My love affair with Gingham

When I think of Gingham, I cast my mind back to a bag that used to hang over the back of my chair in Primary School. The chair bag was Green and it had my name embroidered on it. In the bag I kept pencils and a book. There are other memories of Green library bags, school uniforms and table cloths of Gingham being used on Shrove Tuesday.

Recently, I have been re-igniting my love with Gingham. Stars are being appliquéd, lining for bags made with beautiful checks, and cute little pouches ... lots of loveliness to be had!

So what is Gingham?

A quick search reveals why Gingham has such a "common" reputation. It started off as a striped fabric and then in the C18 the design changed into a check. Gingham, like Calico, has been used in the past as test fabric for designers. Many of the web sites state that Gingham has it's roots in Indonesia.

Recently I have noticed different grades of Gingham appearing in stores. In particular, a quilting weight Gingham looks great when used as a backing fabric. When I pointed out my observations to an assistant at Spotlight the other day, she commented "What is Gingham?" Bahh!