Marceline (sometimes marcelline or merceline) is a type of grain fabric made from taffeta-silk but more pronounced than plain

taffeta Taffeta (archaically spelled taffety or taffata) is a crisp, smooth, plain woven fabric made from silk, nylon, cuprammonium rayons, acetate, or polyester. The word came into Middle English via Old French and Old Italian, which borrowed the Pers ...

. Its main usage is in the linings in

hatmaking Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners made and sold a range of accessories for clothing and hairstyles. ...

or in women's dresses but there are other applications. Its threads are crossed "in groups in a two-pass report, are individually introduced in the meshes of the heights so that they are fixed exactly and parallel in their crosses with the weft". The 1893 US Supreme Court case '' Cadwalader v. Wanamaker'' addressed the question of whether marcelines or "chinas" should be considered trimmings for tariff purposes. It was classified by the US as a

sheer fabric Sheer fabric is textile, fabric which is made using thin Thread (unit of measurement), thread or low density of knits, knit. This results in a semi-Transparency (optics), transparent and flimsy cloth. Some sheer fabrics become transparency (optic ...

. In "Journées de Lecture",

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

recalls having a marceline quilt in his room "...la jonchée de couvre-pieds en marceline...".

References

{{Textile-arts-stub Woven fabrics