DOUBLE CLOTH AND QUILTING HARNESSES

A very great variety of cloths come under the heading of double cloth; in fact, almost every description of coloured cloth figured in the loom, excepting coloured damasks and the commoner descriptions of dress goods, as well as many uncoloured fabrics, are generally woven more or less on this principle. Quiltings are mostly made on the double-cloth principle, and have nothing to specially distinguish them, except that some makes of cloth appear to be more suitable for goods of this description, though frequently other fabrics of a much more costly nature are woven in the same way; as, for instance, matelasses may be made in the richest silk and worsted for jackets, as well as in coarse cotton for quilts. One of the largest sections of double cloth is carpetings, but these will be described in a separate section.

For figuring double cloths the same principles of the structure of the cloth, &c., hold good as when weaving them plain, or in fancy texture. Any suitable pattern can be put upon any description of double cloth with a full harness mounting mounted in the ordinary manner; but the pattern must be spread over the design paper to suit the description of cloth to be made, which often necessitates its being in a very distorted form, unless it can be arranged in different colours so that the card-cutter can cut several cards from each line of the design paper. For instance, if three colours are required to form one complete weft line, then three lines of the design paper would be taken up with these, unless the colours could be arranged that the three cards could be cut from the one line, as frequently can be done; and the same for the warp when there is a face and back warp, or several colours to be brought up for one warp line. When there are two warp threads, one for the face and one for the back, two hooks of the jacquard are required to weave them, and two lines on the design paper are also required, unless two colours are painted on one line to guide the card-cutter in cutting the cards.

It is a great saving of work to the designer when the pattern has not to be spread over the paper so as to give each line separately, as doing so generally puts the pattern so much out of shape that it requires first to be designed square, or of the proper dimensions, on suitable design paper, and afterwards transferred to the working design for the card-cutter. When goods are being largely made this can often be avoided by special mechanism or mounting, to act instead of the cards, it being then worth the trouble of having a specially prepared mounting, and it is in these cases where double-cloth mountings are used. Perhaps the simplest class of the double-cloth range, though not really a double cloth, is figuring with extra weft. The figuring weft may be thrown in as a spotting intermittently, or may be every alternate shot, a ground shot following each figure shot.

Suppose the cloth to be a plain ground and a twill figure, and that 500 cards would be required to weave the figure if it were plain damask; it is then evident that 1,000 cards would be required if every alternate shot is ground, and the others for figure, and that the 500 plain cards for the ground would be two cards repeated 250 times. Now, instead of this, if we use a double-cylinder jacquard, and put the figuring cards on one side and four plain cards on the other side, we can save 496 cards, as the four cards on the cylinder will work the plain at every alternate shot. Or suppose a single-cylinder machine to be used, then shafts might be put through loops in the harness; or the cumber board might be made in sections, with knots on the harness twines above it, so that in either case the harness could be raised in rows to form plain cloth.

The plain shed could be formed with a tappet and levers, as in journal weaving, and the griffe would only be raised for every figuring shot. Plain cloth might also be wrought with a twilling motion on the machine, such as is used on twilling jacquards. A pair of pressure heddles in front of the harness is a common method of accomplishing this in the hand loom. The harness is drawn for one shot, then let down, and one of the pressure heddles sunk and the other raised for the second shot. For the third shot the harness is again drawn, and for the fourth shot the plain shed is crossed with the heddles. A twill or any figure may be used, as well as a plain ground.

The next step in double cloth is perhaps double-weft-faced cloth—that is, when the surface of the cloth on both sides is formed by weft, the warp lying in the centre, and merely acting as binders to bind the two wefts together. The warp may occasionally be brought to the surface to give additional effect, or to add a third colour; or the body of the weft may be kept on one side, the warp forming the ground on the other side, with a weft figure on it, producing a one-sided cloth.

