Let's talk about Jacquard!

February 04, 2025

Let's talk about "Jacquard!"

Jacquard fabrics are named after the nineteenth-century French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Before being an inventor, Jacquard was in the fabric-making business and was looking at automating the production of patterned fabrics. Once necessitating highly skilled craftsmen working at a very slow pace, the production of woven fabrics with detailed illustrations was now fast and economical.

Basically, threads of different colors are interlaced as the weaving occurs. Before Jacquard's invention, a second person would have to lift or lower the threads manually to create the desired pattern. Jacquard's invention used punch cards to automatically route the threads. As an aside, it could be said that this discovery also inspired the first computers that also worked with punch cards. Because of his invention, patterned fabrics were now available to the general public and not just to the wealthiest. You could say that Jacquard was both the Henry Ford and IBM of fabric manufacturing!

Used extensively in the production of clothing, the Jacquard weave is also used to make some of the most beautiful home linens available. Of course, the French are the masters of the craft with table and kitchen linens featuring highly detailed and colorful illustrations. They range from geometric shapes to representations of fruits and plants.

Tablecloths are prone to staining as they are usually used to serve meals. The French manufacturers do their best to add a protectant of some kind so care is easier and the fabric remains looking new much longer. Our other popular line of tablecloths made of printed fabrics uses an acrylic coating to achieve this goal. As the Jacquard fabric is a more sophisticated product, a more subtle approach was necessary to retain the suppleness and softness of the fabric. Our Jacquard tablecloths are treated with a liquid-repellant substance that is embedded at a microscopic level so it is impossible to detect to the touch or to the eye. As a result, the stains will not penetrate deeply into the fibers and will come out easily in the wash. This treatment is only applied to tablecloths and table runners. They are never applied to napkins and kitchen towels, which need to remain absorbent.

​We carry a complete line of Jacquard table linens from the brands Tissus Toselli and L'Ensoleillade, as well as kitchen towels from the brand Coucke. Tablecloths are available as small as 58 inches square and as large as 11.5 feet long! We also carry coordinated table runners and napkins. The napkins are generously sized at approximately 20 inches and look like a scaled-down version of the tablecloths (sometimes with the colors cleverly reversed).

Also in I Dream of France's blog