Dotted Swiss (fabric)

Dotted Swiss, or Swiss Dot, is a sheer cotton fabric embellished with small dots. It is a fine, lightweight plain weave cotton fabric, ornamented with embroidery or flocking with dotted patterns.

The dots sequence is possible in several ways and colors. The placement of dots can be regular to irregular and single color or multicolor. The dots could be of the same as ground color or different also. The cloth is usually made crisp with temporary finishes.^{[1] [2]}

Origin

A dress designed by Jacques Griffe in the mid-1940s using Dotted Swiss lace.

The fabric was made on handlooms in Switzerland. The design is said to have originated around 1750 in St. Gallen, Switzerland, which emerged as a textile center in the 15th century.^[3] It was made of cotton on handlooms with thirty two inches of width. Originally the dots were produced with swivel weaving, a technique of weaving that allowed colorful designs to be woven onto a base fabric, a technique which was gradually replaced with embroidery, flocking and printing etc. In modern times blended fabrics are also used to make dotted swiss.^[1]

Application and use

The fabric is suitable for wedding dresses, shirts and fuller dresses, blouses, baby clothes, and curtains.^[1]

References

1. Ingrid Johnson, Phyllis G. Tortora (2013). The Fairchild Books Dictionary of Textiles. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 189. ISBN 9781609015350.
2. Dieter Kuhn (1997). "Textiles in China". In Helaine Selin (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer. p. 959. ISBN 9780792340669.
3. "Illustrated History of Textile" by Larry Operath