This class of work is best wrought in a pick-and-pick loom; but a check loom—that is, one with extra boxes at one side only—can frequently be used, and gives much less trouble. For a check loom two fine shots may be used as one, having each pair of cards alike, except at the selvage, and throwing two shots into each shed. Of course this takes twice the number of picks and cards (unless two picks be given to each card), but in some cases, as for borders, this may be an advantage in comparison with working pick-and-pick. Often two succeeding cards of the pattern for the same colour are made to follow each other, as may be found in tapestries, &c., and the weft knocks up into its place without showing any defect; but in a heavy cloth, with a thick or stiff warp, the weft could not be knocked close together on this principle. With a fine binding, warp of cotton and a thicker weft of woollen or worsted, there is no difficulty in this working.

For double-weft-faced patterns the simplest method of designing is to paint the pattern as if for plain damask, and then cut two cards for each line of the design paper, one card being cut exactly the reverse of the other; that is, the cutter cuts the painted squares for one card and the ground squares for the next card. In lacing these two cards are kept together, a ground and a flowering card coming alternately. There is, however, an objection to this method of binding the texture of the cloth, though in many cases it works very well. The objection is that the warp has to be brought from the face of one side through to the face of the other side for the succeeding shot to form the binding, instead of being brought from the centre only to the face as it should be.

Fig. 152 shows a portion of a stripe pattern designed to produce 8-end twilled stripes. If a black and a white weft are used pick-and-pick, the white pick coming first, A would be a solid black stripe and B a solid white stripe, or the appearance would be as on the design paper, but much reduced in size. On the under side of the cloth the colours would be reversed.

The first card would be cut as the painting, cutting black, and the second card would be exactly the reverse of this, cutting the white or ground squares on the same line of the design paper. The texture formed on the cloth by these cards is shown in Fig. 153, each line of the design paper representing one card.

The correct method of binding is shown in Fig. 154, where it will be observed that the binding of two succeeding weft shots does not fall on the same warp thread, and that the binding dot will be covered by the floats of the preceding and succeeding weft shots when the weft is knocked up close. There are other squares on which the binding dots might be placed as well as those in Fig. 154, one check to the left of where they are being frequently used. A stripe pattern, as Fig. 152, can be put upon design paper with each line representing two cards, and be twilled to give the texture in Fig. 154, as is shown in Fig. 155.

When cutting this the cutter cuts the shaded squares and black dots for the first card, and for the second card he cuts white and crossed squares on the stripe B, and the solid black squares on the stripe A, which it will be seen is exactly the same as cutting the black for the first two lines of Fig. 154.

When painting the design the shaded squares may be red, the black ones black, the black dots yellow or white, and the crosses green; or any other convenient colours may be adopted. It will be observed that in Figs. 152 and 155, where the raised and sunk twills come together at the junction of the two stripes, there are no binding dots on the two threads lying beside each other. It is not necessary to have any binding for these threads, as the two wefts crossing bind them sufficiently. Any desired figure may be woven on cloth on this principle, which is a very convenient one, as the colours can be so readily changed, and three or more colours may be used as well as two; but in this case there is generally a right and a wrong side to the cloth, the body of the wefts being at the back and each colour brought through to the face to form the figure. Instead of the body of the weft, or that portion not required for the figure, being at the back of the cloth, it may be in the centre of the warp, and an equally good face made on both sides of the cloth; but this requires more wefting, makes a thicker and harder cloth, and is more expensive and more troublesome to weave. Warp figuring may be done in exactly the same way as described for weft figuring, and the pattern turned sideways shows how it would be for warp; the only difference in the work all through is to treat the warp as explained for weft. Of course, in the designing and card-cutting, cutting two cards, one the reverse of the other, from a design painted as if for a damask, would not fall in, but the designs that are wrought fully out on the design paper would be all right. A contraction of the work similar to cutting two cards from one line of the design paper would have to be sought for in the mounting in the first place, and in the card-cutting, to suit it.

Suppose the design to be as in Figs. 152 and 155, and to be painted for a 200-jacquard, then to allow for double the quantity of warp a 400-jacquard would be required, the machinery being increased instead of the number of cards. Now, to mount a loom for this class of work the simplest plan is to divide the machine and cumber board into two divisions, one half being used for one warp, which may be called the face warp, and the other half for the other warp, which we may call the back warp. A mounting of this description is shown in Fig. 156, in which the machine is divided into two portions, 1 and 2, with 200 hooks in each; the cumber board is also divided into two sections, marked A and B. Here only four rows of needles are given, but any number can be used. The cords from the hooks 1 to 200 are taken through the back cumber board A, and those from the hooks 201 to 400 through the front cumber board B.

