05:03 -0600

From: Russell-Hill <russhill@ctesc.net

I am looking for some help.  This is not really quilt related but it is

fabric related.  Does anyone out there know when cordoroy was available?  I

know that velvet dates way back but am not sure about cordoroy.  I wish to

use it in  vintage clothes but if it is to modern I can't.  Thanks for your

help.

Debbie

russhill@ctesc.net

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 12:26:01 -0700

From: Sharon Harleman Tandy <harleman@micron.net

To: russhill@ctesc.net

CC: qhl@cuenet.com

Subject: QHL: Corduroy

Message-ID: <36337B49.70C8@micron.net

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Debbie,

  Although I don't have the dates, this I do know:

1. corduroycord du royroad of the king, from the French, referring to

the corded (logs or tree trunks laid crosswise) road upon which only the

king was to travel

2. corduroy was once known as fustian[old French: fustainetree trunk]

which was A. a strong cotton and linen fabric, B. a class of cotton

usually having a pile face and twill weave.

3. I believe I've read that Benjamin Franklin once wore a suit of

fustian. 

(I 'edited' the derivation part of the definition just a tad.)  Now, if

anyone else has the dates, I'd love to hear it also.  Sharon.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 12:31:15 -0700

From: Sharon Harleman Tandy <harleman@micron.net

To: russhill@ctesc.net

CC: qhl@cuenet.com

Subject: QHL: Corduroy

Message-ID: <36337C83.5B6A@micron.net

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Debbie, Sorry, left out part.  Corduroy[origin unknown](1774) 1. a. a

durable usually cotton pile fabric with vertical ribs or wales, 2. a

road built of logs laid side by side transversely.

Use of the word as a verblaying such a road has a date of 1854!  All

this came from my Webster's Ninth Collegiate.  Sharon.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 14:36:45 EST

From: Palampore@aol.com

To: QHL@cuenet.com

Subject: QHL: AQSG CONFERENCE & Restoration Helper

Message-ID: <64b2ef4a.36337dcd@aol.com

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The AQSG Conference was superb!  The lecture topics were:

1)Mary Susan Rice and the Missionary Quilt (Very informative about 1840's

signature quilts of New England)

2)A stitch in Crime:  Quilt Detective Fiction (I will surely be adding some

books to my reading list.)

3) Learning to Quilt with Grandma Mary Sibley: Gift Labor, Traditional

Quiltmaking, and Contemporary Art  (A great tribute to a woman who began

quilting in her 60's is now in her 80's and has made 200 quilts.)

4)The Life and Quilts of Ida Stover Eisenhower (They gave us a super overview

of life as a mother and quilter during hard times.)

5)Stitches in Time:  The Development of Cotton Sewing Thread (This will be

used for years as a guide and to help further research.)

6)The Quilt Designers of North East England (I was a true novice to this and

was totally fascinated.)

As you can see this is an UNCOVERINGS that many of us will be using over and

over in our "quilt lives".  Go to their web page to order a copy.

In addition to the wonderful lectures the other portions of the weekend were

also outstanding.  We got to meet lots of QHL folks and to recruit a few more.

We all spent tons of money at the "stores" either from book dealers/authors,

vendors of vintage textiles, or at the silent & live auctions.  Show & tell

was a learning experience for all.  Lots more to add but just not enough time

to cover it all.   I personally want to thank all of the folks who did such a

grand job getting the weekend together.  It was well worth the long drive from

NC.

I am working on a restoration project this week and came up with a little

helpful hint I wanted to share.  I needed to know the exact size of the block

I was duplicating.  From there I needed to see if I had that much fabric in a

vintage block I was thinking of cutting up to use in the restoration.  Didn't

want to ruin fabric block to then find that it wasn't quite right.  Could have

measured but wanted to also make the flowers fit just so.  To solve this

problem I cut out the side of a 1 gal. plastic milk jug.  Placed the plastic

over the block and traced what I needed with a permanent marker.  Cut it out

with the seam allowance I needed.  Then used that as a template over fabric #2

to decide if it would work well in the restoration.  The main idea isn't new

but I thought the use of the milk carton might be.  Hope it will help others.

