Interesting specimen

[sydnie7]

OOooooooo, I like that overall herringbone weave! Not at all trad but a great look, to my eyes.

[SlackerDrummer]

*deleted*

[figheadair]

Herringbone?

No not entirely. The red section is twill and the blue one herringboned in the warp. The heddle order of the weft was then revearsed backward and forward in the blue section of the weft resulting in Goose-eye weave in that portion. That's a real pain to do manually, not to mentoined technically very difficult. Visiually interesting but structurally less sound than all twill and it would make a rubbish kilt. With out doubt commercial 'fancy' cloth.

[John_Carrick]

it looks like the sort of material they make bus and train seats out of in London

[Morris at Heathfield]

Apart from the fact that the warp and weft patterns were essentially the same, the other thing that caught my notice was the diamond twill (or goose eye, or lozenge twill) pattern. I recall, as a boy, seeing an illustration of a man (from a burial in Bronze or Iron Age Denmark, as I recall) wearing a tunic with a diamond pattern on the sleeves, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I learned what that pattern was.

I initially thought this specimen was entirely diamond twill, but after examining the image closely before making my original post, I realized it was, as Peter said, diamond twill in the blue section, ordinary twill in the red sections, and herringbone twill where the sections cross.

Not kilt material, and no doubt never intended for that purpose. Certainly intended to be sold to someone for some purpose or other, whatever purpose that was.

As to how it's being used now?

Here's another picture, to put it slightly more into context:

[Kinth]

Stupid comment,

[TheOfficialBren]

it looks like the sort of material they make bus and train seats out of in London

Wow! We get plain vinyl on our bus and train seats in the US. Most people look down on public transport here. It isn't very efficient in our neck of the woods. I hear that the UK, The European Continent, and Japan have top-notch public transport.

[Kinth]

I speak for France, but public transportation here is very VERY unequal... Some areas are really well covered and recieve good service, and some others (my parents' one for example) are the ones they leave without bus/train drivers when they lack some (for example), so every time there is a problem on the region we know it will be for us...

Just my two (euro) cents.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Visiually interesting but structurally less sound than all twill and it would make a rubbish kilt.

What about an all herringbone or goose-eye twill fabric?

[Morris at Heathfield]

I doubt the fabric was originally intended for upholstery, but who knows?

I've been able to obtain some better images. First a close-up view of the weave:



And here's a view from further away:



Hmm....