Black & White Stripe Linen
Linen cloth, such as this Black & White Stripe Linen, was woven of flax fiber in many grades and weaves. Used in every aspect of living, from clothing, to household needs, to furnishings, to the shroud made for the corpse, linen was so common that a tax was proposed as a source of easy revenue on the coarser sorts being imported into the US towards the end of the 18th century.
Woven stripes were a common way of introducing color and pattern into textiles inexpensively. The stripes could be introduced using the warp or the weft yarns.
