Plate No. 057 · weave

Dobby

Dobby is both a loom mechanism and the cloth it makes: small geometric figures, dots, diamonds, birdseyes, and waffles, woven directly into the fabric on a loom whose dobby head controls each harness independently. The mechanism arrived in the 1840s as a simpler cousin of the jacquard, capable of small repeating figures rather than full pictures. Dobby shirting reads as texture at a distance and reveals its tiny woven pattern up close, which is exactly the quiet richness shirtmakers use it for.