When entering the yarn, one thread is taken from the back warp and drawn into the first mail of the back harness, and the next thread is taken from the face warp and drawn through the first mail of the front mounting. Now, in reference to the card-cutting: instead of cutting two cards one the reverse of the other, one half of the card must be cut the reverse of the other half, the card-cutter cutting the coloured squares of the design (200 checks) on the first half of the card, and going back again and cutting the blank squares on the second half of the card; or, when there is any variation in the twill, the pattern for the face may be painted on 200 checks, and that for the back on 200 checks, and when cut on the card the threads of the warp will be raised in proper order by the mounting.

Fig. 157 shows this principle of mounting with a straight or Norwich tie, for which it is not so suitable as for the London tie (Fig. 156) on account of the crossing over of the harness, though it is not very objectionable if a narrow cumber board be used. Instead of having two separate cumber boards with four or eight rows in each, one broad board with eight or sixteen rows is better for the Norwich tie; then let the first row of the back harness pass down through the back row of the cumber board, and the first row of the front harness pass through the second row of the cumber board, and so on, the back harness filling the odd rows and the front the even rows; and when drawing in the yarn, taking an end from the back and face warps alternately and drawing them regularly over the harness causes them to fall correctly on their respective mountings. Instead of dividing the card in this way and reducing the machine to half its figuring capacity, a double-cylinder machine might be used, the hooks from one set of needles being used for one mounting, and those from the other set of needles for the other mounting; then cutting the face pattern on one set of cards and hanging them on one cylinder, and using a second set of cards containing the back pattern for the other cylinder, should attain the same results, and give double the extent of pattern on the same size of machine, both griffes being raised and sunk together, and both cylinders being also brought in and out together.

A modification of cutting the back and face pattern on its own half of the card is to be found in the double-cloth quilting mounting common about Paisley. These quilts are generally of a plain texture, and the figuring is formed by passing one cloth up and down through the other. The machine generally used is an improvement on the old French draw loom, and is shown in Fig. 158 as it is made, principally of wood, for hand looms. In this sketch the needles and cords in lieu of hooks are not shown, but one row of them is shown in Fig. 159 with only four hooks to each section instead of eight. H and K are the two lifting levers for raising the griffes or trap-boards A and A¹ (Fig. 159). Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 1a, 2a, 3a, and 4a are the cords in lieu of hooks to which the harness is connected. A and A¹ are two perforated boards with the slotted holes through which the cords pass, turned in the reverse direction in one from what they are in the other. Each needle is connected to two of these cords—one through each hole-board—and the knots on the cords above the holes stand over the slots or saw-cuts of the holes in the board A and over the round or open portion of the holes in the board A¹, clearly shown at F (Fig. 159), so that if the lever H (Fig. 158) were pressed down and the board A raised without any card acting upon the needles, all the harness tied to this portion of the machine would be lifted, and if the board A¹ were raised by the lever K, none of the harness tied to this portion of the machine would be lifted. Now, if a blank card were placed on the cylinder, the reverse of this would be the case, and anything between these two extremes can be got by cutting the cards.

