I have seen shirting material at Hancock Fabric. It was white, wide and sold for backing.

It's a lighter weight fabric...usually 100% cotton, but can be a blend.

http://www.fashionfabricsonline.com/...Green-Shirting

Above will take you to example.

I was always under the impression that shirting was white, fairly lightweight fabric, with small prints on it. I believe it's a reproduction. I could be wrong - won't be the first time! Check with the shop and please let us know. This is interesting.

I found this in search bar:

Types ofshirting fabric<o:p></o:p>There are twomain categories of fibres used: natural fibre and man-made fibre (synthetics orpetroleum based). Some natural fibres are linen, the first used historically, cotton, the most used, ramie,wool,silkand more recently bamboo or soya.Some synthetic fibres are polyester, tencel, viscose, etc. Polyester mixedwith cotton (poly-cotton) is often used. Fabrics for shirts are calledshirtings. The four main weaves for shirtings are plain weave, oxford, twilland satin. Broadcloth, poplin and end-on-endare variations of the plain weave. After weaving, finishing canbe applied to the fabric.

Shirtings arefabrics with a tiny print on them that were mainly used for blouses/dressesyears ago and make great background fabrics is today's quilts. Cotton blend usually means not 100% cotton. Should be labeled with what else isin it...

I work in a quilt shop and our shirtings are in the Civil War fabric section. They are basically white or light cream background 100% cotton fabric with small prints. They are used like blenders in Civil War style quilts. What type of class are you taking?

Whites, creams, beiges and tans are what are most often used for "lights". When someone says shirting fabric to me, I immediately think of Civil War Shirting fabrics which are also in whites, creams, beige tones and tans and they have very small prints or dots etc woven into the fabric. I agree though, it never hurts to ask for clarification. Good Luck!

Thanks I've learned a lot as usual here..:thumbup:

I am curious, too, what shirting really means. There's an online fabric store (denverfabrics.com) which offers 527 shirting fabrics. I have also seen the term 'shirting' used in connection with some civil war and early-1900s reproduction fabrics, and Hancock's of Paducah also features some modern shirting fabrics. The 527 samples at Denver Fabrics run the gamut--cotton, seer sucker, stripes, small prints, plaids, solids, etc. Bet they could offer a definitive definition Looking forward to learning what that might be. ;->)

Shirtings are reproduction fabrics with small designs - the background is usually white or tan. If you go to a web-fabric store look under reproduction fabrics and you can see what they are.

Joann's carries shirting fabric. It is a slightly lighter weight fabric. When I first heard the term I thought it meant men's shirt fabric, which could be anything. To be sure as several have suggested, to check with the teacher.