Textile manufacturing by pre-industrial methods

In order to make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fibre from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning.

Man-made fibres (made by industrial processes) including nylon, polyester will be used in some hobbies and handicrafts and in the developed world.

Textiles are still produced by pre-industrial processes in village communities in Asia, Africa and South America.

Creating textiles using traditional manual techniques is an artisan craft practised as a hobby in Europe and North America.

[2][full citation needed] The preparations for spinning is similar across most plant fibres, including flax and hemp.

Flax is pulled out of the ground about a month after the initial blooming when the lower part of the plant begins to turn yellow, and when the most forward of the seeds are found in a soft state.

After flax is spun it is washed in a pot of boiling water for a couple of hours to set the twist and reduce fuzziness.

The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, and India.

Hand operated methods of processing remained the preferred way of spinning and weaving the very finest threads and fabrics into the third quarter of the nineteenth century.

The leaves are crushed in between two large rollers producing the fibres which are bundled up and dried in the sun over trellises.

Primitive breeds, like the Scottish Soay sheep have to be plucked, not sheared, as the kemps are still longer than the soft fleece, (a process called rooing).

At this point the fleece is full of lanolin and often contains extraneous vegetable matter, such as sticks, twigs, burrs and straw.

Some people wash it a small handful at a time very carefully, and then set it out to dry on a table in the sun.

Using a drum carder yields a bat, which is a mat of fibres in a flat, rectangular shape.

Carding mills return the fleece in a roving, which is a stretched bat; it is very long and often the thickness of a wrist.

This is easier than plying from balls because there is less chance for the yarn to become tangled and knotted if it is simply unwound from the bobbins.

This technique also allows the spinner to try to match up thick and thin spots in the yarn, thus making for a smoother end product.

When washing a skein it works well to let the wool soak in soapy water overnight, and rinse the soap out in the morning.

Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China, with some of the earliest examples found as early as 3500 BC.

After about 35 days and 4 moltings, the caterpillars are 10,000 times heavier than when hatched and are ready to begin spinning a cocoon.

Liquid silk is coated in sericin, a water-soluble protective gum, and solidifies on contact with the air.

[6] Silk throwing was originally a hand process relying on a turning a wheel (the gate) that twisted four threads while a helper who would be a child, ran the length of a shade, hooked the threads on stationary pins (the cross)and ran back to start the process again.

[7][8] The process was described in detail to Lord Shaftesbury's Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Employment of Children in 1841: For twisting it is necessary to have what are designated shades which are buildings of at least 30 or 35 yards in length, ... the upper storey is generally occupied by children, ... or grown women as 'piecers', 'winders' and 'doublers' attending to their reels and bobbins [which is], driven by the exertions of one man...

He is despatched on a second expedition of the same kind, and returns as before, he then runs up to the cross and detaches the threads and comes to the roller.

Supposing the master to make twelve rolls a day, the boy necessarily runs fourteen miles, and this is barefooted.

[9] In 1700, the Italians were the most technologically advanced throwsters in Europe and had developed two machines capable of winding the silk onto bobbins while putting a twist in the thread.

[9] Filatorios and torcitoios contained parallel circular frames that revolved round each other on a central axis.

The invention of the drop box allowed a weaver to use multiple shuttles to carry different wefts.

The length the warp is made is about a quarter to half yard more than the amount of cloth needed.

[10] Warping the loom, mean threading each end through an eye in a heddle, and then sleying it through the reed.