How can I tell between Cotton and Linen?

[Cpt. Alva]

Just wondering if there's any particular way to tell.

I strongly suspect my britches are Linen, but not enough to put money on it.

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Best way is to get a swatch of linen to look at up close. It be hard to describe somthing like that over the 'net. Pictures would help, but I can't get good close ups to put up here. Try to find a good fabric store and see if they don't have a swatch to hand out to ya, or take the breeches along for comparison.

Bo

[michaelsbagley]

This isn't a definitive way of telling the difference....

But if you look really close at cotton fibres (the threads that make up the weave of the peice of cloth), they will usually be somewhat frizzy... I'm not talking all out shaggy, but a subtle almost barely perceptable frizz.

Linen will more often than not have very straight fibres, no frizz, but occassionally linen will have slubs (little almost nubbley bit in the fibres).

[Mick MacAnselan]

If your breeches have any 'raw' fabric edges visible, see if they have 'unraveled' from the edge to the seam (or will easily unravel if you pull at the loose threads). In my experience, that'd most likley be linen.

[Patrick Hand]

Linen has a slightly soapy feel to it, and wrinkles differently....

Grab a fist full of it and scrunch it up.... cotton will wrinkle, but the wrinkles wont be quite as sharp as they are with linen. But unless you've played with the two, it is kinda hard to tell.....

[theM.A.dDogge]

personally i just look at the SPELLING.....COTTON starts with a "C"....LINEN starts with a "L"

[HildeKitten]

If it's lightweight and wrinkles like it has no tomorrow then it's likely linen :)

But without pictures I really can't tell I'm afraid.

[Matty Bottles]

In my experience, when you dry linen in the clothes dryer, it produces copious amounts of very fine, very soft lint.

"What?" you may say, "Why, so does cotton!"

Ah, but when you have a handful of lint from linen, the texture is so softer you can't help but notice. And seriously, you will wonder at the sheer volume of lint that comes of a linen garment. It'll blow your gourd, dude.

[CrazyCholeBlack]

the wrinkle test is the easiest in my experience.

You could also try the Drying Twist Test described in Identification of textile fibres"

Make a fiber thoroughly wet then remove excess water with a tissue. Grasp one end with the tweezers and hold the free end over the heat source (like a hot plate). Observe the movement of the fiber as it dries by pointing the free end directly towards you.

• clockwise

- linen, ramie and nettle

• anticlockwise

- hemp and most other fibers

• alternating clockwise and anticlockwise

- cotton

One tip is to glue a tiny piece of square paper to the end of the fiber to magnify the movement.

There is also the burn test, but linen & cotton burn very similarly. In my experience the one difference is that the fibers closest to the ash is very brittle in linen, not so much with cotton.

HTH. Have fun!

[LadyBarbossa]

What cottons and linens I have and have had... what I've seen is what Patrick said... Linen does wrinkle easily. But, as Will Red Wake stated to me, Linen is indeed more comfortable in the long run, especially in the warmer months.

Cotton can be finer and smaller threads (that's what I've seen most of the time) than linens. You can get the rare finer thread high count linen but that will cost you some pretty doubloons! And the two old linens I have are VERY old antiquish that belonged to my grandma and stepdad's mom.

My suggestion, hun... is to obtain swatches of the real thing of both cotton and linen.

The best way you will learn about fabrics... is to research, learn, look, etc. The more you know, the more powerful you are.

But, I even had a half linen half rayon shirt (not period) and it was still the most confortable shirt I ever had.

~Lady B