Cretonne.—This fabric is essentially a printed cotton fabric woven either with a plain twill satin or oatmeal weave. The weft is generally made from waste and is not very regular. Cretonnes, being used mainly for curtains, hangings, or furniture coverings, are generally printed with large, bold, and highly coloured designs. It is woven with a bleached or grey cotton warp and filling in widths ranging from 25 to 36 inches, and for curtains in widths up to 50 inches. Their main feature is their large bright-coloured floral designs, and their value depends to a great extent upon the artistic merits of these designs. Sometimes a fancy weave or small brocaded effect may occur in this class of fabric, but it is seldom met with, and it is not representative of the true Cretonne fabric. Flax also is said to be used in the manufacture of certain grades of Cretonnes, without, however, taking them out of the class to which Cretonne fabrics belong.
Crimp Cloth, Plain, or Crimps.—Crimps are plain-woven all-cotton fabrics which have as their distinctive feature "cockled" striped effects. These "crimped" or "cockled" stripes are produced by dividing the warp threads into two separate "beams," one of which is under greater tension than the other; that is to say, the warp threads from one of the beams will be tight and the others slack. These slack threads in the process of weaving are "taken up" more rapidly and form the "crimped" stripes. Crimps may also be produced by subjecting fabrics specially constructed to a special chemical process during finishing, or by passing the material through suitable rollers which will stretch the material in some places more than in others and thus artificially produce the "cockled" stripe. Crimps are made up in widths seldom exceeding 30 inches; the length of pieces, however, may vary considerably. It is also known as Seersucker or Crinkle.
Crinkle, or Seersucker.—Names given to striped fabrics of the Crimp type. Seersucker originally meant a silk fabric.
Cross-dyed.—Cross-dyed goods may be described as fabrics woven with black or coloured cotton warps and wool or worsted fillings and afterwards dyed in the piece. This process is resorted to because the warp and filling of a fabric woven with a cotton warp and a wool filling, and then piece-dyed, would not become identical in colour, as cotton and wool have not the same attraction for dye. Cross-dyeing is generally used in mohair, alpaca, and lustre fabrics, and the principal cloths in this classification are cotton warp figured Melroses, Florentines, Glacés, Brilliantines, Lustres, Alpacas, and Mohairs. [See Union Cloth].
Crossover.—This name is given to fabrics having stripes, of either colour or weave effect, extending across the width of the cloth from selvedge to selvedge.
Cut Goods.—Underwear made of either ribbed or flat webbing knitted into long rolls and cut to the proper lengths and sections for garments, after which the various parts are sewed together.