A group of fabrics with small, distinct dobby woven designs that appear subtly padded or embossed. Piqué is French for “quilted,” and from the look of their tiny patterns, piqués could have been quilted by mice! The fabrics in this group have distinctly different face and reverse sides. Most are cotton or cotton blends.
Uses: Dresses, blouses, sportswear, children’s clothing, draperies
See also:
Bedford cord
Birdseye piqué
Waffle cloth
Warp piqué
Weft piqué
Plaid is a pattern of bars and/or lines that criss-cross at right angles.
The name plaid comes from the traditional Scottish tartan woolen shawl, fastened with a brooch at the shoulder. Confusion arises in regards to its nomenclature since in the U.S. it is the name of a fabric pattern. A plaid without official registration as a tartan should not be called a tartan.
See also:
District checks
Glen plaid
Madras
Tartan
A version of glen plaid, traditionally woven in a right-hand twill of white with two other colors. The pattern looks like an enlarged glen urquhart check.
Prince of Wales takes its name from the heir to the British Crown.
See also:
District checks
Glen plaid
Ripstop is a light, often waterproof fabric featuring a grid pattern of heavier yarns at regular intervals in both the warp and the weft. As the name implies, these yarns help keep the fabric from ripping. The heavier yarns are nylon, while the rest may be nylon or other fibers. Ripstop was developed during WWII as a substitute for silk in making parachutes.
Uses: Active sportswear, tents, sails
A fine suit fabric made of light and dark (often white and black) yarns in close alternation, sharkskin may be plain weave or twilled. It has a smooth hand and a salt and pepper look. Most often worsted, sharkskin may be woolen or from blends. How it relates to the look of genuine sharkskin is somewhat debatable. Some sources claim it’s because of its smoothness (sharks do not have scales); others its subtle iridescence; and still others its fine mottling.
An unrelated fabric of filament yarns is also called sharkskin (see Sharkskin, filament type).
Uses: Suits
The original district check—shepherd’s check, or shepherd’s plaid—is white and one dyed color (usually black) in a simple uniform check pattern. The pattern is traditionally small (about 1/4” per color), and of wool in a right hand twill weave. The pattern may now be woven of any fiber, but still is often of wool or a wool blend.
Uses: Originally a cloak or plaid worn by Scottish shepherds; now coats, jackets, slacks, skirts, suits
See also:
District checks
Gingham
Houndstooth check
Tartan
Tartan is traditional Scottish right-hand twill weave wool in distinct criss-cross patterns. The pattern is called a sett. Each tartan is tied to a clan, regiment or district of Scotland, and there have gradually been added further officially-recognized tartans, such as those of Canadian provinces and U.S. states. All tartans are registered in Edinburgh, by the Scottish Register of Tartans, maintained by the National Records of Scotland. All tartans are plaids, but no plaids without official recognition should use the name tartan.
For each clan there may be a number of official tartans, such as dress, hunting and ancient (which use more muted colors—from the days of natural dyes). Originally worn as the belted plaid (long straight shawl belted at the waist), then the pleated, wrapped kilt, tartan has also historically been worn in the form of trousers, or truis.
The best known tartans are generally thought to be Royal Stewart and Black Watch.
Now tartans may be made of any fibers, but still are most characteristically wool.
The origin of the word tartan is thought to come from a combination of the French tiretain (probably derived from tirer, “to pull,” referring to a woven cloth) and the Gaelic breacan, “many colors.”
{…}
An even check or plaid with fine lines in two, sometimes three colors, tattersall is now mainly seen in shirt weight fabrics of cotton in a plain weave.
Originally the pattern was woven of wool in a twill weave, and named for a renowned horse auction house in London where horse blankets featured this check.
Uses: Wool used for coats, jackets and suits; cotton for shirts
See also:
Check
Windowpane check
A tick is a fabric case, and ticking is the fabric traditionally used for pillow cases because of its tight, durable construction; it is not supposed to be easily punctured by feathers. It can be found most often in twill weave, but may also be herringbone twill or plain weave. Ticking is often striped lengthwise, most commonly with blue on white, and ticking stripes are two thin stripes on either side of a thicker stripe.
Originally linen or hemp, ticking is now made of cotton and cotton blends.
Uses: Pillow and mattress cases, overalls
A dobby weave cotton fabric with a small, waffle-like texture of raised squares woven into the material. Waffle cloth is synonymous with waffle piqué, and is related to all the other fabrics with small dobby-woven textures.
See also:
Birdseye piqué
Honeycomb
Huckaback
Piqué
Windowpane check is a fabric pattern that looks like a windowpane, with fine outlines in an even check contrasting with a solid ground. It is also called windowpane plaid.
See also:
Tattersall
