I'm curious how this term came to be applied to a roll of cloth. I guess that it might derive from Bolton, UK, an ancient textile center, but can find no evidence. Arnie, Bob, Stanley - anyone - can you help?

The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests it was so called because of its shape.

The OED seems to imply that it's a transferred use from its meaning of a projectile (as in a crossbow bolt) and, later, something you use to fasten stuff together - due to the similar shape, I suppose. Earliest use recorded is 1407.

On the other hand, there is a verb entry with the meaning "To sift; to pass through a sieve or bolting-cloth", plus a noun version of this meaning the thing you use to do the sifting. Both of these have the alternative spelling of "boult" (hence "boulter" and presumably the origin of that surname if you have it!), and appear around the same time at 1398 and 1425 respectively. But the OED doesn't seem to explicitly make the connection between these uses and "a bolt of cloth", so possibly it's coincidental.

OED-regurgitation is all I have to offer

I've always wondered why the Westboro Baptist bigots wear clothes since some of the material has "fag ends." Given their animosity toward homosexuals, that seems a no-no.

The OED seems to be the gold standard, though, Stanley. I checked Quinion because I like him, but he didn't have anything about it.

In looking, I did find this somewhat related article from Straight Dope on the "whole nine yards."

Proofreader, aren't you gonna say something about them there Baptists and straight dopes?

The less said about Westboro, the better. Excuse me, I have to go handle some snakes.

A re-Bolt-ing development: By some quirk of fate I got in contact with someone who lives in Bolton. He said the town's name's origin isn't clear, but likely from its being located in a bowl. Bowl-town became Bolton. Had I known that I wouldn't have guessed cloth to have had anything to do with it.

I'm sure the Baptists will be relieved.

So you made up that derivation out of whole cloth.

Yes. Do you give a sheet?

You two crack me up! [BTW, where did that phrase originate? I'll have to do some research now!]

I am not sure if this is right, but this site says that "to crack someone up" is an American idiom from the 1600s. At the time women's make up was thickly applied so that it would crack when she laughed. That almost sounds too easy to me.

I had assumed it was from women doing head stands.

I'd go with the most common etymology of Bolton from Old English botl 'dwelling' + tun 'enclosure; town'.

I'll go along with zmj. There's a town named Bothel in Cumbria, not that far north of Bolton.

There's a Bothell in Washington State in the USA also. Since it was a logging town in its early days, I had assumed that when it got "civilized" they dropped the "r" after the "B."