out of whole cloth

Idioms  

1. From pure fabrication or fiction. This expression is often put as cut (or made) out of whole cloth, as in That story was cut out of whole cloth. In the 15th century this expression referred to something fabricated from cloth that ran the full length of the loom. However, by the 1800s it was common practice for tailors to deceive their customers and, instead of using whole cloth, actually make garments from pieced goods. Their advertising slogan, “cut out of whole cloth,” thus came to mean “made up, false.”

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Example Sentences

“They were creating them out of whole cloth. One hundred times over! That’s why the losses in the financial system are so much greater than just the subprime loans. That’s when I realized they needed us to keep the machine running. I was like, This is allowed?”

From Literature

One trillion dollars in losses had been created by American financiers, out of whole cloth, and embedded in the American financial system.

From Literature

Others, such as the Leagues Cup, were created out of whole cloth.

From Los Angeles Times

Artificial intelligence may be well-known for generating human-like images out of whole cloth, but if the software has a public face it is Sam Altman’s.

From Reuters

A recent New Yorker story made the former "Patriot Act" host a headliner in debates over whether comics are obligated to deal in pure fact in their routines, because he admitted that some of his best bits — large swaths of them, in fact — are created out of whole cloth.

From Salon