you've probably seen this zigzag trim called ricrac/ rick rack, especially if you do craft supply thrifting or work with vintage materials (or grew up between the 1950s & 1980s).
(image from a 2022-23 article touting a rick rack revival)
✨️🧵🪡 Did you know rick rack was invented in the 1860s? 🧵🪡✨️
First known as “waved crochet braid” (catchy huh?), rick rack first appeared in the 1860’s but didn’t take on its modern form or name until around 1880. During the 1890’s rick rack sewing trim was imported for use by American sewists as a decorative edging for dresses, aprons, and lingerie. It was also incorporated into lace and then used to decorate curtains, bedding, and other home linens.
After a brief slump in popularity, rick rack ribbon once again came into vogue during the 1910’s when American manufacturers began to produce it. One of these was William E. Wright & Sons, which was founded in Massachusetts in 1897.
Cotton rick rack was in high demand from the 1930’s through the 1950’s when home sewists were upcycling cotton sacks used to pack commodities such as flour, cornmeal, and livestock feed to make dish towels, aprons, and clothing for their families. Wrights rick rack was prized because it was durable; it would tolerate rigorous laundering. The many choices of Wrights rick rack colors complimented the bright flour sack prints. Adding a bit of rick rack helped alleviate the stigma of having to use the feed sack fabric that was available.
After another lull during the 1960’s, rick rack experienced a resurgence of popularity during the 1970’s thanks to Laura Ingalls’ influence. But rick rack hasn’t ever really gone out of style, and it is available in a rainbow of currently popular colors.
(Missouri Star Quilt Co. on Wright's Rick Rack)
more interesting details on early-20th-C history, from Wikipedia...
During the 1910s, rickrack experienced a resurgence in popularity, and American manufacturers began producing rickrack to supply to the domestic market. Among other uses, this rickrack was incorporated into crocheted lace. Books of designs, such as Nufashond Rick Rack Book, helped to popularize the craft.
In rural America in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, rickrack was used to decorate feed sack dresses. These dresses were worn as everyday attire, and were constructed from the large cotton bags that flour, chicken feed, and other goods were shipped in. Since the food had to be shipped in fabric bags anyway, the flour mills competed with each other by using attractive, colorful fabrics that the buyer could either resell or upcycle into dresses, aprons, nightgowns, dishtowels, and other clothing and household items. Adding trim like rickrack was a way to reduce the stigma around needing to use whatever fabric was available, rather than buying it from a store.
I fell down this rabbit hole when I saw Anna wearing this hat in the early 1920s of Downton Abbey s3:
though on closer examination I see that her hatband accent is not actually ricrac, but rather velvet ribbon woven into a ricrac-style zizag pattern. given Downton's notorious attention to historical set & costume detail, & ricrac's contemporary popularity, I wonder if more "fine family" types & their staff picked up the visual trend in higher quality materials. Very cool!
