Jersey (fabric)

“ Printed Shirtings, like all other cotton fabrics, undergo a process of "singeing," "bleaching," and "calendering" prior to being printed. The first process removes the surface hairs, which form a sort of nap to the surface of the cloth, which if allowed to remain would interfere with the uniform application of the colours, and the other two processes further prepare the fabric for printing.
Printed T-Cloth.—This fabric is an all-cotton plain-woven fabric, generally woven from poor-quality yarn, which, after leaving the loom, has been bleached and printed. ”

“ Union Yarns, being composed of materials that are not affected by dyes in the same way, can be recognised when found in a so-called wool fabric from the fact that the wool in the yarn will have taken up the dye, whereas the cotton will not have done so to the same extent, but will have retained more or less its original colour. ”

“ Plain cloth is the simplest cloth that can be woven. In this weave one series of threads (filling) crosses another series (warp) at right angles, passing over one and under one in regular order, thus forming a simple interlacement of the threads. This combination makes a strong and firm cloth, but does not give a close or a heavy fabric, as the threads do not lie as close and compact as they do in other weaves. In plain cloth, if not fulled or shrunk in the finish, the result is a fabric perforated with large or small openings according to the size or twist of yarn used. ”

“ Marjorie's grandmother has sent some flax which she grew and prepared herself, and a piece of an old hand-woven towel which she made when a girl. And here is some hand-spun flax! Notice how rough it looks. We have, also, some cord and twine and some linen thread. Do you know that Paterson, New Jersey, where Marjorie's Cousin Ann works in the silk mill, is also a great center for linen thread manufacture? Thread is made by twisting fine yarns together. The twisting makes them strong. They are then dyed or bleached white. Much of our linen thread is unbleached in color. ”

“ Outer wear fabrics made predominantly of cross stripe are not popular because of the reasons already shown, but they are often used for trimming garments, for borders of coats, cuffs and collars, and for fancy shirts they are often quite effective. One point must be borne in mind in selecting fancy colours in fine materials such as silk, etc.; the size of the fancy yarn chosen has to be approximately equal to that of the ground texture, or the 111fancy threads will cause a space more or less open to appear in the fabric so as to spoil its amenity. ”

“ The Firmness of Cloth.—The number of ends and picks per inch which can advantageously be put into a fabric depends upon the number of intersections per inch in the pattern or weave, and on the counts or diameters of the yarns used. In a plain cloth woven with 32’s twist and 32’s weft, the number of threads per inch which could be put into the cloth without undue compression would be a little more than one-half the number which could be laid side by side touching each other. ”

“ Formerly such fabrics were woven with the cotton and silk yarns dyed separately, care being taken to match them as closely as possible. The weaving of dyed yarns of different fibers is open to the objection that when the fabric comes to be finished there is a wide difference in the color, no matter how closely they may have matched in the beginning. ”

“ Union Cloth.—As the name implies, Union Cloths are woven with warp and weft of different fibres. They are also called "mixed cloths," and the union of the two different kinds of fibres may be arrived at by intermingling the wool and cotton fibres to form the warp or weft of a fabric or, as in most cases, each kind of fibre may be confined to separate threads, forming part or the whole of the warp or weft. Union Cloths are generally "cross-dyed," although they may also be "dyed in the grey." ”

“ This material is always plain woven and is of comparatively recent creation; it can be described as a very rough surface dress fabric, properly in part of wool, but now also made entirely of cotton. The characteristic rough surface is caused by the use of special fancy weft threads which are composed of two or more different size yarns so twisted together as to produce knob effects at intervals in the thread. A more expensive fabric is made of filling threads composed of braided yarns. ”

“ Cloth of cotton warp and bright wool fulling, made in Orleans, France. Many of the so-called alpacas and mohairs of to-day are Orleans. These fabrics are mostly cross-dyed, that is, fabrics with warp and filling of different shades. After weaving they are cross-dyed or redyed to give solid colors and glacé effects.
Panama Cloth is a plain weave worsted fabric of no uniform construction or finish. Fabrics sold under this name vary considerably. They are of solid colors, usually piece dyed, and are used for suitings. ”

“ The garments worn by high personages in the embroidery, and meant to imitate a golden textile, were done in gold passing sometimes by itself, sometimes with coloured silk thread laid down alternately aside it, so as to lend a tinge of green, crimson, pink, or blue, to the imagined tissue of the robe, as if it were made of a golden stuff shot with the adopted tint. ”

“ Of course, the material must to a certain degree influence the style of the fabric, and its selection must be according to the effect intended to be produced. [133] The fashions of the day, and the needs of the special manufacture, must greatly modify the choice of materials, which fluctuate, often disappear, and sometimes revive again.
Certain materials which have been, at one period, much admired, have been entirely lost; and indeed we may say that the only permanently employed textiles are wool, flax, cotton, and silk, which apparently never can be superseded. ”

“ You will find such a dress makes up prettily in a silk, a cotton or a woolen goods that is medium in weight. Tricotine, serge and twill are especially suited to such styles. Wool jersey is also made up in the overblouse effects. You might try cottons such as gingham, linene, chambray or ratiné. If you are planning a silk dress choose, faille, taffeta, satin, charmeuse or a fairly heavy crepe. ”

“ These goods are made usually in two coloured warp patterns, dark blue and white and red and white. One feature which is worthy of mention in regard to Ticking and other similar lines is that they are to-day being stock-dyed in increasing quantities. This method consists of dyeing the cotton or bleaching it, as the case may be, in the raw state and then carding, drawing, and spinning just as if a grey fabric were to be made. Stock-dyeing results in the dye affecting the fibres which form the very centre of a yarn, and for this reason is a better process than dyeing the finished yarn. ”