The cylinder is connected with the back griffe only, and remains in for two shots. The griffe A is first raised, and a shot thrown in; it is then lowered, and the griffe A¹ raised, which presses out the cylinder and changes the card; a second shot is thrown in, and so on. E and F (Fig. 158) are two slide rods or spindles to steady the griffes or trap-boards when rising: G and G¹ are bottom hole-boards to steady the cords; L is a clap-board for pressing back the needles instead of springs (it is fastened on springs I I, which hold it out a little from the needles, and these springs are fastened from the top by cords to the cylinder frame, which slides out with the cylinder, and draws in the clap-board, pressing forward all the needles). Now to mount this machine for double cloth. Suppose each frame to have 400 cords, and that there are 400 needles, the same as an ordinary 400-machine. Let the texture of the cloth be plain, and to work this 80 needles may be set off, leaving 320 for figuring. These 80 needles will be connected to 80 upright cords in the trap-board A, and the same in A¹. The harness for the face cloth is tied to the remaining 320 cords in the trap-board a, and that for the back cloth to the 320 cords in the trap-board A¹, and this portion of the harness works the figuring only without the texture. The texture is wrought by the 80 cords in each board connected to the first 80 needles. To each of these upright cords a number of harness twines are tied, one of which is fastened to each twine of the harness from the 320 cords, just above the cumber board; but in doing so the twines from the 80 hooks on the cords in the trap-board A must be connected with the twines of the harness from the trap-board A¹, and the reverse for the other set. In this way all the back harness could be raised with either griffe, and the same with the front harness. Either griffe could raise one warp with the plain harness, and the other with the figuring harness. When cutting the cards plain texture is cut on each card for the first 80 needles, and the figuring portion without any texture is cut on the remainder of the card. The 80 cords open the texture or plain shed, and the 320 cords keep the two warps in their proper places, raising what should be above the weft, and leaving down what should be below it for each shot according to the pattern. In these mountings the cards hang over the side of the loom.

The same method of working can be applied to a jacquard with upright hooks, by having the heads of the hooks for each machine or set turned in opposite directions, as shown in Fig. 160. One set of hooks stand with their heads over the knives in the usual way, as at A, and the others require to be pushed back by the card to bring them over the knives, as shown at B, so that pushing any needle back pushes the front hook connected with it off the knife and the back one over the knife. The mounting may be made up as before, or a twill or any smaller texture may be used instead of plain; or a different texture may be made on face and back cloths.

This description of cloth is much used for other makes of goods as well as quilts. Kidderminster or Scotch carpets are woven on the same principle, and curtains, cotton vestings, &c., are frequently woven with the same texture. It can always be woven with a full harness mounting by preparing the design to suit it. Fig. 161 is a pattern for a diagonal figure in plain texture for this class of work. The black squares represent the face warp raised to the face of the cloth, and the shaded squares represent the back warp raised to the face also. The blank squares represent weft on the face of the cloth. This would give a magnified view of the face of the cloth if it were woven with a black face warp, a grey back warp, and a white or light-coloured weft. If each warp had a weft of its own colour the effect would be as shown in Fig. 162, which would be the way the pattern would be painted on the design paper if intended for weaving on looms specially mounted, or with special machines as described; but if a full harness is to be used, then the pattern must be spread over the design paper so as to give a line of the paper for each thread of warp and pick of weft. Fig. 163 is the same pattern arranged in this way. The black and grey squares represent the face and back warp raised for the pattern. The crosses show where the back warp is raised for the texture of the back cloth at the back of the face cloth, and the dots represent the face warp raised for the texture where the face cloth goes behind the back cloth, or where the back cloth comes to the face. Of course, on a cloth of this kind the warps are alike, face and back.

It will be understood that, when the threads of the back cloth are being raised to form a shed, all the face threads of the corresponding portions must also be raised to clear them out of the way of the shuttle, and the raising marks for these are the short dashes on the painting. Fig. 164 is the same pattern arranged for two threads face to one of back, which admits of a heavy backing with a fine face, and is suitable for quilts, &c. The markings are similar to those in Fig. 163, but the number of threads is not such as to admit of the plain texture repeating on the back cloth. It is therefore broken round the edges of the figure where it would least show.

Instead of having the extra harness for working the plain texture as explained in connection with the quilt harness, Fig. 159, it might be done with four leaves of long-eyed heddles in front of the harness, or by having shafts through loops in the harness to act as heddles, or by having the cumber board divided into strips for each row of the harness, and knots on the harness twines above them, so that raising any strip will raise a row of the harness, or the machine may act as a twilling machine to work the texture.

