Customer Rating:  
Summary: exhaustively researched but hard for beginners
Comment: This book is chock full of great detail about various types of fabrics, and presents a written description for each, and photos of the fabrics (some enlarged for detail) along with vintage advertisements for many.
There are also indexes detailing various manufacturers, brand names, etc. Several pages are devoted to charts showing how the widths of various types of fabrics have varied through the decades, making dating fabrics easier. There's also information on how to do burn tests (burning a swatch of fabric or some threads) to determine the fiber content.
The only problem is, there should be a glossary. As a beginner, I'm not familiar with much of the terminology used. I read this book with my dictionary at hand, and that doesn't always enlighten me.
I know this book was exhaustively researched; the authors seem very, very knowledgeable. But, I would like to find a book which is just a bit more basic & would give clearer explanations.
Despite this flaw, I would still recommend this book - as someone newly interested in vintage fabrics & trims I'm glad I have it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not A Book For Beginners
Comment: This book has been painstakingly researched and offers an unbelievable amount of information but if you are a fabric beginner this book is very hard to use. There is no glossery of terms and if you are not familiar with the vocabulary of fabric it is hard to decipher the information. I have read the book through once and as a beginner I am frustrated because I do not know enough about the subject to understand what is being presented.
I am sure that this is book has a lot of information to offer but not to a person who is new to the subject.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Packed with information
Comment: The authors set their book apart from other vintage fabric reference books by the use of catalog ads, labels, and close-up photos of fabric weave to further enable vintage fabric identification. The underlying theme of the book is to help dealers, collectors, quilters, appraisers and textile historians identify and name vintage fabrics.
Much of what is found in unused vintage fabric remnants, quilts, and clothing have an unknown origin due to lack of manufacturers names printed on selvages, labels, or receipts, as the authors note. We need to dig deep for accurate dating information, because unlike other antiques, collectibles and dolls, vintage fabrics often times don't have a manufacturers mark. The authors certainly dug deep, the amount of information, ads, labels, and extensive color photos of vintage fabrics would take any collector or historian years to accumulate and do accurate research on. Fortunately for the reader, the logical layout of this information packed book will not lend to a feeling of being overwhelmed, but rather eager to read the next fabric description, view the rich color photos, and look at each ad as it relates to the fabric.
Common marketplace cotton, silk, and wool fabrics dating from 1880 - 1959 are covered. Fabrics are described by weaves, the fabric relative, appearance, when the fabric showed up on the scene, weight, and what the fabric was used for, accompanied by ads and labels of that time period. For further correct identification, the authors also inform of the names that fabrics are commonly mistaken for, as well as handy information of look-alike fabrics. The close-up photos of weave appearance are the next best things to having the actual fabric in front of you.
Especially interesting are the ads that show the date of the ad and the original price per yard of a fabric. For example, on page 13, an ad from a 1939 - 1940 Montgomery catalog shows a Hi Ho Lone Ranger broadcloth cotton fabric for 19 cents per yard.
This greatly benefits the collector that may have for example, a printed cotton remnant with an original but undated department store price sticker.
A novel approach the authors took in regards to the study of vintage fabrics is bias tapes, noted as an "often overlooked" fabric field, and labeled as the "narrow fabrics field" in the book. From the book you'll learn the 1920's - 1940's were the height of popularity of bias tape. This is another clue to help with the identification of vintage fabrics.
Lastly but not least, and something new to the marketplace, is a price guide, and selvage width guide. The width chart is of importance, because fabric width is clue number one to identify the age of a vintage fabric. A comprehensive list of brand names and mills further helps with dating. This is a must have book for any vintage fabric reference library.
Nan Jaeger
Revival Fabrics
http://www.revivalfabrics.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: for textile collectors, costumers, and 20th century fabric history
Comment: This is a terrific book to guide us in correctly identifying a fabric by its weave structure and other characteristics that do not include the dyes or prints. The swatches are dated. This book fills a big gap in the books most quilt and quilt historians read. Of course it will appeal to all types of textile addicts, but what sets this book apart from the usual textile and fiber ID books is its plethora of vintage illustrations and advertisements, catalogue and newspaper photos, textile selvedge and paper labels, and fashion plates. It is colorful, quaint, cozy, fun to look at, and filled with information that is fascinating, useful and much of it will be new to many readers from the quilt world. Joan, an expert in fabric weave identification, compiled the information from her many years of collecting and studying a period of time in textile history she loves so dearly.
Also, there are many other useful charts in the book: thread count per inch by fiber type, grade and quality; burn tests with drawings of the fiber close-up; drawings of common weave patterns; names of manufacturers with their various products by date, and textile mills history are briefly described and some vintage photos taken inside the mills and outside are included. There is some info about synthetic fabrics, when certain types came on the market and under what name.
Fabric collectors and student costumers would find this book useful for the many advertisements of clothes that are dated. Re-enactors and stage costumers can easily see what fabrics were used for which clothing and when. This book could help a novice clothes collector or small museum, date and identify the items in their collections.
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