Ticken, WHD 099

55% Hemp/45% Cotton 12 oz, 58″ wide

Ticking (also ticken) is a twill weave linen tending to be finer than Russia drill. Ticking was often striped but was white as well and it is difficult to tell which was most common. It is used for the same purposes as Russia drill but there are more references for ticking in England. Ticking was commonly used to make breeches, waistcoats, pillows, sacks, and bed ticks. Less commonly ticken was used to make trousers, jackets, coats, and women’s pockets. The sailor’s contract of 1706 called for ticken waistcoats and breeches. Hand sewing this project would work well using 35/2 off white linen thread. In The Virginia Gazette of 1737, “ran away from the Subscriber, Two Convict Servant Men. One is an Irish Man . . .  professes himself a Gardener by Trade; and took with him . . .  one pair of Ticken Breeches”. And in 1780, London in the trials of a highway robbery in The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, “What colour was Bob Drury ‘s coat? – It was a jacket he wore. What colour? – A kind of ticking. A whitish colour? – Yes.”