In addition to being a bit of soft leather used to reinforce the sole of a piece of footwear, it is the bit of fabric that is used to make bound buttonholes or pockets.
instructions for welted pockets are here:
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This is one of the simplest instructionals I have found for it, and it varies from the way I do it only in that I tend to turn the whole welt to the backside at once, then sort it out and press it. Buttonholes are made pretty much the same way but on a smaller scale, and of course without the pockets and turning the raw edge under before the final stitching.. Cording can easily be added to the edges by basting or gluing it to the welt next to the stitch line, and then proceeding as normal. A bit of cording helps make it nice and even and serves as a guide for stitching when finishing the welt.
I see that I have previously done darning eggs, but neglected darning itself!
Darning is a mending process whereby a hole in the fabric is flled by reweaving the fabric with new thread. For most utilitarian purposes darning is done with a simple plain weave. Though in knit fabrics often the knit is reproduced either by matching the knit stitches in horizontal rows with a needle and thread after placeing vertical strands of thread, or with a crochet hook or knitting needles if it is a bulky knit. This reknitting helps maintain the stretch inherent in knit fabrics, and avoids "runners"from the damaged area. If the original yarn or thread can be matched, it is possible to repair a garment through darning so that the rent or hole is nearly undetectable. However as with any other mending any weakened threads or fabric must be cut away prior to starting, or new damage will occur where the strong new thread meets the old weakened fabric.
A high quality soft heavy napped woolen fabric, usually made into coats. Also may refer to a soft fine woolen tweed used as an informal suiting fabric.
Superfine synthetic fibers used to produce soft lightweight farics. Some manufacturers are defining microfibers as being less than 1 denier in weight, but the stuff is too new on the market to have a firm definition as yet.
It is a plant fiber similar to flax, and comes from the stalk of a plant that appears to have originated in the orient. The plant itself may grow up to 8 feet tall and is a sort of non-stinging nettle. The fibers can be removed from the plant either by hand or machine without retting it. Which if you have ever toyed with the notion of growing your own plant fiber is a tremendous thing.
It is stonger than flax, and stronger still when wet. However while it is one of the strongest plant fibers it is one of the least durable, so it is used primarily in blends.
Fabrics made with it tend to have a luster to them, and it dyes magnificently.
I saw people growing their own flax in Romania last year (picture at
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which is partof my Romania travelogue at
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I didn't see how they processed it. Just soak it in a tub till itturns into slimy fibrous gunge?
Any idea what makes it fail and if there's anything you can do to extend its life?
==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:17:07 +0000, Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
Often yes that is exactly how it's done. You pretty much just rot away everything but the fiber. Thus making it a long, messy, stinky, process. I have been reading about alternatives in the past few months, the most promising of which is bundling the flax after harvest and hanging it exposed to the elements for the winter. It is then rolled to break up any clinging dry bits, shaken out and washed a few times. It sounds promising, but I honestly don't know how clean the resultant flax would be, nor if it would take damage from the freeze-thaw cycle. I don't know how well it would work with other plants either. Of course people have been experimenting with chemical processes, and some of those work on an industrial level, but always with a weaker end product than the traditional gives. That is where some of the poorer quality linen in the world comes from.
Nope. I have dyed a few blends of it, and it is a glorious thing. kiri has a ramie-nylon blend sweater that is sooooo yummy on the skin! Thus that failure is indeed something that is one of my ongoing research projects. From unwinding a ravel I would suspect that it has a problem similar to kevlar. Each strand seems to be made of shorter microstrands. Which combine to make a very strong main strand, but fray off easily. Have to find a source where somebody is actually addressing the durability issue since I don't have enough to play with to sort it out to any reasonable degree. So far what I have run across is mostly just "low abrasion resistance", and wikipedia tells us it has a lack of cohesion between fibers. I am wondering if the problem with ramie, and the falling quality of linen are related. If they are cleaning all or most of the natural waxes and resins out of the fiber before turning it into yarns, it is going to go to hell in a handbasket pretty quickly. While those waxes and all are what make linen a real beast so far as wrinkling and ironing, they are also what make it nigh unto eternal. I don't see the ancient egyptians and the ancient chinese useing a fiber for cloth that deteriorates so quickly as modern ramie, or modern linen for that matter. Ramie has been used in such places for at least the last six thousand years. They have found it in ancient mummy wrappings and in assorted clothing dating back all those millenia. Thus IMHO modern processing techniques are highly suspect.
