Jacquard Weaving and Designing

by T. F. Bell

Fig. 168

The pattern is painted on design paper, shaded in the way it is to appear on the cloth, and the weaver must have a bobbin of weft to suit each tint or shade of colour on the design. The outline of the pattern is traced on the warp to guide the weaver, and the painted pattern is fastened up either before him or to one side of him, so as to be convenient to read the stitches off it. When ready for work he looks at the pattern and finds perhaps 20 stitches of blue; then he selects a bobbin of the correct shade and passes it through the open shed of the warp round 10 threads; then he draws the 10 doups of the heddles that are round the 10 threads intermediate with and in front of these, pulling them back through the others and forming a cross shed. The same bobbin is now passed through this shed, and the weft pressed down with a pin or comb, both of which articles the weaver uses for straightening and beating up the weft. This covers 20 threads of warp with blue weft. The texture of the cloth is plain throughout, the weft being bent round the warp and pressed close together, forming a rib. Now, instead of completing this weft line all along the cloth, as is usual in coloured weaving, the weaver goes on working with the bobbin he has taken up, following the colouring on the pattern, and may change his bobbin when required for a new shade or colour, and go on working this portion for some distance upwards, and then begin an adjoining portion and work it up in the same way. This will come all right when the outlines of the portion he is working run obliquely; but if they should run upright for any distance in the same direction as the warp, it is plain there would be two selvages coming together without any connection between these portions of the cloth, as shown in [Fig. 168]. When the pattern runs in a diagonal direction, the weft threads passing across from one warp thread to the next one make a sufficient binding or connecting link between the two colours, as may be seen at the upper portion of this figure, which would be quite sufficiently connected when it is considered that the weft threads are pressed so closely together as to entirely cover the warp. To remedy the objection of a slit or division between the two portions of a pattern in the case of a vertical line, it is customary to tack the bobbin of one colour of weft round the first warp thread of the adjoining colour, at intervals of, say 3/16 in. This produces a toothed appearance, but is not very remarkable. The only other remedy would be to link the two wefts on each other occasionally. In many of the old tapestries it may be seen that this was neglected, even when the distance was as much as 3 in. or 4 in. Sometimes they were stitched afterwards in these places with a needle and thread. When there are many long straight lines running in one direction, as in architectural subjects, it is best to work the pattern so that these will run in the direction of the weft, to avoid any joining being required. Patterns can be wrought sideways or upright on the cloth as desired to suit the size, subject, &c.

Fig. 169

As the weaver sits at the back of his frame or loom when working, he has to come round occasionally to examine the face of his work. Sometimes he keeps a looking-glass in front to show him how he is getting on. He has also a rough pattern on the back of the cloth similar to that on the front, as the nature of the weave must give him the same on both sides were it not for the loose ends at each change of bobbin, which have to be tacked up at the back. Tapestry weaving is a very tedious process of working, but in skilful hands very beautiful, and artistic results can be produced.

Figured Pile Fabrics.—When we come to pile work we have a great scope for the ornamentation of fabrics, but the nature of the work is such that it is only suited to heavy or moderately heavy cloth, and a large number of either threads or picks per inch are required.

Forming stripes of plain or figured pile alternately with twilled or figured stripes can easily be accomplished with either a weft or warp pile, but when we come to figure indiscriminately over the cloth there is more trouble. For a length of time there was a difficulty in cutting weft-pile figured fabrics, as the knife or cutter would not always enter the proper ‘race’ round the edges of the figure, and the floats were cut irregularly. This has now been overcome by arranging the design to suit. [Fig. 169] is a common velveteen designed for a weft pile figure. Only a portion of the pattern is given, but enough to show the method of arranging the design. It will be seen that the figuring is produced by flushing the weft on one side of the cloth, and for the ground it passes to the other side. The edges of the pattern are moved across the design paper in steps of two, and no flush or float is less than over four threads. In addition to this the figure should be turned in the centre on an odd number of ends, which in cutting keeps the race end on the inside of the step into which the knife enters. The knife is run up on all the odd numbers of ends moving across in steps of two, and, leaving no flushes of less than four, gives it a better chance of entering in the proper place along the edges of the pattern.