Marceline (sometimes marcelline or merceline) is a type of grain fabric made from taffeta-silk but more pronounced than plain
taffeta
Taffeta (archaically spelled taffety or taffata) is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk, cuprammonium rayons, acetate, and polyester. The word is Persian (تافته) in origin and means "twisted woven". As clothing, it is used in ...
.
Its main usage is in the
linings in
hatmaking
Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter.
Historically, milliners, typically women shopkeepers, produced or imported an inventory of g ...
or in women's dresses but there are other applications.
Its threads are crossed "in groups in a two-pass report, are individually introduced in the meshes of the heights so that they are fixed exactly and parallel in their crosses with the weft".
The 1893 US Supreme Court case ''
Cadwalader v. Wanamaker'' addressed the question of whether marcelines or "chinas" should be considered
trimmings for tariff purposes. It was classified by the US as a
sheer fabric
Sheer fabric is fabric which is made using thin thread or low density of knit. This results in a semi-transparent and flimsy cloth. Some fabrics become transparent when wet.
Overview
The sheerness of a fabric is expressed as a numerical denier ...
.
In "Journées de Lecture",
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
recalls having a marceline quilt in his room "...la jonchée de couvre-pieds en marceline...".
References
{{Textile-arts-stub
Woven fabrics