I saw an interesting question on Facebook today, someone asked if the scrim mentioned on a site from the U.K. was the same as cheesecloth here in the U.S.. The answer is, for the most part, yes, it is. Especially in fiber pieces, art quilting, mixed media the terms refer to the same loosely woven cotton fabric.

In the fiber arts scrim is widely used as a background layer, as a base for felting, or even stiffened for 3-dimensional pieces. It’s a very versatile ingredient in layered work. The above scan is of the 100% cotton cheesecloth that we stock.

Above is a detail shot of dyed Oliver Twists scrim. Once washed of its sizing, cheecloth/scrim plumps up a bit and gets slightly fuzzy. It drapes beautifully.

This is a detail of the Dyed Scrim Packets scrim. Lovely!

Not to confuse anyone, but there are other types of scrim. In the theater a scrim is a type of screening “curtain”; the covering over a speaker is sometimes called scrim, a face or head covering fabric can be a scrim. I’m sure there are others. The basic idea behind a scrim, is “to screen”, and that is very easy to remember, as the fabric looks similar to a window screen.

As for the term “cheesecloth”? I think this Cheesehead should save that term for another day!