I've Been Duped!

Still trying to figure out the Mystery Fabric, I decided to do a burn test. Now, I"ve never been any good at the burn test, but I figured, Why not give it a shot? I had my tweezers, fabric swatch and a match. You can see the result here.

My "high quality wool"(sales lady's words) appears to be 100% polyester!! First I looked in my More Fabric Savvy book by Sandra Betzina. It has burn test information, but a couple of the definitions were the same for different fabric types. Then I looked in Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide, and it has much more specific information. Here is the definition for wool: Burns slowly, self extinguishing. Smells like hair. Residue is a small, brittle black bead.

Hmmm, my fabric burned and pulled away from a big yellow flame, melted and glued itself to the paper towel underneath. Not wool.

Here is the definition for polyester: Shrinks from flame, melts and fuses, black smoke, self-extinguishing. Sweet smell. Hard black or brown bead.
Yep, it's polyester. I didn't smell anything (everyone in the valley has sinus problems) and the goey stuff turned to hard plastic when cool. Yes, I'd say we have polyester here.

I was of course, hoping for wool. Well, it feels like wool, drapes beautifully and has the added benefit of wash and dry. I'll have to make it into something and see how it wears. The only problem I have with polyester is that it makes me perspire more. It doesn't seem to bother me as much in pants or skirts, so I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do with this now.

My curiosity was up, so I tried a few other fabrics with known content to see how they responded. I also had another cut of "silky wool" which is what the blue fabric was supposed to be. This one had a different effect. It burned quickly, kind of sizzled and flickered in the flame, left a gray ash, did not burn itself out. The residue was a black bead, but it was crushable. I think this one is a blend. Maybe wool and silk or another synethetic fiber. It did not burn as quickly as the cotton sample I had. Blends are hard to tell. Here are some of the indicators

flame sputters - silk, acrylic
crushable black bead - silk
brittle black bead - wool,
hard, brittle charcoal - acetate
but, silk burns slowly and is self extinguishing. This did not fit those categories

not self extinguishing - acetate, triacetate, acrylic,

This may be a good part acrylic because here's the definition: burns rapidly, hot flame, sputters and smokes, not self-extinguishing. Smells like hot vinegar. Crisp, black mass. Some of the definitions are confusing to me. Like, what is the difference between brittle black bead, brittle charcoal, crushable black bead, and brittle black mass?

I think the trick to the burn test is doing a lot of practice pieces on fabrics that you are sure of the content. Also, maybe I should have used a bigger piece of fabric. Mine were a little under one square inch.