Oakleaf braid

A jacquard woven narrow fabric having a conventional oakleaf and acorn design contained within a border, customarily used as a uniform cap-band.

Oatmeal

A heavy soft linen fabric with a pebbled or crepe effect.

Oatmeal crepe

A weave that creates a rough irregular surface effect by a random arrangement of binding points. It can be produced on a plain base or a satin base, or by reversing small motifs or superimposing weaves. The effect is intended to simulate the surface appearance of a ciepe produced in plain weave using highly twisted S and Z-twist yarns.

OBA

A substance that when added to a substrate increases the apparent reflectance in the visible region by converting ultra-violet radiation into visible light and so increases the whiteness or brightness.

Objects (lace)

Ornamental devices (such as flowers) appearing regularly in various parts of a piece of lace.

OE yarn

An abbreviation for open-end spun yarn. This term is principally used for rotor-spun yarns. (See also open-end spinning and rotor spinning.)

Off-Clip

See SCALLOPED SELVAGE.

Off-grain

1. (Fabric) A general term used to describe fabrics in which the warp and weft, although straight, are not at right angles to each other.
Note: This term is applied to skewed or drawn pieces when lack of information as to the cause prevents the use of the more precise term. (See also grain.)
2. (Clothing) Off-grain pattern pieces are produced during marker planning by intentionally skewing the pattern in relation to the grain of the fabric.

Off-Square

1. A term to describe the difference between the percentage of warp crimp and the percentage of filling crimp. 2. A term referring to a fabric in which the number of ends and the number of picks per inch are not equal.

Oil cloth

A cotton fabric that has been treated on one side with a drying oil to make it impervious to water.

Oil-combed top

A wool or hair top produced by adding 3% extra oil above the dry-combed top standard to give a total fatty matter content of 3.5% when calculated by the traditional Bradford Method. On the International Wool Textile Organisation's method of testing the maximum fatty matter content becomes 4.6% based on the oven dry fat-free weight. This method specifies Soxhlet extraction with dichloromethane as the solvent.
Note 1.. The standard regain of an oil-combed top is 19% based on the combined weight of oven-dry fat-free wool and the fatty matter.
Note 2.. A top that has been dry-combed and subsequently oiled is also described as an oil combed top.

Oil-repellent

Descriptive of textile material on which oil does not spread.

Oilcloth

Any fabric treated with linseed-oil varnish to make it waterproof. It comes in plain colors and printed designs and is most commonly used for table covers or shelf covering. It has now been widely replaced by plastic coated fabrics.

Oiled silk

Silk and viscose fabrics. respectively, made impervious to water by treatment with a drying oil.

Oiled viscose

Silk and viscose fabrics. respectively, made impervious to water by treatment with a drying oil.