Glossary
Abstract Art: Art that does not attempt to represent external, recognizable reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.
Appliqué: Ornamental needlework in which pieces of fabric are sewn or stuck onto a piece of fabric to form pictures or patterns.
Apron: A protective or decorative garment worn over the front of one’s clothes, either at the chest or waist level, and tied at the back.
Baby Carrier: A baby transporting and carrying garment used to hold an infant on the mother’s back.
Batik: A method of producing colored designs on textiles by dyeing them, after having first applied wax to the parts of the fabric to be left undyed.
Beads: Small, usually round plastic or other material objects with a hole used for decorative and ornamental purposes.
Blanket Stitch: An overcast stitch sometimes used as a decorative edge on embroideries.
Border: The edge of a piece of cloth that has been turned under and sewn for decorative purposes.
Button: A small disc, knob, or similar object, usually sewn onto garments for fastening.
Chain Stitch: An ornamental stitch in which loops are crocheted or embroidered in a chain.
Closed Blanket Stitch: A Blanket Stitch variation in which the vertical stitches are alternately angled to create triangles.
Cloth: Woven or felted fabric made from wool, cotton, or other fiber.
Collar: A decorated embroidery square attached to the back frame of the neck of women’s
jackets.
Cotton: A soft white fibrous substance that surrounds the seeds of a tropical and subtropical plant.
Cotton Fiber: The soft silky fibers from cotton plants
Couched Herringbone Stitch: A pattern consisting of columns of short parallel lines, with all the lines in one column sloping one way and all the lines in the next column sloping the other way so as to resemble bones.
Cross-Stitch: Two stitches forming a cross or X.
Cuffs: The end part of a sleeve, where the material of the sleeve is turned back or a separate band is sewn on.
Darning Stitch: Closely spaced parallel rows of running stitches used to fill or reinforce worn areas of a textile.
Decoration: The process or art of enchancing or adorning something with embroidery, beads etc.
Dyed: To add a color to or change the color of something such as a fabric by soaking it in a solution immersed in a dye.
Embellishments: A decorative detail or feature added to something to make it more attractive.
Embroidery: The art or pasttime of decorating cloth with needle and thread designs or themes.
Fabric: Cloth typically produced by weaving or knitting textile fibers.
Frontal Placket: An opening in a garment or the overlapping layers of fabric that covers or disguises such an opening.
Hemp: Cannabis plant grown for its fiber.
Hemp Fiber: Paper, canvas, rope, or cloth made from hemp, a cannabis plant.
Hmong: A member of a people living traditionally in isolated mountain villages throughout Southern China and Southeast Asia, usually known as Miao in China.
Indigo: A tropical plant cultivated as a source of dark blue dye.
Ladder Stitch: A stitch in embroidery consisting of transversing bars.
Lwm Sub: A ceremony before the Hmong New Year. It involves blessings for good health, fortune, and prosperity.
Miao: Hmong and related ethnic groups living traditionally in mountain villages in
Southwestern China and the adjacent areas of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.
Mirrored Image: An image that has its parts arranged with a reversal of the right and left, as it would appear if seen in a mirror.
Moj Zeej: A human-like figure usually cut from joss paper to represent the soul of a sick person.
Money Bag: A decorated bag with shoulder strap used as ornamentation in Hmong attire.
Monk’s Cloth: A coarse, heavy fabric usually used for cross-stitch embroidery.
Motif: A decorative design or pattern.
Natural Fabrics: Textiles made of natural fibers, such as cotton, hemp, and linen.
Ncuav: A glutinous (sticky rice) cake.
Noob Ncoos: A square made specifically for the deceased. It represents the landscape of the ancestors in the afterlife.
Paj Ntaub: Hmong textile art. It refers to a flower cloth.
Pattern Tracer: A tool used in batik artwork to make patterns and motifs with hot wax.
Peacock Ocellus: An eyelike spot on the peacock feather.
Phuam: A Hmong headdress/turban headdress.
Pom Pom: A decoration consisting of a ball of tufted wool, cotton, or silk.
Pov Pob: A Hmong courting game in which young men and women toss balls back and forth.
Qeej: A Hmong wind-blown reed instrument.
Qua Sev: An elaborate textile embroidery use as a belt and worn with Hmong women’s clothes.
Quilt: A warm bed covering made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric and kept in place by lines of stitching.
Reverse Appliqué: A decoration or ornament, as in needlework, made by cutting and sewing the upper material to expose the fabric below.
Running Stitch: A stitch that runs back and forth through the cloth without overlapping.
Satin: A smooth, glossy fabric, and typically of silk.
Satin Stitch: A long straight embroidery stitch, closely placed parallel to similar stitches, giving the appearance of satin.
Siv Ceeb: A thin black and white striped cloth worn with Hmong women’s headdresses.
Surface Stitch: Parallel rows of running stitches used to fill or reinforce worn areas of a textile.
Stitch: A loop of thread or yarn resulting from a single pass or movement of the needle in
sewing, knitting, or crocheting.
Synthetic Fabric: Textiles made from synthetic fibers, such as nylon, polyesters, rayon, etc.
Tapestry: A piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored weft threads or by embroidering on the fabric.
Thread: A long, thin strand of cotton, nylon, or other fibers used in sewing or weaving.
Tsho Tshaj Sab: An elaborate hemp robe use for dressing the deceased in a traditional Hmong funeral.
Wax: Any of various natural, oily or greasy heat-sensitive substances, consisting of hydrocarbons or esters of fatty acids that are insoluble in water, but soluble in non-polar organic solvents.
Xauv: A Hmong silver necklace worn around the neck with Hmong attire.
Yarn: Spun thread used for knitting, weaving, or sewing.