A Marseilles quilt is a double cloth with a fine face and a coarse back, both stitched together round the edges of the pattern, and a wadding shot thrown in between them, which causes the pattern to be embossed or to rise up full and rich. The face is usually a plain texture, and the back the same; but the face has double the number of threads in it that the back has, and the yarn for the face is proportionately finer than that for the back. Two picks of fine and two of coarse weft are thrown in alternately—one pick of the fine goes into the face cloth only, and the other, also a face pick, stitches the face to the back. One of the coarse picks is thrown in between the two fabrics, and is called the wadding, and the other pick goes into the back cloth. In these fabrics a very fine effect can be produced by covering the ground with a small bird-eye pattern, stitching the back and front closely together, then having a bold floral pattern for the figuring, which, being only bound round the edges of the pattern and along veins, &c., is comparatively loose and produces a rich embossed effect. These fabrics may be woven with a twilled as well as a plain ground.

Matelasses are a similar description of fabric, but usually more ornamented, the face fabric being any fancy texture. When used for ladies’ jackets or mantles they are made of fine worsted or silk for the face, with perhaps a woollen back and a woollen or cotton wadding. The binding of the face and back cloths together takes place round the edges of the figure, and in any other portion, such as veins of leaves, &c., that may be thought desirable. The binding may be effected either by leaving down a portion of the face warp when the back pick is being thrown in, or by raising a portion of the back warp when the face pick is being thrown in, this depending upon the pattern and the counts of yarn used. The finer threads should be used for stitching, so as not to injure the face by bringing any coarse threads through to it. If the face of the cloth is a warp pattern it will be best to stitch by raising a back thread over a face pick, but if the face is a weft pattern then sinking the face warp for the back picks will probably be more satisfactory. If the cloth is made, as is frequently done, with a mohair or lustre worsted warp face with a cotton weft, and a cotton warp back with a woollen weft, and a woollen wadding, then the binding would be effected by raising some of the back warp thread over the face picks. One pick (woollen) for wadding would be thrown into a shed formed by raising all the face warp; the next pick would be for the back, thrown into a shed formed by raising all the face warp and that portion of the back warp required to form the texture of the back cloth; the third pick would be for the face, thrown into a shed formed by raising the portion of face warp required for the pattern, as well as those ends of the back warp that are to form the stitchings.

Quiltings.—A great variety of the cheaper description of quiltings, toilet covers, &c., consist of a face cloth with an additional thick weft. This thick weft is woven into the ground, which may be a twill, mat, &c., but flushed loosely at the back of the figure, which is a plain texture. Sometimes there is a small quantity of thin warp for binding the thick weft loosely at the back of the figure, making a double cloth in this portion, but all working together for the ground, making it a solid cloth.

Of more recent origin are the satin quilts made by Messrs. Barlow and Jones, of Bolton, and some other firms. They consist of two plain cloths, intimately bound together; one cloth has a fine warp and a very coarse weft, and the other has a fine weft and a coarser warp. When binding, the fine warp is made to catch on the fine weft, and the thick warp and weft cover the bindings. Suppose the fine warp to be white and the thicker warp to be blue, and let the warping be two threads blue and one white. Let the white warp be wefted with a thick twist weft—say four times as thick as the warp—and this coarse weft will form the figure. Let the blue warp be wefted with a blue weft perhaps double the count of its warp, and in binding this weft catches on the fine white warp. The thick white weft, which is fully double the thickness of the thick warp, effectually covers the tie, and when the yarns are properly proportioned the pattern stands out, producing a clear stamped or embossed effect. These cloths may be made with a twilled ground, and either all white or white and coloured. They are a good firm fabric and wear well, but are liable to have a coarser appearance after being washed. (See also Terry-Pile Quilts.)

Woollens and Worsteds.—Weaving woollen and worsted cloths in the jacquard loom is merely an extension of the patterns produced with shaft mountings, or sometimes the same patterns are woven on small jacquards by those who prefer the jacquard to working a larger number of healds when the cloth is not so heavy as to require the latter to be used, healds as a rule making a firmer and heavier cloth than a jacquard will. Light worsted goods for dress fabrics, &c., are figured like damask, or as double weft or double warp-faced cloths, or may be as double cloths.

