Sheer fabric fabrics being used in tight clothes, layers, and in delicate feminine draping. Sheer fabric Sheer fabric is fabric which is made using thin thread and/or low density of knit and which results in a semi-transparent and flimsy cloth. Some fabrics become transparent when wet. The sheerness of a fabric is expressed as a numerical denier which ranges from 3 (extremely rare, very thin, barely visible) to 15 (standard sheer for stockings) up to 30 (semi opaque) until 100 (opaque). The materials which can be made translucent include gossamer, silk, rayon or nylon. Sheer fabric comes in a wide variety of
Aircraft fabric covering fabric covered wings until 1939. Many transports, bombers and trainers still used fabric, although the flammable nitrate dope was replaced with butyrate dope instead, which burns less readily. The Mosquito is an example of a fabric-covered (Madapolam) plywood aircraft. The Vickers Wellington used fabric over a geodesic airframe which offered good combat damage resistance. An interesting case of ingenuity under wartime adversity was the Colditz Cock glider. This homebuilt aircraft, intended as a means of escape, employed prison bedding as its covering material; homemade glue and dope made from boiled millet were also used by the prisoners in its construction.