The Clothing Seller’s Guide to Fabric Patterns and Prints - The Florals, Paisleys and Figurals
Don’t know your houndstooth from your herringbone? Your tartan from your toile? Your paisley from your plaid? This series of guides will help eBay sellers (and buyers) to identify all of the various fabric prints with descriptions and sample photographs.

Other guides include:

The Clothing Seller’s Guide to Fabric Patterns and Prints - Plaids and Checks

The Clothing Seller’s Guide to Fabric Patterns and Prints - Menswear Patterns

The Clothing Seller’s Guide to Fabric Patterns and Prints - Stripes

Paisley
Traditionally “paisley” was a soft woolen fabric with a colorful pattern of swirled teardrop shapes. More recently it has come to mean any fabric printed with such a design and can be made from cotton, velvet, wool, or man-made materials. The pattern was first used on woolen shawls produced in Kashmir, India. These Indian shawls were very expensive and in short supply, but in the mid-18th century the East India Company brought examples back to Britain and began producing them in British textile factories. They reinterpreted the design to European tastes and began mass-producing them in mills in Edinburgh, Norwich and Paisley, Scotland. It is from this town in Scotland that the pattern derived its name.

Calico
Calico is a plain weave, cotton fabric with an equal number of warp and weft threads and dyed in one or more colors. The name is derived from Calicut, India where the fabric was first produced and printed with block cuts. The first of these fabrics to be imported to England around 1630 were called “calicuts” and the name evolved to the term “calico” that we use today to describe a cotton fabric with a small, usually floral, print.

Toile de Jouy
Toile is usually a fabric with a light-colored background such as white, off-white or yellow and a darker, single-color print of a pastoral scene. The print is typically blue, red, black, tan or green. Occasionally you will also see a reverse toile with a colored background and a white or yellow print.

Toile originated in France in the 1800s (the word toile means cloth in French). It is commonly used in decorating fabrics, but recently apparel manufactures have also made use of this charming fabric.

Brocade
Brocade is a thick heavy fabric into which raised patterns, usually fruit, floral, or figural, have been woven. It is usually used more for upholstery and drapery rather than clothing, but you do see brocade coats, jackets, and handbags. The word is derived from the French word meaning “to ornament.” The modern definition of the word also includes knits with a luxurious look similar to the traditional woven brocade.

Damask
Damask is a fabric with a pattern formed by weaving. The term originally referred to ornamental silk fabrics from Damascus, which were an elaborate weave of colors, sometimes with the addition of gold and other metallic threads. Today, it generally denotes a fabric with a subtle tone-on-tone woven pattern of flowers, leaves, fruit, or animals. Often table linens are made of damask.