Gingham

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

ging'am, a plain-woven cotton fabric, usually in checks, stripes, or plaids of two or more colors. The yarns are dyed before weaving; hence gingham is alike on both sides, and the colors are more permanent than those of printed fabrics. India is the original home of gingham as of other cotton textiles. The India gingham was coarse and stout, the pattern consisting of simple checks. At present many grades of fabrics, from this original coarse quality to a fine, soft tissue, interwoven with silk, are called ginghams. In the coarser grades the yarn is dyed without bleaching. The colors are consequently dull and sometimes transitory. In the finer grades the yarns are "print bleached," that is bleached until chemically pure. They are dyed with the utmost care. The woven fabric is sheared, put through a bath or other treatment to brighten its colors, starched, tentered, and calendered. Many specific names are given to different varieties of American ginghams. Apron ginghams are the coarser qualities. They are technically called 2 X 2, 4 X 4, 6 X 6, etc., according to whether the check is produced by two white threads interlaced with two colored, or four white threads with four colored ones. French and Scotch ginghams are simply high grades of American manufacture. Toile du Nord is a standard make of medium grade, woven in both stripes and checks, made with a linen finish, and put up double fold. Zephyr gingham is a soft, fine variety finished without starch. Seersucker gingham is a thin grade made originally in imitation of a linen fabric produced in the East Indies. It is woven in blue and white stripes. The name gingham is derived from Guingamp, a town in northern France, whence the cloth was imported into England at an early day.