Welcome our textile-themed quiz
A bit of fun to test your knowledge of the wide and varied world of textiles – in history, books, films, songs and TV!
Answers are at the bottom of the page…
1 . Who is credited with popularising pyjama suits for women in the early 20th century?
2. From which country does the word ‘dungarees’ originate?
3. Which mortal woman participated in a weaving contest with the Greek goddess Athena? And for an extra point, what was her punishment for challenging the gods?
4. Who makes seven matching outfits out of curtains?
5. Name one of the actors who starred in the 1995 film ‘How to Make an American Quilt’? A bonus point if you can name the author of the original book!
6. Which small town in Alabama, America was made famous by its quilts?
7. Which song asks for the making of a ‘cambric shirt, without any seam or needlework’?
8. From which country did the first embroidery sampler originate?
9. Neil Diamond and David Bowie both have songs whose titles include which item of clothing?
10. Whose ‘mirror crack'd from side to side’ when ‘she left the web, she left the loom’?
11. When and where did the production of silk originate?
12. Name 3 Tracy Chevalier books that reference textiles?
13. What name is given to the Elvish chainmail in Lord of the Rings?
14. Which 1960s comedy tv show was set in a textile factory?
15. Which garment industry assisted astronauts into space?
16. Which Harry Potter character is famous for their knitted Christmas gifts?
Answers
1 . Who is credited with popularising pyjama suits for women in the early 20th century?
Coco Chanel - at the start of her career she wore and popularised androgenous clothing , first wearing her partners’ silk pyjamas and knitwear, then designing and making her own.
2. From what country does the word ‘dungarees’ originate?
India – cheap, thick, coarse cotton clothing, usually in blue and white worn by people in the dockside region of Bombay, originally known as Dongri – the cloth became known as Dongri.
3. Which mortal woman participated in a weaving contest with the Greek goddess Athena? And for an extra point, what was her punishment for challenging the gods?
Arachne – her punishment was being turned into a spider – arachni means spider in Greek
4. Who makes seven matching outfits out of curtains?
Maria in ‘The Sound of Music’ film
5. Name one of the actors who starred in the film 1995 ‘How to Make an American Quilt’? A bonus point if you can name the author of the original book!
Winona Ryder
Anne Bancroft
Ellen Burnstyn
Kate Nelligan
Alfre Woodard
The book was written by Whitney Otto in 1991
6. Which small town in Alabama, America was made famous by its quilts?
Gees Bend
The women of Gee’s Bend, a small, remote, Black community in Alabama, have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces. The oldest existing quilt dates from the 1920s and the work produced is now recognised as a crucial chapter in the history of American art. Gee’s Bend is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River and its 700 inhabitants are mostly descendants of slaves, who for generations worked the fields belonging to the local Pettway plantation. Find our more and see the wonderful quilts at https://www.soulsgrowndeep.org/gees-bend-quiltmakers
7. Which song asks for the making of a ‘cambric shirt, without any seam or needlework’?
‘Scarborough Fair’
8. From which country did the first embroidery sampler originate?
Peru, from the Nazca culture estimated from 200 BC – 300 AD
https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/individual-textiles-and-textile-types/samplers/nasca-sample-peru
9. Neil Diamond and David Bowie both have songs whose titles include which item of clothing?
Blue jeans
10. Whose ‘mirror crack'd from side to side’ when ‘she left the web, she left the loom’?
The Lady of Shalott, in the poem by Alfred Tennyson 1832. The Lady of Shalott was imprisoned in a tower near Camelot – she was compelled to weave all day long and view the world only through a mirror and if she didn’t, the curse would fall on her and she would die. She complies for a long time but when she saw Lancelot in her morrir she was taken with him that :
She left the web, she left the loom
She made three paces thro' the room
She saw the water-flower bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45359/the-lady-of-shalott-1832
11. When and where did the production of silk originate?
China, 3000 BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_silk
12. Name 3 Tracy Chevalier books that reference textiles?
The lion and The Unicorn – had a tapestry theme
A Single Thread – focussed on embroidered hassocks or ‘kneelers’ in Winchester Cathedral
The Last Slave – had a quilting theme
Tracy Chevalier also led a really interesting quilt project which has inspired some of our work https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/18/these-guys-can-make-something-beautiful-tracy-chevaliers-new-project-quilting-with-prisoners
13. What name is given to the Elvish chainmail in Lord of the Rings?
Mithril – changed hands many times – given to Bilbo and passed on to Frodo and saves his life.
14. Which 1960s comedy tv show was set in a textile factory?
The Rag Trade
15. Which garment industry assisted astronauts into space?
Bras – Playtex company – find put more at
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191219-the-women-who-sewed-the-suits-for-the-space-race
16. Which Harry Potter character is famous for their knitted Christmas gifts?
Mrs Weasely
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