Curtains and Tapestries.—These, though sometimes of damask, are usually made on some principle of double cloth, as indeed all cloths must be when a rich brilliant effect of colours is required. One of the simplest methods of making these fabrics, and which produces a very good effect, is to employ a fine binding warp of twist cotton and produce the pattern on it with two, three, or more coloured wefts of worsted, mohair, or silk—say a spun silk ground weft and a mohair or fine worsted figure. A small portion of a diamond pattern, greatly reduced for want of space, is given in Fig. 165. It is intended for three colours of weft—one for the ground and two for the figure. The ground weft might be black or gold, and the figure wefts olive green and dull red, or claret, the warp to be black or a deep navy blue.

For this pattern three cards must be cut from each line of the design paper—one for the ground weft and one for each colour of the figure. The design is painted in various colours, which are here represented by different markings on the squares. Let the black squares represent the olive and the dotted squares the red of the figure. The white squares represent the ground weft, and the shaded squares on it are for binding the face weft down, while the crosses are for binding up the weft at the back. The cutting of the cards is as follows:—For the ground shuttle cut all the shaded, black, and dotted squares—that is, the shaded squares on the ground and all the figure. For the first figure shuttle (olive) cut all the ground except the crosses (that is, the white and shaded squares) and the dotted squares of the figure. For the second figure shuttle (red) cut all the ground except the crosses, as before, and the black squares of the figure.

In this example the figure is so small as not to require binding dots over it, but for a large figure the ground weft threads would require to be bound up at the back of the figure in the same way that the figure threads are bound up at the back of the ground in the design given. The figure wefts might also require to be bound at both face and back. On the design these binding marks would be dotted over the figure in the same way as they are dotted over the ground on the design given, using any suitable texture that may be desired.

To make the cutting clear, five lines of the pattern (Fig. 165) are put upon design paper in Fig. 165a, as they would be cut on the cards, beginning with the ground weft, olive and red following, in all making 15 lines or 15 cards. This cutting would make the upper side of the cloth in the loom the right side or face; but it may, in some cases, be desirable to weave the cloth with the face down to avoid heavy lifts in the harness. This pattern would suit for a warp of about 50 threads of warp per inch, and say 60 to 80 shots per inch of each colour.

For the convenience of the designer and card-cutter, a much better plan of working this class of fabric is to have an additional binding warp, which may be in heddles or in a front row of the harness. This warp can work plain twill or satin as required, and, being light and openly set, can bind the back weft up and the face weft down, or the face may be bound by the warp in the harness and the back bound by the binding weft; but in this case there should be a fine thread of weft thrown in every fourth pick, which should pass over the warp in the harness, or a portion of it, and under that in the heddles, so as to bind both warps together. In this case the twilling dots on the design are omitted, which simplifies the cutting and designing of the pattern. If the face is to be twilled with the harness warp, the dots for binding must, of course, be put on the design, or the figure only may be twilled on the design, and let the ground be bound by the binders. Shafts mounted in this way may be wrought from tappets if the loom is mounted with them, or may be wrought by strong hooks at each side of the jacquard and sunk with springs. The principle of working fabrics of this description has been given in detail, as from it many other varieties can be wrought out, and any number of shuttles used to suit the colours wanted.

Figuring with two warps and one weft is a common method of working, and gives three colours on the face of the cloth. An extra warp of fine yarn may be used for binding the wefts, admitting of the coloured weft being more used for figuring. Extra warps cannot be used to so great an extent as extra wefts, as they crowd up the reed and prevent proper shedding, particularly when soft or hairy yarns are used; but when properly suited to the reed they make a firmer and more regular cloth than a weft cloth, and on account of less picking the weaver gets over the work much faster. Two warps, each having its own weft, are a good method of figuring, but unless for goods with a large number of threads and picks per inch, so that fine yarn can be used, it makes a heavy cloth. Two warps and two wefts, all of different colours, with a fine binding warp in addition, to admit of the colours of the wefts being kept comparatively pure, gives a still richer effect. In this case the binding warp may be of fine black cotton, the two figure warps of thicker cotton, and two threads drawn into each mail; the colours may be, say, dark blue and dark citrine, or clear sage. The wefts are soft wool or worsted, say light gold and deep dull red. In this method of weaving, pure red and pure gold can be got from the wefts, as the black binders show but little. Pure blue and pure citrine can be got in small quantities by floating the warps, and an admixture of the warps and wefts can be got in any place desired.