I also use the sides of milk cartons to "hold" together color coordinated

outfits for my mother in the nursing home.  Anyone wanting info. on that email

me privately.

I went to a quilt show yesterday in my county and saw 7 fabulous pre-1900

quilts which were done by a mother/daughter team.  Family had pictures of the

women, a diary, autograph book, etc.  They also had a fabulous cigarette silk

quilt.  It was made of silks with only women's pictures and signatures.  They

were from Old Mill Cigarettes.  In the center was a large silk ad for Old Mill

Cigarettes with a picture of an old mill.  The older ladies there thought all

of the women were silent movie stars.

Any thoughts on this?  It was found in a trunk 2 years ago in a chicken coup.

Sorry to run on so----but it's been a productive week and I wanted to share.

Lynn Lancaster Gorges, Textile Conservator, NewBern, NC

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 19:19:11 -0600

From: "Gail Richter" <richter2@frontiernet.net

To: <QHL@cuenet.com

Subject: QHL: yard

Message-Id: <199810260125.UAA257966@node21.frontiernet.net

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I think it must be a fairly universal  "yardstick". We, or at least

I,

do it here in Australia. Although our measure is the Metre which is

slightly longer than the yard, so now I turn my face to the left and

measure from my right hand. It is always so close.

Hi,

I've been doing this forever, too.  I can't even remember who taught

me, but probably my mother.  I also have to turn my head to the left to

get a yard.  Short arms, I guess.

Gail R

In Wisconsin

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 16:56:28 -0500

From: Alan Kelchner <quiltfix@mail.jax.bellsouth.net

To: qhl@cuenet.com

Subject: QHL: holding it at arm's length

Message-ID: <36339E8C.2E6E@mail.jax.bellsouth.net

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This guy does the nose to fingertip measuring, too, when he can't find a

size-label! Really handy. And I grew up in New York State, my parents in

Pennsylvania.

Another general measuring tip I learned about a year ago - a yard of

fabric wraps around the bolt *twice* (yard would be bigger on the start

of a new bolt, and smaller at the end). I found this fantastic

upholstery-weight fabric I wanted to use for curtains, but needed to

find out if there was enough (everyone else seemed to love this

particular bolt of Walmart $1/yd fabric). Needless to say, I was

dumbfounded when the girl/lady/woman started counting the layers! I

asked, and that's when I found this out - I've even actually used it

since. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough yardage.

Maybe the manufacturers planned it this way? (yeah, right).

Alan

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 00:50:08 EST

From: TeresitaF@aol.com

My two cents.....such an interesting topic!

One of my favorite folk song's refrain goes like this

there's a web like a spiders web

made of silver, light and shadow

spun by the moon in my room at night

it's a web made to catch a dream

hold it tight til I awaken

as if to tell me my dream is alright

he Native American culture talks of Spider Grandmother as well.......

Terri

Oklahoma City

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 01:41:48 EST

From: TeresitaF@aol.com

In history class (boy, this is pulling information out of the deep recesses of

the mind!!!), we were taught that the English measurements differed slightly

due to who was the King at the time......a yard was the measurement from the

king's nose to his fingertip.....the inch was the measurement from the outer

knuckle on the thumb to the tip, etc. 

Interesting if true........

Terri

Oklahoma City

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 09:20:56 -0000

From: "Sally Ward" <sward@t-ward.demon.co.uk

My sources agree with Sharon about the King's Road made of logs, but

suggest that the road was named after the fabric rather than the fabric

after the road.  An old French dictionary says one of many meanings of

'corde' was a thread, - the old Fr. phrase for threadbare cloth being

<cloth which shows its 'corde'

Corduroy when worn by the King of France in the chase was corded silk,

but could also be a coarse, thick, ribbed cotton or cotton/wool mix -

which brings us to Fustian which seems to have been many things to many

people.  This is so interesting I  am off to the British Library to do

some research. (Its Monday morning and I should be ironing - can you

tell?)  I'll let you know if I come up with some dates.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 13:01:05 -0000

From: "Sally Ward" <sward@t-ward.demon.co.uk

On the BL Reading Room computer I found lots of interesting reference

books, but from just two of them I got the following:

'5,000 Years of Textiles' - Hennifer Harris (1993)

George Cabot had an integrated mill (combining hand-carding, spinning

and weaving) in Beverley, Massachusettes founded in 1787 which made a

variety of cloths including corduroy, jean, denim, marseilles

(double-cloth) quilting (can anyone tell me what that might have been?) 

muslin and dimity.

