Barley Twist Cotton Twill fabric is woven in England of ecru cotton yarn, with a spaced right hand twill broken by sections of plain weave. This weaving pattern gives a subtle effect of diagonally ribbed cords running the length of the fabric, reminiscent of 17th Century barley twist wooden furniture legs. Barley twist furniture, in turn, is named after barley sugar, a type of boiled sweet credited to Elizabeth Pidoux, a French Benedictine Mother Superior, in 1638. Sugar was boiled with barley grain and twisted into sticks as it cooled, creating a distinctive shape.