Antique French textiles are in great demand from collectors and upholsters. Don’t let anyone sell you fabrics that aren’t truly antique French textiles. Antique French textiles are all made of natural fibers, such as wool, cotton, silk and linen. I went to a small fabric shop in my town and they were trying to sell me a rayon fabric when I asked if they had any antique French textiles. So before you go on your search, make sure you know what you’re looking for.
A wide variety of antique French textiles were made of cotton. Percale cotton, which is lightweight cotton, was very prominent in the production of antique French textiles. Percale cotton is usually printed in dark colors. Chintz is another cotton antique French textile. It is shiny on one side and usually printed with five or more colors. Toile is another antique French textile that was primarily made from cotton. Toile was used mostly for decorating homes, not for making clothes. It is usually only two colors: the background color and the design color. The background color is usually ivory or white, so if you find a toile that has a different background color it will be pricy because it is rare.
Although most toile antique French textiles were made of cotton, some were made of linen. Modern toile can even be made of polyester. Damask or venise were two leading antique French textiles made from linen. Damask linen has a very complicated weave and it is reversible. As you can imagine, you will pay much more for damask linen than you will for some of the cotton or wool antique French textiles.
Venise is a category of damask linen. It is separated from the other damask linens because it was created for use as table linen. It is also primarily printed with large floral patterns. One of the primary silk antique French textiles is brocade silk. This silk has an embossed effect with opposing surfaces. Tweeds are the primary wool type antique French textiles.
Tweed is very rough wool. Did you ever have a wool skirt or sweater that made you itch? It was probably tweed wool. Tweed, although not the most comfortable fabric, was one of the easiest to weave. Some of the original tweed wool antique French textiles were actually made at home instead of in a manufacturing or production facility.
