"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Eighteenth-century mariners were the first to use waxed cotton, treating their ship sails with grease and ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. There are dozens of jackets and coats that you have in your closet. Some are perfect for the night out, some are ideal for the ...

Waxed fabrics first came on the slippery scene when European sailors discovered that wet sails performed better than dry sails. Applying fish oil (and eventually linseed oil) to the sailcloth resulted ...

Use a heat gun after soaking fabric in melted beeswax to help the fibers absorb more wax and to melt away any excess. Petra Ahnert presents dozens of ways to use beeswax inBeeswax Alchemy(Quarry Books ...

Waxed cotton isn’t always as shiny as Barbour makes theirs out to be. Just look at J.Crew’s barn coat, back on the scene this fall after debuting in 1983 as part of the brand’s first ever collection. ...

Textile pattern by Constance Girard for Vlisco on view in Vlisco: African Fashion on a Global Stage (photo by the author for Hyperallergic) The story of Vlisco begins not in Dakar, Lagos, or Accra, ...

While many groups have been developing coatings that allow fabric to be waterproof yet breathable, most of those solutions have incorporated toxic chemicals. Now, however, scientists are getting good ...