“ The extent and variety of our cloth manufacture, our fertility in making designs, our different ways of weaving, were really remarkable. We made cloth in stripes broad and narrow, and in checks wide and small. We made plain cloth, twilled cloth, jeans, and salt-and-pepper cloth, the latter by alternating one thread of white and one thread of black the width and length of the warp, and the same in the woof. This was a slow process, as the shuttles, with the quills of black and white thread, were changed at every tap of the batten. Plaids were woven both of wool and cotton thread. ”

“ Grey Shirting.—A Grey Shirting is an unbleached cotton cloth woven with a plain weave and having the warp and weft approximately equal in number of threads and counts; the fabric has a plain, even surface, which, when the threads are evenly spaced, is said to be well "covered." Grey Shirting, a staple import into the Eastern markets, is made up in pieces measuring from 36 to 40 yards in length, a width of from 36 to 45 inches, and weighing from 7 to 11 pounds and over per piece, according to the count of the yarn and the amount of size used. ”

“ For some reasons we should expect to find the American method applied even in England for fabrics of the highest qualities, because in their case the adaptation of the yarn to the fabric, and finishing to the fabric, are of great importance, and actually where the American plan is followed in England the explanation is frequently the speciality of the product which is associated with the particular firm producing it. When a firm manufactures a speciality of this kind it cannot always trust bought yarn, or the finishing applied to fabrics in the ton. ”

“ Not to name others one example, with its cloth of gold ground and its pattern in a dark blue deep-piled velvet, is not surpassed in gorgeousness even by that splendid stuff from Florence of which the Stonyhurst cope, just spoken of, was made.
Block-printed linen toward the end of the fourteenth century was another production of Flanders. Though existing examples to the eyes of many may look poor or mean, yet to men like the cotton-printers of Lancashire they will have a strong attraction; and to the scholar they will be deeply interesting as suggestive of the art of printing. ”

“ The object of the patented attachment in providing accurate controls for yarn guides laying a yarn over a distance less than the full width of a fabric being knitted, is either to knit an additional yarn over a particular area of the main body of the fabric so as to strengthen it or form upon it an ornamental design, or to insert in it 'split-seam work,' which is a portion of the main fabric knitted with a separate yarn and forming a distinctive design. ”

“ Lustre Dress Fabrics.—This class of union fabric, when woven with a fast black dyed cotton warp and a worsted mohair weft, is representative of union fabrics in general, and the treatment of this material when in its grey state applies to the majority of union fabrics. The warp is generally a 2/80's, i.e., a strong yarn, and the weft, say, a 1/14's. The warp being dyed prior to weaving, there only remains the weft to be dyed after the unfinished cloth leaves the loom. ”

“ With fifteen cows and heifers in milk on an average, the Jerseys brought me in quite £300 a year in butter and cream, without considering the value of the calves, and of the skim-milk for the pigs, and they were worth a good deal besides from the æsthetic point of view. I think that the word "dainty" describes the Jersey better than any other adjective; their beautiful lines and colouring in all shades of fawn and silver grey make them a continual delight to behold. After all, however, the shorthorn is a magnificent creature; they, too, have their aesthetic side ”

“ The loose threads existing between the figures when the goods leave the loom are usually cut away, leaving a somewhat imperfect figure or spot with a bit of the figuring thread protruding at either extreme edge of the figure or spot. Lappet-figured fabrics are not Brocades.
Lastings.—A plain twill or kindred weave fabric firmly woven from hard-twisted wool or cotton yarns. Smooth in appearance but having a somewhat hard handle, Lasting is a fine, durable, generally piece-dyed, material, of which there are several varieties, such as the Printed and the Figured. ”

“ The size may be applied to the yarn either hot or cold. When applied hot it penetrates into the interior, filling up every space between the fibers, binding all together, and forming a hard coating on the surface of the thread. A thorough washing or steaming serves to remove all the size from the woven fabric. ”

“ As used at present, the term may be combined with another name, and then purely designates the nature of the material used in the manufacture of the fabric, such as in Muslin Delaine.
Denim.—A stout cotton warp-faced twill cloth, generally woven as a four-end twill. The warp is dyed either blue or brown before weaving, whilst the weft is grey; they are both of coarse counts. Denim, being a warp-faced material, has the warp on the surface; and as the warp is made of coloured yarns, the cloth when woven shows a solid coloured surface. ”

“ Their Celtic descent is witnessed in the Irish by their superiority in the crafts of the loom.
The fine laces of Venice, France, and Belgium are all of linen, i.e. flaxen thread. Clearness and strength in these delicate fabrics cannot be obtained with cotton, which, especially when it is washed, swells and fluffs, and never has the radiant appearance and purity of flax.
Embroidery is always a natural accompaniment of fine linen. Those that are still preserved to us from early [Pg 137] and Middle-Age times are nearly all on linen, if not on silk. ”

“ New Jersey takes high rank among manufacturing states, the range of manufactured articles being both large and varied. They include, under textiles, cotton, woolen, worsted and silk goods; besides iron and steel, foundry and machine shop products; sewing machines ”

“ It was the habit of our family, and not a peculiarity at that day, that this article of dress should be of domestic manufacture. With us the yarn of which they were made emanated from our own wheels, and was more durable, because more carefully wrought, than what was for sale in the shops. We produced cotton of various degrees of fineness—linen thread for summer, and wool for the colder seasons. ”

“ Piece of Purple Silk Embroidery in gold and silver; pattern of interlaced dragons, human figures, and birds. North German, 12th century. 81⁄2 inches by 71⁄4 inches.
This small sample of needlework is as remarkable for the way in which it is wrought, as for the wild Scandinavian mythology which is figured on it.
The usual process for the application of gold and silver in textiles and embroidery is to twine the precious metal about cotton thread, and thus weave it in with the shuttle or stitch it on by the needle. ”