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promise to be oneof the last of these kind of posts-rome hbo
#63
Quote:Really? I would have thought that machine looms could use much finer thread, and weave it more tightly than hands could weave any home-spun, even that of professional spindlers. Not my field, though.

Machines could probably duplicate historical textiles but there really isn't any demand for it. There are bolts of Egyptian linen found in tombs which are finer than any linen today, mainly because no one uses fine linen today. I've also seen dresses from the 1700s with hand-loomed fabric that is woven so tightly, it doesn't unravel when you cut it. People didn't used to hem garments because the fabric didn't unravel. If you've got 10 yards of material in a a medieval dress, no one is going to care that you have a few threads hanging out. Plus with that amount of yardage, your outfit isn't going to frey enough to make a big difference. The daggings that you see in sleeves like scalloping, castellations (squares) or foliation (looks like leaves) were also to help prevent the fabric from freying and unraveling.

There is such a demand for cheap clothing that most manufacturers cut back on the thread counts and consequentially, people expect to throw out their clothes after a season. Compared to the fabrics that were made 100 years ago on machine looms, the stuff we have today is crap.

So in hand-weaving times, if you were going to spend the time weaving, you were going to make the best fabric that you could so it wouldn't wear out as fast. Nubby, slubby, unevenly woven, or loosely woven fabrics would have been considered poor quality. Plus the clavi on the togas and tunicas would have been woven in as stripes, not applied later. I know it's hard to find wool with the correct stripes these day but at least the costumers could have tucked in the edges or finished them off so they didn't look raw. That would have been a sign of old clothing and no one of upper class would ever want to be seen in public in old clothes.

Also, the neck slits were probably made in the weaving process so the edges would be finished off like selvedges (the sides of a bolt of fabric as opposed to the ends where it is cut) so they wouldn't unravel or frey that badly as well.

If you have a chance to go to a really good fabric store that caters to the fashion industry or coture markets, take the opportunity. Compare the $10/yd wool with the $100/yd wool or the $20/yd linen with the $100/yd linen. There is a huge difference in the drape, feel, and quality of the fabric. The handweavers were consistently producting fabrics of the $100+/yd fabrics like we have today instead of the cheap bargain bin stuff that people associate with "handwoven".
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Deb
Sulpicia Lepdinia
Legio XX
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Messages In This Thread
promise to be oneof the last of these kind of posts-rome hbo - by Woadwarrior - 08-22-2006, 10:32 PM
Cutting living beings - by Caius Fabius - 08-23-2006, 03:09 AM
Like butter? hmm... - by Gaius Largenius - 08-23-2006, 09:40 AM
HBO Rome on DVD - by Caius Fabius - 08-25-2006, 02:55 AM
thank you Ebusitanus - by Caius Fabius - 08-25-2006, 12:59 PM
Re: HBO Rome on DVD - by Narukami - 08-26-2006, 01:32 AM
Re: HBO Rome on DVD - by Niedel - 08-28-2006, 06:20 PM
helmets - by Caius Fabius - 08-29-2006, 01:26 AM
Re: helmets - by Narukami - 08-29-2006, 04:23 AM
Rome costumes - by Lepidina - 08-30-2006, 02:05 PM
Re: promise to be oneof the last of these kind of posts-rome hbo - by Lepidina - 08-30-2006, 03:13 PM

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