'Encylcopaedia of Textiles' by the editors of American Fabrics and

Fashions Magazine (does that still exist?) first published in 1960, with

several reprints.:

1783 - popular textiles of this period included: Bed Tickings, Bird's

Eye, CORDUROY, Dimotys (sic.), Denim, Feathered Stripes, Fustian, Jean,

Jeanett, Ribclure, Ribdurant, Royal Rib, Satin-Stripes, Satinett,

Satin-cord, Stockinett, Thicksett and Zebray   (I just *have* to go back

another day and find out about some of these)

Cord-du-Roi originated in France during the 17th Century,  It was first

made in worsted yarn (so much for my source which said silk?)

'Bedford Cord,' of similar appearance to corduroy  was  first made in

Bedford, England but is also claimed by New Bedford, Massachusettes

where it was made as early as 1845

(Is there a reason why Mass. appears twice in these references - was it

a weaving centre?)

'Fustian' was a low quality coarse cotton and linen cloth first made in

the Fustat or ghetto area outside the City of Cairo (no date given). 

The Egyptians used an double-cloth construction to make this which,

despite being regarded as an inferior material gave long wear.  Some

better grade cloths were made of linen.

The Fustian of today (written in 1960) has changed little from the

original material and implies, as a generic term, the rather high pick

heavy cotton goods on the order of beaverteen, CORDUROY, doeskin,

moleskin and velveteen.

Which reminded me - when I visited a 'living history' castle jail in

Scotland, there were 'inmates' walking around wearing clothes of

moleskin, which we were told were authentic to the period (17-1800s). 

The chap wearing them told us they were very comfortable and hardwearing

with great resistance to the Scottish winds.

Regards

Sally in UK (lucky enough to live minutes away from the British

Library's northern outpost)

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 07:05:38 -0700

From: Sharon Harleman Tandy <harleman@micron.net

To: sward@t-ward.demon.co.uk

CC: QHL@cuenet.com

Subject: QHL: Corduroy and other terms

Message-ID: <363481B2.4D4D@micron.net

Content-Type: text/plain; charsetus-ascii

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Good morning QHLers,

  This seems to be a good time to ask: Since I upgraded to Windows95

last May I lost many good websites, including the Canadian one with the

textile terminoloy dictionary.  Anyone out there have the URL?  I've

surfed for it and couldn't find it. 

  In my post on corduroy, it was a surprise to find an older date for

the textile than for the road in Websters!  Back to 'real' work, see you

later, Sharon.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 08:59:01 -0600

From: Russell-Hill <russhill@ctesc.net

I want to thank everyone for the responces to my question on cordoroy.  I

make clothes for myself and husband for the periods of 1830's to 1890's.  I

also sew for the public concentrating on the 1890's but will create any

period that they need as long as it is in that range.  I will be using the

cordoroy for a short gown worn in the 1830's.  I have alot of it and needed

some warm clothes since we are out side even in Dec and Feb.(this is Texas)

and it can be nice during the day or it can be down right nasty.  I have

reenacted side by side with some who just don't get the idea that 1776

styles where not worn in 1830's.  So if I have to be s stickler about

wearing what is appropriate for the time period you are living than I need

to be correct as well.  I strive very hard in our clothing right down to

your camp.

Again thanks and I will feel much better wearing my nice warm short gown.

Debbie

russhill@ctesc.net

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 15:01:54 EST

From: SudaNim@aol.com

</lurk

I accidentally deleted the wonderful bit of history and Shakespearean analysis

re fabric widths and Weaver's Bottom...Does anyone still have a copy to

forward to me?  Many thanks.

<lurk

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 21:03:08 EST

From: @aol.com

Corduroy is definitely pre-colonial.  I'm not sure if it was used in quilts,

but it's certainly old enough that it could have been used in an applique or a

utility quilt in the 19th century.

Karen Evans