Question:
A couple weeks ago I picked up some pretty vintage fabrics at a yard sale. Two are dotted swiss but I'm not sure what to call the other. It's fairly thin, pale blue with pink roses or tulips. The flowers have white fluff on them. Would that be flocking? It is raised on both sides of the fabric.
Thanks for any help!
Answer:
Can't quite tell from the photo, but from your description I'd say YES, you've got flocked fabric!


Cheers
Answer:
Is it raised the same amount on both sides of the fabric?
Does the fluffy stuff appear to be glued down? or is it woven in and then sheared?
Is it just on the edges/ends of the petals/buds?
If you want us to tell by looking we'll need a WAY closer photo. Old eyes here...
Elaine
Answer:
How about these pics?
I really don't know if it's woven or glued. I think it's woven, I don't know why they'd glue it to both sides of the fabric. The dotted swiss is smooth on the back and raised on the front so I'd guess they are glued.
Isn't the pale lavendar fabric pretty! No questions on it really, just thought I'd show it off. It would make a gorgeous doll dress.
Answer:
Originally dotted swiss dots were extra fibers that were woven in (or maybe punched in) to the background fabric and then sheared to be fluffy (velvety) on only the front. You will be able to see how the dots are attached by looking with a magnifying glass at the back of the dot areas.
Eventually they developed a way to electrostatically add the fluffiness/suede-feeling dots to the front of the fabrics (what I meant when I said 'glued') - these can be heat-applied or glued. I suppose they could be on both the front and the back, but I personally haven't seen any like that.
Elaine (who is saying all this from memory and really should go look it up in her reference books instead...)