The plant has been imported in various places as an ornamental, and it has escaped cultivation and naturalized in almost every one of those places. So obviously it is easy to grow. If the durability could be sorted it could be a kicking cottage industry.
For a map showing where it has naturalized in the US:
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For a pictures of the plant:
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You can also click on the name of the plant at the above link to get cultivation details and growth habits.
I note that according to davesgarden the plant may be classed as a noxious weed in at least one place.
This is a very interesting topic. I'll be in Lithuania for a week next month, and there will be some sort of linen tour. So I'll pay close attention to methods.
AFAIK nettles were used for fiber in Europe, especially where flax was harder to grow. Ref. the fairy tale of Ilsa and her brothers, who were all turned into swans by the wicked witch. So Ilsa had to harvest nettles, spin the yarn, knit each of them a sweater, and throw a sweater over each swan to reverse the spell.
One thing I did see was the carding process - they used a board about three feet long with a clump of sharpened nails driven through it at the halfway point, maybe 30 nails 2 inches long in a bunch four inches across. It took a lot of force to do it.
The folk camp did a re-enactment of a women's spinning and carding bee. There were lots of traditional Hungarian songs and joke routines to go along with this, most of them unladylike in the extreme.
==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === ==== Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557 CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts
weaving patterns created by throwing the warp thread over more than one weft thread at regular intervals. They may be simple, or complex combinations that regularize over a several passes of the shuttle. Very often the warp is a heavier yarn than the weft.
A lightweight semi-sheer fabric originally of linen. It has a crisp finish and and resists wrinkleing better than standard linen. Nowdays most lawn is made of cotton.
A manufactured fiber usually made of cotton lint, though sometimes wood is added or used instead..
it is made like most other attempts at manmade silk. The basic fiber is treated with an acid, then it is extruded through a spinneret and hardened.
In the case of acetate the cotton lint is treated with acetic acid before being spun out.
Acetate is not the sturdiest of fabrics. It is one of the fabrics most susceptible to damage from heat or common chemicals. It burns very quickly, and will scorch at a hint of excessive temperature when ironing. It will melt when exposed to alcohol or many of the common compounds containing acetyl radicals. Acetone (nail polish or nail polish remover for example) and, superglue will dissolve it almost instantly. Vinegar, wine, or perfume will take only a little longer to destroy the fabric.
It does dry quickly as it does not readily absorb moisture, and will resist wrinkling in general use. It can be soft with a good drape, though most people think of old store bought Halloween costumes or cheap graduation gowns when they think of acetate.
A slub is a defect in a yarn or thread that is basically a lump where a lump ought not to be. Originally it only applied to lumps caused by a defect in the spinning or carding process. However over time in common use it also now includes bumps caused by "flying fibers" being spun into the thread. "Flying fibers" is a fancy way of saying airborne lint. Which is inevitable in a high speed textile process, but which manufacturers do usually do their best to try to shield the spinning threads from.
Slubbed yarns and threads are those which are spun with intentional slubs in them. These may be woven into slubbed fabrics such as silk noil, or sold for specialty applications such as certain types of three dimensional embroidery or knitting and crochet.
A pattern marking, usually shown as a darkened diamond or double diamond on commercial patterns, indicating a good place to put a mark for matching pieces. The mark may be made with any of the standard marking tools, tailors chalk, dressmakers, carbon, marking pencils or markers, etc., or it may be a tailors tack, or simply a cutting usually following the pattern marking outwards though some garment makers prefer to cut into the seam allowance rather than outwards.
Notches are particularly handy to mark curves or areas to be gathered prior to matching.
They can be used in quilting and are very handy when making curved patterns such as drunkard's path blocks or DWW. When working with bought templates, simply match the pieces together and use adhesive dots to mark notches, then as you cut mark the fabric with your marker of choice to indicate the notches on the individual pieces.
A lightweight plainweave fabric, soft, with superior drape. Currently it is often found commercially with small overall patterns, frequently floral.
Formerly the most common challis was wool, and wool is still highly popular. However rayon challis is probably the best selling variety now. It is much in demand for a variety of garments.
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