The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make, gossamer muslin, made of tree cotton

 Gossamer muslin,  made in India and Bangladesh

The ancient fabric that no one knows how to make

The original muslin from Bengal, in eastern India for clothing, quilts and sheets was not made of the cotton that grows on bushes but from a distinct type of cotton that grows on trees. A much softer cotton. So gossamer it's like spinning spider's web silk. The stuff of fairies.

It is usually handwoven into fabric that is sheer, super light weight.

The Indian name for this tree cotton is "phuti karpas", pronounced footee karpass. The Latin name is Gossypium arboreum.

There is more heavyweight muslin out of regular shrub cotton used for all kinds of things too, like bags or ordinary sheeting fabric. This post is about the very fine muslin, made of "tree cotton", handwoven in Bengal India.

MUSLIN SPINNING AND WEAVING

In Kalna, West Bengal, we visited Rajib Debnath. He and his father Jyotish are reviving the art of muslin jamdani weaving.

The raw cotton is spun by hand into a thread finer than a hair from my head (see below). The cotton is handpicked in Kerala and Maharashtra and then spun by women with very good eyesight.

Jamdani is a fine muslin cloth on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white.

Different types of cotton plants

How tree cotton looks, Gossypium arboreum

Our Story of Dhaka Muslin

“What’s muslin?”

Muslin, he said, was the name of a legendary cloth made of cotton, fit for emperors, which used to be made way back in the past. Muslin from Dacca had been the finest, he said, from where it used to be shipped to the far corners of the world. 

THE WORD “MUSLIN” is popularly believed to derive from Marco Polo’s description of the cotton trade in Mosul, Iraq. (The Bengali term is mul mul.) A more modern view is that of fashion historian Susan Greene, who wrote that the name arose in the 18th century from mousse, the French word for “foam.”

Muslin today has come to mean almost any lightweight, gauzy, mostly inexpensive, machine-milled cotton cloth. The word has lost all connection to the handwoven fabric that once came exclusively from Bengal.

The cliché in India and Bangladesh is that 6 yards of fabric is so fine, it can pass through a finger ring

Revival of Dhakai Muslin: Commercial production will create global market

Durga Puja Off White Behula Dhakai jamdani Saree Soft Finish Women Formal Sari from West Bengal hand Weaving 603

Bengal’s weavers revive muslin, spin success

How fine muslin can pass through a finger ring. Its revival has improved livelihoods of many spinners and weavers (Photo by Gurvinder Singh)

Reviving Muslin

Hand woven muslin cloth, sheer, super light weight and gossamer soft

Rajasthan, India is famous for its super soft muslin sheets and lightweight quilts, called razai.

These quilts are lightly filled with cotton or kapok.

Fairy soft, lightweight sheets are made of muslin, often called mul mul in India. 

On eBay for example the words used to find these super soft, light quilts or muslin cotton fabric might be

Rajasthan traditional Sanganeri Jaipuri rajai or razai, Dhaka or Dhakai 

muslin Behula rajdani 

On PicClick, under the search for Jaipuri razai

Exquisitely lightweight kurta (India tunics) and other articles of clothing made of sheer muslin are made in the Indian city of Lucknow. Super soft. They are starched in the photographs to hold their form.

Buyable on Etsy at 

LucknowiArts

The Killian Kurta at Lucknowi Arts on Etsy