crepe

is a material with an irregular surface structure,

There are two ways of achieving a crepe fabric . One  is by the use of a high twist yarn in an open weave, then on release and washing the open set shrinks up and gives a rough crinkly effect. The other way is to use the weave itself. One of the more difficult effects to achieve with a dobby, with a limited amount of shafts, is an irregular effect especially as the characteristic of a crepe weave is a rough surface even when woven with smooth yarns.  All crepe fabrics have floats in warp and weft direction, the more random the better, without any recognisable pattern. The material is the same on both sides.

This example woven on 6 shafts has plenty of variation although occasionally a diagonal is too dominant.The three cloth examples show different enlargements. Both warp and weft had a twined cotton which made it difficult to achieve the true crinkly rough effect. To show the structure the example chosen shows a strong contrast between warp and weft colours. In reality in industry the colour would be the same in warp and weft or piece-dyed.