All wool and a yard wide

[Mark A. Mandel]

I asked my wife about changes and variations in standard fabric widths.
She replies:

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Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 14:59:43 -0500
From: Rene s Mandel

If you remember, when we were married, we were given some high quality
fabric by a friend of your mother's. This included some lovely velvet
about a yard wide, which I eventually gave to Mary G., who made a
beautiful dress from it.

My problem with that velvet was that it was a yard wide, and most modern
patterns assume 45" or even 60". Mary, an experienced seamstress, was
able to work around that. She said she thought that the narrower widths
were usually on menswear fabrics, but I have observed them on bolts of
silk and silk brocade at Fabric Place. So I think some high quality,
heavier fabrics may be on the narrower bolts.
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-- Mark A. Mandel
   Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania