The cloth employed for printing and dyeing is cotton cloth in the grey state. The different types are:
Mulls or mulmul:
Mulls or mulmul: This is the finest variety of cloth used for printing. According to the old printers and legend, in olden times, Dacca handloom mulmul. 20 metres in length and 125 cms. in width, was being used. But in the present times mill-made grey mulls with warp and weft counts of 100 and superfine and fine cambrics, roduced on powerlooms, with warp and weft count anging from 30° to 80′ are used for the purpose. These abrics are generally available in thans of 20 metres length and upto 125 cms. in width. The 60:40 ambric cloth produced on powerlooms having tensive use in Bagru has warp and weft counts of and 40° respectively with 36 ends and 32 picks per ntimetre.
Lattha Grey
b) Lattha Grey y long-cloth in thans of 36 to 40 metres in length counts and construction, won in varying cothe mills constitute about n plain and produced by the aterial in Bagru. The width percent of the printi width of the che from 140 cms. to 160 cms. The cloth ranges from 140 cms of even . The warp and weft counts are about 20 or even coarser. The ends and picks per centimetre range between 20 to 25. Handloom Ha fabricst
coarse grey fabrics
c) These are coarse grey fabrics, woven plain Ind mostly with twisted yarn in the warp and satthas Yn handlooms. counts and wefi produced on handlooms. The co of warp and weft are generally 2/30 or even coarser. The length of a than ranges from 20 to 40 metres and the general width of the cloth is 125 cms. The ends and picks for the warp. and weft counts 2/30° are 21 and 15 per centimetre respectively.
Dosuti fabrics
d) Dosuti fabrics: These come in thans of 25 metres and the grey cloth is generally 125 cms. in width. The counts of warp and weft are mostly 20 and even coarser. The cloth is in a plain weave with 4 ends in a dent and 2 weft threads picked together.
Dedhsuti fabrics
e) Dedhsuti fabrics: Unlike the dosuti fabrics, the warp though drawn 4 ends in a dent, the pick is of single weft thread, and the cloth is plain woven. The thans are 25 25 metres in length and 125 cms. in width. The counts of warp and weft are similar to those of dosuti fabrics.
Rezi cloth
) Rezi cloth: f This is a very coarse plain-woven grey cloth produced on handloom and is very narrow in width. The count ranges between 6′ and 10″.
Khaddar cloth
g) Khaddar cloth: This is a hand-woven cloth of hand-spun yarn.
It may be mentioned that at present such fabrics dosuti, dedhsuti, rezi, and khaddar cloth are not normally used for printing and dyeing in Bagru, although they were in use in this centre. It is the exporters and local merchants who supply cloth to the printers and therefore the latter have no choice in the types of cloth. But certainly, they would always want cloth in the grey state only, preferably with a close texture, as this provides the ideal material to work with.
