Duck

1. A term used in Scotland to describe a degree of bleaching.
2. A closely woven, plain-weave fabric similar to canvas usually made from cotton or linen yarns. The names canvas and duck have become almost generic and are usually qualified by terms that indicate the use of the fabric, e.g., Royal Navy canvas, artist's canvas, duck suiting, belting duck.

Duck Eye

See SPINNING.

Duffel

A heavy low-grade fabric, napped on both sides, made from woollen yam. Generally it is made up for short coats referred to as duffel coats (Duffel, near Antwerp). (See also flushing.)

Duffle

A heavy low-grade fabric, napped on both sides, made from woollen yam. Generally it is made up for short coats referred to as duffel coats (Duffel, near Antwerp). (See also flushing.)

Dull

Lacking in lustre.

Dullness (of a colour)

That colour quality, an increase in which is comparable to the effect of the addition of a small quantity of neutral grey colorant: it is the opposite of brightness.

Dumbells

A defect frequently seen in wet-formed nonwoven fabrics; an unusually long fiber will become entangled with groups of regular-length fibers at each end thus producing a dumbbell-shaped clump.

Dummy needle

An element for the filling of otherwise empty needle spaces. It may perform other functions, such as holding down fabric and/or preservation of selvedge regularity.

Dummy slider (knitting)

An element inserted into an otherwise empty trick to protect the trick and act as a latch guard.

Dungaree

A 3/1 or 2/1 twill fabric used for overalls. Some are piece-dyed, but better qualities are made from dyed warp and weft yarns. (See also denim.)

Duo

A pair of skewed godets or other rollers (often heated) used in continuous-filament yarn production to transmit the yarn between extrusion and wind-up. Duos are often found at the beginning and/or end of the draw-zone in spin-drawing. The axes of the two rollers are invariably set at a small angle to each other to ensure that successive wraps of yarn remain separate.

Dupion

A silk-breeding term meaning double-cocoon; hence, an irregular, raw, rough silk reeled from double cocoons.
Note: Doupion is often used as weft for furnishing fabrics.

Dupion fabric

Originally a silk fabric woven from doupion yarns. The term is nowadays applied to imitations woven from manufactured fibre yarns, but it is recommended that in such contexts the name of the fibre is indicated.

Durability

The ability of a textile to perform its required function until an agreed limiting state is reached. durable finishAny type of finish reasonably resistant to normal usage, washing, and/or dry-cleaning.

Durable Press

A term describing a garment that has been treated so that it retains its smooth appearance shape and creases or pleats in laundering. In such garments no ironing is required particularly if the garment is tumble-dried. Durable press finishing is accomplished by several methods; two of the most common are the following: (1) A fabric that contains a thermoplastic fiber and cotton or rayon may be treated with a special resin that when cured imparts the permanent shape to the cotton or rayon component of the fabric. The resin-treated fabric may be precured (cured in finishing and subsequently pressed in garment form at a higher temperature to achieve the permanent shape) or postcured (not cured until the finished garment has been sewn and pressed into shape). In both cases the thermoplastic fiber in the garment is set in the final heat treatment. This fiber when heat-set also contributes to the permanence of the garment shape but the thermoplastic component of the blend is needed for strength since the cotton or rayon component is somewhat degraded by the durable-press treatment. (2) Garments of a fabric containing a sufficient amount of a thermoplastic fiber such as polyester nylon or acrylic may be pressed with sufficient pressure and time to achieve a permanent garment shape. (Also see EASE-OF-CARE PERMANENT FINISH and WASH-AND-WEAR.).