Some patterns are printed. On the plain woven material, patterns are printed by means of rollers on which the pattern has been stamped. The colors are put on by this roller. The picture shows the machine. Did you ever have a calico apron or dress of percale or cambric on which the pattern showed on one side only? Many ribbons are printed with a pattern, but sometimes patterns are put on both sides of the cloth. Again, printing is sometimes done on the warp threads before the filling thread is woven in. This makes a dull effect in pattern. Miss James had a piece of ribbon which was so printed. When it was ravelled out a little, the printed warp could be seen.
Courtesy of Cheney Bros.
Fig. 149.—Printing cloth by machinery.
Did you ever see a foulard silk dress with white spots? Do you know how they are made? There are two. methods. One is called "resist," and the other "discharge." The first method, "resist," is easy to understand. The material is printed before it is dyed. The spots are printed with a chemical which resists the dye when it is put in the dye bath. So the cloth comes out of the dye with white spots where the chemical was stamped. The "discharge" method is just the opposite. The cloth is dyed blue or black or whatever the color is to be, and then it is passed between rollers something like your wringing machine and the color is taken out in spots by chemicals. Sometimes, when the chemicals are too strong or cheap, they eat the cloth. Jane Alden's cousin had a dress from which the white spots fell out, leaving holes.
Patterns are sometimes printed on cloth by means of wood blocks or stencils. Perhaps you can do some printing on plain cloth. You can make a stencil pattern. Cut out the design in it and paint through the holes, or cut a design from a piece of wood, dip it in color, and print the cloth. Lovely materials are made by hand in this way. Miss James has a beautiful English piece of Morris block printing which she values highly.
Many patterns are embroidered. Look in the piece box. Sometimes embroidered designs are worked on cloth by hand, but many are made by machine. Miss James has a scarf which came from India. It is embroidered in gold with little bits of glass sewed on the right side, and held by the embroidery. This is all hand work. Miss James has a waist with little spots of white embroidered in silk. This is done by machine on a loom. Find some piece of material embroidered by machine.
So Barbara Oakes now understands about the patterns. Miss James had some books to show the girls, too. They looked up in the encyclopedia about printing of materials and about the other things they wished to know about patterns. Barbara says to her the most wonderful thing is the way in which the warp threads of the loom can be controlled by the Jacquard pattern cards and other devices. The shed of the warp as it is raised for each filling thread is governed by the devices, and a different set of threads bobs up for each shuttle throw.
EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS