Tag: patterns

creations-by-livvyann:

My next project…. beginning stages…. the inner bodice is cut out and I am beginning to sew. I have a large amount of the plaid fabric left from the last project and I love it, so I am putting it good use for this. The materials listed as historically correct are light weight wool, worsted, or silk. I’ve seen a couple extant examples in plaid, but since there seems to be a deficit in the number of extants in this dress style, I wouldn’t let the lack of those examples prevent me from making mine in plaid.

professorpski:

Weaving at Williamsburg, and the Power of Simple Design

A weaver can create a complicated pattern simply by varying the threads that go down the weft, or across the warp, and deciding how they will repeat. A mere two colors can create all kinds of geometric designs. You see here bed coverlets in cream and red, and cream and black. Lighter weight yarns could make fabric for clothes, or heavier yarns could be used to weave rugs. Starting in the late 18th Century, British inventors worked on how to create a loom driven by power other than human effort, and by the early 19th Century the new cotton loom industry was in place in Manchester, a key part of the industrial revolution.  But here in Colonial Williamsburg, you can see the old-fashioned way at the weaver’s which also has a little loom in the front room where you can try your hand at weaving. 

For more info on CW, go here: http://www.history.org/history/index.cfm