View source for Nainsook

{{short description|Soft, lightweight, plain-woven cotton fabric}}
{{wikt | nainsook}}
[[File:For the Little Folks (fashion vignette 1904).jpg|thumb|"The little girl's dress is of white China scilk ([[sic]]). The [[yoke (clothing)|yoke]] is covered with all-over-lace. The ruffles are hemmed up and [[featherstitch|feather-stitched]]. The child's dress is of white nainsook with hemstitching and insertion."]]

'''Nainsook''' is a soft, fine, lightweight form of [[muslin]].<ref name=Merriam>{{cite web |title=Nainsook |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Nainsook |website=Merriam Webster |publisher=Merriam Webster, Inc. |access-date=27 October 2014}}</ref><ref name=Oxford>{{cite web | title=Nainsook |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/nainsook |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105110114/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/nainsook |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 5, 2014 |website=Oxford Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=27 October 2014}}</ref> Muslin encompasses a broad range of [[fabric]]s of varying weight and fineness, but is always a [[plain weave]], [[cotton]] fabric. The [[English language | English]] word 'nainsook', documented from 1790 onwards,<ref>
{{oed | nainsook}}
</ref>
derives from the [[Hindi]] word {{translit | hi | nainsukh}}, which literally means "eye's delight".<ref name="Merriam"/>

Nainsook was often used to make [[Infant clothing|babies' clothing]] or lingerie at least until the 1920s.<ref name=Wells>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=Jane Warren |title=Dress and Be Slender |publisher=International Textbook Publishers |location=Scranton, PA |date=1924}}</ref> Nainsook cotton was also often used to make [[bias tape]] in the 1950s and 1960s.

==See also==
*[[Lawn cloth]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Fabric}}
{{Weaving}}

[[Category:Woven fabrics]]

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