Trends in Hand Work from
World War II to 1973 - Part II

Today, however, most of the major textile companies have special over-the-counter departments devoted to designing and producing fabrics for retail sale.   For the most part, the old remnant stores are being replaced by modern departments or fabric shops stocking a wide variety of quality goods.  In 1967, there were a little more than two thousand fabric stores across the United States; in 1973, there were approximately twelve thousand.

Fenya also talked of the fibers in textile design fabrics:

There are two basic types of fibers: staple and filament.  Each type lends different properties to the finished fabrics.

The name staple applies to all short fibers, which can be any length from one-quarter inch, used for flocking, to eighteen inches, in some rare wools.  The most common length is one and a half inches, the average length of cotton fiber. Cotton, wool and flax are always in staple form only.

Man-made fibers, which are manufactured in continuous filaments form, can also be cut up into staple lengths.  Synthetics that are blended with cotton are cut into one-and-one-half-inch lengths to correspond to the average length of the cotton staple used in these blends.

The filament fibers include silk and virtually all the man-made synthetic.   The silkworm extrudes its fine filaments in lengths of about 2,500 feet, through an orifice know as a spinneret.  Imitating the silkworm the man-made filament fibers also are formed by forcing a thick, syrupy mixture through perforations in a spinneret---but here the mixture is a chemical one, the spinnerets a modern piece of machinery, and the fibers are manufactured in a continuous twenty-four-hour flow.

Infinite Freedom

My prayer is for a world so safe and abundant...
where all who love to sew are free to sew...
where all have the resources they need to sew...
and no strife or war can touch anyone who wants to sew.

Copyright 1997-2008 Infinite Freedom
www.infinitefreedom.com
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Map of Site
Collectible Doll Maker Carpatina | Baby Quilt Patterns | Submit Your Website