Sunday, September 14, 2008



This week I've managed to make a dent in my "finishing" pile. :)

These towels were woven in August. The warp was a solid dark blue (with a sort of green cast to it) of 20/2 mercerized cotton. The weft is cottolin, about an 8/2 size. They were 30 epi and 30 ppi. The weave structure is twill blocks, woven 3:1, 1:3.

Last week I got them into the washer (hot water, cold rinse) and dryer (until damp) and then they got a *hard* press. After hemming they will get one more press to flatten the hems as much as possible before they are tagged, ready for sale.

I have a commercial steam press which makes very short work of the pressing.

Once again, the trasformation is magical. Loom state the web is stiff and hard to the hand. After wet finishing, the fabric drapes and feels much smoother (cottolin is fairly textured). The texture will come back after washing, but I really like how the fabric feels after pressing - especially when I'm trying to sell them..........

3 comments:

Laritza said...

I am so glad you started a blog! Thank you! I know it will be full of lots of wonderful information. Now the question: when you say a commercial steamer press do you mean one of those like the ones they have at the Dry Cleaning places? the ones the lock the top and the bottom and then you can steam? I have one of those but I do not use it because I am afraid it presses too hard. Am I wrong?

Laura Fry said...

Hi Laritza, yes, it's that sort of steam press. And yes, I do lock it down in order to achieve a hard press.

Cheers,

Laura

Laritza said...

Thank you! In my mind, it works kind of a "hot" mangle!