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September 10, 2024

Textile Fiber Resource:

Fabric-isms

Help us collect sayings, phrases, movies, song titles and quotations containing fabric, apparel or textile terms. Got a good one? Let us know, and watch our collection grow.


GENERAL
  • A corduroy road
  • A stitch in time saves nine
  • Belt and suspenders solution
  • Blue collar worker
  • Bolt out of the blue
  • Button hole it
  • Bust your buttons
  • Button your lip
  • Chiffon pie
  • Clothes don't make the man
  • Clothes horse
  • Coming unraveled at the seams
  • Computer interface
  • Cross-dresser
  • Cut from the same cloth
  • Dressed to kill
  • Dressed to the nine
  • Dyed in the wool
  • A fighter bobbing and weaving
  • Get fleeced
  • Glad rags
  • Grab him by the lapels
  • Hanging by a thread
  • He'll give you the shirt off his back
  • He's cut from the same cloth
  • Hot under the collar
  • Mouth as dry as cotton
  • Neddle in a haystack
  • Off the cuff
  • One size fits all
  • On tenter hooks (meaning to be in a tense or heightened state of anticipation) comes from a process in making woolen fabrics. Tenter hooks hold the woolen fabric on the tenter frame to stretch the fabric back into shape after fulling.
  • Personality of a wet dish rag
  • Play dress-up
  • Pull the wool over your eyes
  • Police officers gets a "collar"
  • Pop goes the weasel. - When spinning wool on to a reel (weasel), the pop was the sound made when a certain length of yarn was reached.
  • Rag Time
  • Ribbon of lights
  • Ring around the collar
  • Roll up your sleeves
  • Ruffle you feathers
  • Satin and lace
  • Satin doll
  • Sheer madness
  • Sewing bee
  • She would look good in burlap
  • Smooth as silk
  • Snap out of it
  • Spin a yarn
  • The Emperor's New Clothes
  • The Fabric of Our Lives...
    (Cotton Incorporated slogan)
  • The velvet touch
  • The Velveteen Rabbit
  • Turn up your collar
  • Wear your heart on your sleeve
  • White collar worker/job
  • Window dressing
  • Wolf in sheep's clothing
  • You can dress him up, but can't take him anywhere
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APPAREL
  • A coat and tie affair
  • As stiff as a new pair of jeans
  • Came in on his coat tails
  • Colder than a brass bra
  • Got caught with your britches down
  • Don't get your knickers in a knot!
  • Don't get your panties in a wad!
  • Everyone puts pants on the same way..
    one leg at a time.
  • Faked out of his jock
  • He lost his shirt
  • Hot pants
  • Joseph and the coat of many colors
  • Keep your pants on
  • Little black dress
  • New Jersey
  • Pajama party
  • Roll up your sleeves and get to work.
  • Skirt the issues
  • Stuffed shirt
  • Suit up
  • Sunday clothes
  • That's a kick in the pants!
  • Too big for his britches
  • Washing dirty linens in public
  • Who wears the pants in the family?
  • Your slip is showing
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ACCESSORIES
  • A black tie affair
  • A cloak and dagger novel
  • A feather in his hat
  • A real jock
  • A veil of secrecy
  • A veiled threat
  • Bikini Beach
  • Can´t make a silk purse from a sow´s ear
  • Handle it with kid glooves
  • Hang on to your hat
  • It´s getting deep, put your hip boots on
  • Keep it under your hat
  • Keep your hat on
  • Necktie party
  • So proud his buttons popped off
  • Take off the gloves
  • The Mad Hatter
  • Tie one on
  • Throw down the gloves
  • Tied to your mother's apron strings
  • Under the cloak of darkness
  • Using belt and suspenders
  • White glove treatment
  • You can't hide behind your mother's apron
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SOCKS 'N SHOES
  • A sock hop
  • Comfortable as a pair of old shoes
  • Church socks - holy
  • Gum shoe
  • It´ll knock your socks off
  • Keep your seams straight
  • Kick off your shoes and stay awhile
  • Pick yourself up by the boot straps
  • Put a shine on your shoes