A very handsome curtain fabric can be made as follows:—There are 120 to 140 threads of warp per inch; every second or every fourth thread of the warp is used for binding the ground, which may be a plain texture or a three-shaft twill. The binders may be an extra warp, wrought with heddles, forming plain all over the cloth, or may be in the harness and be portion of the ordinary warp working plain for the ground, but rising to assist in forming the figure, which may be bound as desired, say 8-or 10-end satin. The warp is of fine silk yarn loosely twisted, and may be one or more ply, of a rich olive-green or deep scarlet colour. There are two wefts, one a rich silk, say a golden colour, of twist yarn; the other is a backing weft of the same colour as the warp, and of cotton yarn, about the same thickness as the silk weft. There are from 50 to 60 threads of weft per inch of each colour. The gold weft forms the ground of the pattern, and the warp the figure, which is bound with an 8-end satin binding. The cotton weft goes to the back when the silk weft is on the face, forming the ground of the pattern, the warp lying between them; but when the warp is on the face for figuring, the gold weft goes to the back and the cotton weft lies under the warp face, binding it and giving an embossed effect to the figure. The gold weft is bound up by sinking a portion of the warp. The ground may be formed with the warp, and the figure with the weft, if desired, producing a sunk figure on a raised ground; but this is just a reversal of the process, or making the ground in this case as the figure in the previous case. This makes a light, close, and very rich fabric.

Figured Poplins are among the richest description of curtain fabrics; they may be made of all silk, or silk and fine wool, the latter forming the weft. The ground is a clean, sharp cord running across the cloth, and the figure is formed by flushing the warp over the cords, binding it with a long twill or satin binding. The weft may also be used for figuring; but in this case it should be a silk weft put in for the purpose of figuring.

Two portions of patterns of good makes of figured poplins or repps are given in Figs. 166 and 167. Fig. 166 is warped two threads of rich crimson silk and one thread of rich golden yellow silk, 180 threads per inch. The weft is pick-and-pick, 50 picks per inch, one thread a round, firm cord of firmly twisted worsted of the same colour as the warp, and the other yellow silk, the same as the warp. This thread passes over the crimson warp and under the yellow, the crimson cord reversing this, thus producing a very fine yellow line between each pair of cords. The method of forming the figure can easily be seen from the pattern. Instead of a thick cord being put in for the weft to form the rib, several fine shots could be thrown in as one, as in repp figuring, and these threads could be brought out for figuring as well as the warp; but they would in this case require to be of silk, which would make the cloth very expensive.

Fig. 167 makes a very rich and handsome fabric. It is warped all a rich purplish-brown silk, 180 threads per inch. There are four weft picks in the pattern. The first is a clear olive-green silk about double the thickness of the warp silk, the second shot is a round, firmly twisted worsted cord of the same colour as the warp, the third is the same as the first, and the fourth is silk of the same colour as the warp. There are 100 picks per inch, but the two green silks go along with the cord to form the complete cord or ridge. These silk picks can be brought out to the surface for figuring, as shown by the shaded squares in the pattern, which are not cut on the cards. The black squares are the warp figuring, the dots the warp raised for the ground, and the crosses the warp of the binding threads raised. These binding threads rise over the brown silk pick, and are similar to the yellow warp in the previous pattern.

For richer fabrics than these we must go to pile work, which is, perhaps, the most exquisite production of the loom. Curtains or hangings can be made extremely rich by figuring a rich corded silk ground with a pile of different lengths and colours. The long pile can be cut to form a plush or velvet pile, and the shorter pile may be left uncut to form a looped or terry pile. By a judicious arrangement of colours and length of pile, fabrics of extreme beauty can be made (see Pile Work). For curtains of a heavy description chenille is much used, and makes a very rich, warm-looking fabric; but it is too heavy and of too coarse a nature for small rooms unless they are very well lighted. It is very suitable for screens, or curtains dividing two portions of a room (see Chenille).