Cambric

Not to be confused with Cambria, Cambrian, or Cumbric.
"Batiste" redirects here. For other uses, see Batiste (disambiguation).

Embroidered cutwork on cambric
Morning blouse made of cambric
Corsage made of cambric (1898)

Cambric or batiste is a fine dense cloth.[1] It is a lightweight plain-weave fabric, originally from the commune of Cambrai (in present-day northern France), woven greige (neither bleached nor dyed), then bleached, piece-dyed, and often glazed or calendered. Initially it was made of linen; from the 18th and 19th centuries the term came to apply to cotton fabrics as well.

Chambray is a similar fabric,[2] with a coloured (often blue or grey) warp and white filling; the name "chambray" replaced "cambric" in the United States in the early 19th century.[3]

Cambric is used as fabric for linens, shirts, handkerchiefs, ruffs,[4] lace, and in cutwork and other needlework.[5][6] Dyed black, it is also commonly used as the dustcover on the underside of upholstered furniture.[7]

  1. ^ Sir David Brewster (1814). Second American edition of the new Edinburgh encyclopædia. Published by Samuel Whiting and John L. Tiffany [and others]. pp. 189–190.
  2. ^ Extension of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1944. p. 823. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  3. ^ Bradley, Linda Arthur (2014). Ethnic Dress in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9780759121508.
  4. ^ Westman, Hab'k O. (1844). Transactions of the Society of Literary & Scientific Chiffoniers. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 58.
  5. ^ Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier; Bernard Berthod; Martine Chavent-Fusaro (1994). Les étoffes: dictionnaire historique (in French). Editions de l'amateur. p. 120. ISBN 9782859171759.
  6. ^ Betzina, Sandra (2004). More Fabric Savvy: A Quick Resource Guide to Selecting and Sewing Fabric. Taunton Press. ISBN 978-1-56158-662-2.
  7. ^ Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. December 1935. p. 935.