  • Put a sock in it
  • Sock it to me
  • Walk a mile in my shoes
  • Well heeled
  • Your mother wears combat boots
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BED & BATH
  • A blanket statement
  • A security blanket
  • Bedding down for the night
  • Between the sheets
  • Crying towel
  • Don't be a wet blanket
  • Hide under the covers
  • Pigs in a blanket
  • Pillow fight
  • Pillow talk
  • Put together like a patchwork quilt
  • Throw in the towel
  • Towel off
  • Three sheets to the wind
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HOME FASHIONS
  • As snug as two bugs in a rug
  • Cut a rug
  • It´s curtains for you
  • Curtain climbers
  • Pull the rug out from under you
  • Rug rats
  • The Iron Curtain
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MOVIES
  • A Patch of Blue
  • Arsenic and Old Lace
  • Blue Velvet
  • Cotton Club
  • Cotton Comes To Harlem
  • Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
  • How to Make an American Quilt
  • Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat
  • The Lace Maker
  • Lady in Red
  • National Velvet
  • Pajama Game
  • Petticoat Junction (TV)
  • Pillow Talk
  • Silk Stockings
  • The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit
  • The Man With One Red Shoe
  • The Red Shoes
  • The Robe
  • Torn Curtain
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SONGS
  • Alice Blue Gown
  • A White Sport Coat and Pink Carnation (Marty Robbins)
  • Baby Makes Her Blue Jeans Talk (Dr. Hook)
  • Bell Bottom Blues
  • Black Slacks (The Sparkle Tones)
  • Blue Suede Shoes
  • Blue Velvet (She Wore)
  • Bobby Socks to Stockings (Frankie Avalon)
  • Buttons and Bows
  • Cat Clothes (Carl Perkins)
  • Chantilly Lace
  • The Chiffons (singing group)
  • Coat Of Many Colors
  • Cotton Fields of Home
  • Cotton Jenny (Gordon Lightfoot)
  • Dedicated Follower of Fashion (The Kinks)
  • Devil with a Blue Dress on
  • Dress You Up (Madonna)
  • Fashion (David Bowie)
  • Floatin' Down to Cotton Town
  • Forever In Blue Jeans
  • Grandma's Feather Bed (John Denver)
  • Grandmother´s Apron
  • Handbags & Gladrags (Rod Stewart)
  • Here Comes Peter Cottontail
  • High Heeled Sneakers
  • Hot Pants (James Brown)
  • How Do You Mend A Broken Heart (Bee Gees)
  • I Am A Material Girl (Madonna)
  • I Danced With A Dolly With A Hole In Her Stocking
  • I Got Five Patches In My Overalls
  • Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
  • Jean
  • Jeans On
  • Lady in Red
  • Leather and Lace
  • Lipstick On YOur Collar
  • Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress (Hollies)
  • Mini Skirt Minnie (Wilson Pickett)
  • My girlfriend´s Quilt
  • Night in White Satin (Bee Gees)
  • Nylons (Group Name)
  • One Size Fits All
  • The Orlons (singing group)
  • Patches
  • Pink Petal Pushes (Carl Perkins)
  • Pointed Toe Shoes (Carl Perkins)
  • Rag Doll
  • Rags to Riches
  • Scarlet Ribbons
  • Sam You Made The Pants Too Long (Barbara Streisand)
  • Seamless
  • Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top)
  • Silver Thread and Golden Needles
  • Sister Suzie Sewing Shirts for Soldiers
  • These Boots are Made for Walking (Nancy Sinatra)
  • The Thong Song
  • The Twentieth Century Rag
  • Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree
  • Tie Me to Your Apron Strings, Again
  • Tuxedo Junction
  • Twentieth Century Rag
  • Two Silhouettes on the Shade
  • Wooly Bully
  • The Velours (Group)
  • Velveteens (Group)
  • Venus in Blue Jeans
  • You Wear It Well (Rod Stewart)
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QUOTATIONS
  • A stich in time saves nine
  • Always wear clean underwear. You don't know when you might be in an accident. - Mom
  • Beware of enterprises that require new clothes. - Henry David Thoreau
  • Bless your cotton pick´n heart. Tennessee Ernie Ford
  • Oh! what a tangled web we weave.
  • When life gives you scraps, make a quilt.
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