Muslin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Muslim.
"Muslin gauze" redirects here. For American English usage of "muslin", see Calico (textile).
"Sindon" redirects here. For other uses, see Sindon (disambiguation).

A woman in Dhaka clad in fine Bengali muslin, 18th-century

Marie Antoinette in her famous "muslin" portrait, 1783
Woman's muslin dress, Europe, c. 1855. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.2007.211.755.

In 2013, the traditional art of weaving Jamdani muslin in Bangladesh was included in the list of
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.[7]

Contents
1 Etymology and history
2 Uses

o 2.1 Dress-making and sewing

o 2.2 Shellac polishing

o 2.3 Culinary

o 2.4 Theater and photography

o 2.5 Medicine

3 Notes

4 References

5 See also

Etymology and history

Muslin (AmE: Muslin gauze) from French mousseline, from Italian mussolina, from Mussolo
Mosul (Mosul, Iraq, where Some believe Crusaders of the First Crusade found the cloth in the
Middle East and brought it back to Europe.[10][verification needed]

Subsequently, the word Muslin found its place in various European languages as French
mousseline, Italian mussolina etc.,

In 1298, Marco Polo described the cloth in his book The Travels. He said it was made in Mosul,
Iraq.[11] During the Roman period Khadi muslin was introduced in Europe and a vast amounts of
fabrics were traded to Europe for many centuries.[13] It became highly popular in 18th-century
France and eventually spread across much of the Western world. Brutality to muslin weavers was
intense, William Bolts noting in 1772 that "instances have been known of their cutting off their
thumbs to prevent their being forced to wind silk."[14]:194 At the end of the 16th century the
English traveler Ralph Fitch greatly admired the muslin of Sonargaon. The Portuguese traveler
Duarte Barbosa described the muslin of Bangladesh in the early 16th century. He mentioned a
few types of fabrics, such as estrabante (sarband), mamona, fugoza, choutara, and sinabaka.[15] In
present day, many different types of muslins are produced in many different places, including
Dhaka.

The word muslin is also used colloquially. In the United Kingdom, many sheer cotton fabrics are
called muslin, while in the United States, muslin sometimes refers to a firm cloth for everyday
use, which in the UK and Australia is known as calico.

Under British rule, the British East India company could not compete with the local Muslin with
their own export of cloth to India. Muslin production was repressed and the knowledge
eradicated. Local weavers were systematically rounded up and their hands mutilated with
removal of their thumbs.[16][17][18]

Uses
Dress-making and sewing

In Advantages of wearing Muslin Dresses! (1802), James Gillray caricatured

When sewing clothing, a dressmaker may test the fit of a garment, using an inexpensive muslin
fabric before cutting pieces from expensive fabric, thereby avoiding potential costly mistakes.
This garment is often called a "muslin," and the process is called "making a muslin." In this
context, "muslin" has become the generic term for a test or fitting garment, regardless of what it
is made from.

Muslin is also often used as a backing or lining for quilts, and thus can often be found in wide
widths in the quilting sections of fabric stores.

Shellac polishing

Muslin is used as a French polishing pad.

Culinary

Main article: Cheesecloth

Muslin can be used as a filter:

In a funnel when decanting fine wine or port to prevent sediment from entering the
decanter
To separate liquid from mush (for example, to make apple juice: wash, chop, boil, mash,
then filter by pouring the mush into a muslin bag suspended over a jug)
To retain a liquidy solid (for example, in home cheese-making, when the milk has curdled
to a gel, pour into a muslin bag and squash between two saucers (upside down under a
brick) to squeeze out the liquid whey from the cheese curd)

Muslin is used when making traditional Fijian Kava as a filter.

Beekeepers use muslin to filter melted beeswax to clean it of particles and debris.

Theater and photography

It also holds dyes well. It is often used to create nighttime scenes because when dyed, it often
gets a wavy look with the color varying slightly, such that it resembles a night sky. Muslin
shrinks after it is painted or sprayed with water, which is desirable in some common techniques
such as soft-covered flats.

In video production as well, muslin is used as a cheap greenscreen or bluescreen, either pre-
colored or painted with latex paint (diluted with water). It is commonly used as a background for
the chroma key technique.

Muslin is the most common backdrop material used by photographers for formal portrait
backgrounds. These backdrops are usually painted, most often with an abstract mottled pattern.

In the early days of silent film-making, and up until the late 1910s, movie studios did not have
the elaborate lights needed to illuminate indoor sets, so most interior scenes were sets built
outdoors with large pieces of muslin hanging overhead to diffuse sunlight.

Medicine
A first-aid packet of 5m of "hydrophilic muslin", given to Italian soldiers in World War I

Surgeons use muslin gauze in cerebrovascular neurosurgery to wrap around aneurysms or

intracranial vessels at risk for bleeding.[19] The thought is that the gauze reinforces the artery and
helps prevent rupture. It is often used for aneurysms that, due to their size or shape, cannot be
microsurgically clipped or coiled.[20]

Muslin is also commonly used in the manufacture of bandages. It provides a compact yet strong
improvised material in emergency medicine, and is used for slings, swaths, and tourniquets