Tammy cloth is a coarse, union (a mixture of two different types of fibres) cloth made of cotton and worsted (wool). The word derives from tamis, which is a cloth originally used for sieving (see French tamis, ‘sieve’). It is also called tammies. It should not be confused with ‘tammy’, the abbreviation for a Tam o’Shanter, a form of woollen bonnet used in Scotland.