Cloth made from bark is called tapa or kapa, depending on
dialect. (I've probably spelled that wrong.) Making tapa
is a *lot* of work, and it isn't washable, so it's very
rarely used for clothing if cotton or linen is available,
even though rumor has it that tapa is much more comfortable
in hot weather than any other fabric. (The only sample I've
seen was a very coarse specimen made to sell to tourists.)

(Sudden thought: some of the better grades of modern paper
would probably be a good substitute for tapa. I wonder
whether anyone still knows how to wear it?)

When people say "barkcloth", they mean an irregular weave
that resembles bark. Those that I've seen were meant for
drapes, but washed up very soft and wrinkle-shed and made
good clothing, though perhaps a bit warm for short-sleeved
shirts.

But it's been many years since I've seen cotton barkcloth,
and fabric names aren't fixed: down through the ages,
fabric vendors have subscribed to Humpty-Dumpty's
philosophy: "words mean what I want them to mean". In
particular, the names of thick fabrics get applied to
thinner and thinner fabrics, and cheap fabrics will be given
the names of fabrics they are supposed to resemble:
"flannel" used to be a woolen fabric, and when rayon was
cheap, a thick, plain-woven rayon was called "butcher
linen". (Nowadays they don't even put in a warning
adjective, so it's best to check the fiber content of any
"linen" you buy.)

A new fabric, such as 200-count, may steal the name of an
older fabric, such as percale. Or an ancient fabric is
given a new name so that it may be marketed as an
innovation. (Azlon becoming "soy silk", for example.)

Threads vary too: dental tape, though better than floss for
cleaning teeth, is always marked "floss" on the box, which
is rather annoying for those who want floss for sewing on
buttons -- and even more annoying for those with a popcorn
husk stuck in tightly-spaced teeth that shred floss.

Joy Beeson
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson59...HSEW/ROUGH.HTM
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net