Frill Web on Cam Loom
In single cloth webs as already stated, the scope for ornamental effects is necessarily limited. The bulk of such webs, particularly those made with a wire edge, are for the most part plain. There is a type of garter web, however, characterized as “frill” and shown at Fig. 5, which may be made within the narrow limitation of cam looms, although the frill feature is more generally used in connection with more elaborate fancy effects.
The frill part is practically a section of non-elastic of any desired width woven on to a section of elastic, which likewise may be of variable width. The strands of rubber used in the central section, being woven under tension, contract this portion of the fabric after it leaves the press rolls. The side sections having no rubber in them do not contract, but frill up uniformly on either side of the web in regular fluted folds. No wire is required for the selvage when a frill is made, and the tension of the filling is adjusted so as to hug the outside threads of the frill warp and make a neat selvage without narrowing it in beyond the width of the reed space occupied by the warp.
The frill part must be on a separate warp, apart from the binder threads which are used in the central section. The elastic section is made in the regular manner already described for webs of four harness capacity. The frill is likewise constructed from the same harnesses, but the draft is so arranged that two of the harnesses are used for one frill and two for the other. This arrangement is made in order that the filling may only be bound in alternating picks on the frill part, whereas in the body it is bound at every pick. This method makes the frill soft and pliable, so that it readily responds to the contraction which takes place in the body part, and thus makes for regularity in the formation of the folds.
Should an exceptionally fine frill be desired, the same two harnesses are used for the frill at either side, and the filling is bound or woven in at each passage of the shuttle. Wherever this method is employed, however, it becomes necessary to use a much finer yarn for the frill warp, or a fewer number of threads spread over the front reed in the frill. If such precautions are not taken the frill will be harsh and stiff and will not fold uniformly as the center contracts. It may even retard the desired contraction of the body.
It is not advisable in making frill webs to use a regular front reed having the same spacing of dents all across. There is a liability of getting a coarse looking frill, showing up the marks of the reed dents. The plan more desirable is to use a reed with the dents required for the frill part of the fabric spaced very much finer than those used for the body, generally in the ratio of two to one, so that the frill threads may be evenly distributed in ribbon-like formation and not show the coarse lines of the dents.
Occasional calls are made for webs having a frill on one selvage only. In this case it becomes necessary to use an edge wire on the side having no frill, and exceptional care must be taken in this class of goods to produce the proper balance. A soft frill is required and a limited contraction of the body part.
Double Cloth Webs
Our remarks so far have been confined exclusively to single cloth webs of a simple character, where, apart from the rubber and gut there is only one warp used, and where both back and face of the web are alike. We will now turn our attention to what are known as double cloth webs, where two distinct cloths are woven, one for the face and one for the back, each working independently of the other, but tied together by another warp known as the binder, or else the two cloths interlock each other in such a manner as to bind them together without the assistance of another warp.