Thursday, March 17, 2011

Every so often there are real milestone moments for our business and yesterday provided one of them. I went down to the mill in Fife that we work with to make our linens to see our first woven linen ticking and ginghams on the loom. It was just amazing to see the fabrics that we have worked on for the months and months, choosing yarns, dying yarns, finalising patterns, actually coming into being. The quality of this fabric really has to be felt and seen to be believed. It genuinely doesn't get any better than this. It feels really good to be part of this process.

This image shows Angus at the mill showing me how they pick up a broken warp thread. Just look at all those metal droppers - each one has to be threaded by hand to set up the loom - and then if one breaks, it has to be found and reknotted before the loom can set off again.

This is a roll with the warp threads for our new navy gingham waiting to go - they will be attached to the ecru gingham that is currently being woven so that the blue follows straight on from the ecru.

Here you can see the back end of the loom with all the warp threads of the ecru gingham.

And this is the finished fabric coming off the loom - just wonderful!

Once they've been woven, the linens then go to be 'finished'. This softens and slightly shrinks the linens, and gives them the 'antique' feel that we are always striving for at Twice.

These new linens will be available in our new catalogue which should go out at the end of April. I cannot wait to see what they look like when they're used. Very exciting days.







10 comments:

Sue said...

This is lovely to se. My Great Uncle Harold was a quality inspector for years working on looms like these.

He worked his eyes so hard over the years he gradually went blind after he retired but he loved his job and he loved fabric, so much so he married a wonderful seamstress, my lovely Great Aunt Ida.

They had many happy years together and used to take me away every weekend to their caravan in Lancashire to give my stressed out Mum a break.

Thanks for bringing lovely warm memories rushing back.

Sue xx

Twice said...

Hi Sue
Very glad to have brought back happy memories for you - these are certainly going to be happy memories for me!

Caroline x

Anonymous said...

How exciting! The ticking looks wonderful - you'll quite rightly be chuffed to bits!

madebymum said...

they look wonderful

Twice said...

Thanks everyone - I am so passionate about what we're doing and when it comes to these linens there really isn't anything better anywhere in the world than what we can produce here in Scotland.

caravanartist said...

It's so good to be able to use a Scottish mill - good for you. Looking forward to the catalogue!

Twice said...

Thank you! We've had some great feedback on the linens - and we're going to be selling them at extremely competitive prices given the quality, so fingers crossed people will buy.

The Cloth Shed said...

Just found your blog via Vintage Squirrel....all very tasteful indeed and your fabric is beautiful.
Will be back....
Julie x

Twice said...

Thanks Julie - glad you found us, and more importantly, glad you liked what you found! We'll have samples of all the new fabrics available from the end of April. Caroline x

theodora said...

Wow,that is fantastic ! Congratulations on the creation of your fabric... it will sing I am sure..
Barb