Pre-shrinking traditional kilt fabric?

[chasem]

. . .tartan comes badly skewed from the mill (true of some of the F&K tartan in the last couple of years). I learned the hard way that you have to take care of this before you start sewing.

How do you go about fixing that? I've only worked with F&K material once, but for future reference it'd be great to know how to handle that.

[sydnie7]

OK, we've got anecdotal input that says good tartan, unlike some other woolen fabrics, doesn't need to be preshrunk. I've dug a bit deeper to figure out the WHY, and found some interesting (to me) stuff.

Here's one explanation of how manufacturers can preshrink their fabric: Link

But we all know that tartan is woven from worsted yarns, and that seems to be the clue. This article includes the statement, "Worsteds go through a process called crabbing in which the fabric passes through boiling water and then cold water. This procedure strengthens the fabric." I don't know about strengthening, but it certainly sounds as if that would also pre-shrink the yardage!

So it seems that worsted = preshrunk by definition. Considering this forum has hosted exhaustive discussions of twill direction, selvedge construction, color variations, and other characteristics of tartan fabric, I think this tidbit of knowledge is worthwhile.

I'd still be interested in confirmation or clarification from the weavers, but that would just be the cherry on top STS.

[Paul Henry]

Traditionally, woolen cloth and tweed was "waulked" or fulled" which was a process of cleaning the newly woven cloth sometimes with clay( for example :fuller's earth) or other substances, this helped to remove a certain amount of the grease but also softened the cloth, in the washing of the cloth to clean away the impurities it was often washed in soapy water and then waulked, that is hit, thumped, beaten, twisted by hand around a table in order to slightly shirnk the cloth, and in a sense to felt it as well.It seems that it was largely womens work to do this, and they would sing songs to make an otherwise fairly boring task passable.
I was under the impression that most Harris tweed is washed and pressed after weaving, this must be similar to the traditional process of waulking .

Growing up in Belfast and visiting linen mills often, I was always fascinated by the beetling mills, which thumped the linen cloth to soften the fibres and even out the cloth, admittedly a different substrate, but interesting that the actual process has similarites to waulking.

Perhaps today with more thorough first processing of the wool so much after finishing isn't done.

[sydnie7]

"Visiting linen mills" -- fascinating story, thanks!

This probably isn't one of the actual working songs, but it's related:
Link

And the lecture built around it is interesting as well. Includes a good illustration of the difference between worsted and other woolen yarn.

[Pleater]

It is wise to check that any fabric is square and true - this will sound like some sort of Masons' talk, but it just means that the warp and weft need to be at a right angle in the cloth.

A square fabric can be folded on the diagonal - that is placing a thread of the weft straight along the selvage edge and the fold will lie flat. If it doesn't then the fabric is skewed. There are often diagrams to illustrate this in sewing books, particularly older ones.

Lightweight fabrics can be ironed to straighten them, or one person can ease them back onto the square by pulling them diagonally working along the length of the fabric, or fixing a corner and exerting a pull on the opposite corner at the other end as appropriate.

With wool it is sometimes necessary to wet the fabric and work over it several times, pulling it into shape, then leave it stretched out and square to dry, as the fibres refuse to alter their alignment unless wetted.

An even worse fault - though not often seen, is changes of tension within the fabric which causes distortion so there are domes or curves. That is almost impossible to work with.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Barb T]

I've tried the pulling method and a steaming method. For the F&K tartan, I thought the pulling method was working, but the tartan seemed to have a pretty good memory for the skewed shape. I then put a wool blanket on a big table, laid the tartan out flat, and my husband pulled on the diagonal against the skew, and I steamed the dickens out of it. That pretty much took care of it, but it's quite a lot of work, and we had to repeat the process on several sections.

[figheadair]

Wollen and worsted are of course two different beasts. There is no requirement to wash, shrink or anything else good worsted cloth other than to soften it. If you manage to get your hands on some good worsted 'in the grease' i.e. straight off the loom you'll find that it's more like old hard tartan. Trouble is that most manufacturers are reluctant to sell 'unfinished' (their term) cloth.

Traditionally, woolen cloth and tweed was "waulked" or fulled" which was a process of cleaning the newly woven cloth sometimes with clay( for example :fuller's earth) or other substances, this helped to remove a certain amount of the grease but also softened the cloth, in the washing of the cloth to clean away the impurities it was often washed in soapy water and then waulked, that is hit, thumped, beaten, twisted by hand around a table in order to slightly shirnk the cloth, and in a sense to felt it as well.It seems that it was largely womens work to do this, and they would sing songs to make an otherwise fairly boring task passable.
I was under the impression that most Harris tweed is washed and pressed after weaving, this must be similar to the traditional process of waulking .

Growing up in Belfast and visiting linen mills often, I was always fascinated by the beetling mills, which thumped the linen cloth to soften the fibres and even out the cloth, admittedly a different substrate, but interesting that the actual process has similarites to waulking.

Perhaps today with more thorough first processing of the wool so much after finishing isn't done.