Cretonne was originally a strong, white fabric with ahempenwarp andlinenweft.[1][2][3][4]
The word is sometimes said to be derived from Créton, a village inMesnils-sur-Iton (Eure,Upper Normandy) where the manufacture of linen was carried on;[5][6] some other serious sources mention that the cretonne was invented byPaul Creton, an inhabitant ofVimoutiers in thePays d'Auge,Lower Normandy,France, a village very active in the textile industry in the past centuries.
The word is now applied to a strong, printed cotton cloth, which is stouter thanchintz but used for very much the same purposes. It is usually unglazed and may be printed on both sides and even with different patterns. Frequently cretonne has a fancy woven pattern of some kind which is modified by the printed design. It is sometimes made with a weft of cotton waste.[6]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cretonne".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 431.