GABARDINE. The term applied in the cloth trade origi nally to a particular type of water-proofed fabric employed for the manufacture of raincoats, but later as a general description of several varieties of worsted, cotton, silk, and union or mixture fabrics, embodying certain features in common, and chiefly made up into cloaks and over-coats. The original material of this name was a union fabric produced from a fine two-fold Botany worsted warp picked with two-fold cotton weft and in which warp and weft threads are in the proportion of two to one, approximately, and the fabric is still essentially of a warp-faced texture developed with a steep warp-face twill weave producing a relatively strong and firm cloth somewhat resembling "whipcord," but of lighter texture. "Covert coating" fabrics are virtually gabardines of a lighter texture suitable for summer wear and for use in hot climates.
Owing to the predominance of warp over weft threads in gabar dine fabrics, the weft lies entirely at the back and is therefore not visible from the front, a circumstance which allows the use of weft of inferior quality without loss of durability, for the warp surface only is exposed to wear. Although all varieties of gabar dine fabrics have the same general textural appearance, they vary considerably both in respect of the particular twill weave and in the character, quality and counts of material employed in their construction, as well as in the number of warp threads and picks of weft per inch in the fabric. Some gabardine fabrics are pro duced entirely from cotton yarn. The better qualities of these are made from super-grades of combed two-fold warp and weft, while those of coarser texture and inferior quality are made from single yarn both for warp and weft. A so-called "voile gabardine" fabric of a more open and much lighter texture is produced entirely of silk. (H. N.)