Iceblossom

From time to time I will mention the historical significance of the miracle fiber/fabric of cotton. The desire and need for it fueled many things from colonization/slave trade to the development of railroads and complex machinery and the start of computers... Here's a fascinating story of Dhaka Muslin and attempts to bring back the plant, the skills, and the material:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2...ws-how-to-make

Lena1952

Thank you for posting. This was a wonderful article. As a spinner and weaver, I found it fascinating.

WMUTeach

Thank you for the post and link. I read an abundance of historical novels and they often mention gowns made of muslin. I know those references are NOT to the extraordinarily fine muslin of this article by Zaria Gorvett, but rather to a finer version of cotton fabric than what we think of today as muslin. The article sent me off on my own little adventure of discovery about the difference between muslin, lawn and voile used in garments in the past and mentioned often in novels. All three types of garment fabric were lovely and airy and often embellished with tucks and embroidery but they must have been work intensive to make and maintain. Thus the need for specialized servants and seamstresses I suppose. But none of the cotton fabrics were as transparent and fine as Dhaka Muslin. Our quilting muslin is a far, far different product and we are using it for a different purpose as did society in the past who used muslin in different weights and weaves for sturdy utilitarian items.

History is such a marvelous thing. Thank you again, Ice.

Iceblossom

Here's another interesting article about wool weaving for the vikings and Icelandic peoples. Couldn't do a direct link to scientific american without a paywall popup, but the pocket link works fine:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/v...emendous-power

Hubby and I have had a fun talk related to this about dying and how he never thought of Indigo as a plant and other such things.

When I was in college, I was able to turn almost any paper assignment into something about quilting or fabric...