Hair-Dressing: Side Rolls, Early 1860s

Now that we have several ways to braid the side hair, let's look another prevalent style of the early 1860s: rolls.  These have a lot of visual similarity to the bandeaux of the late '50s (not to mention the basic twist), and sometimes the terms seem almost interchangeable.

The Window Seat (1861) by G. F. Watts

The key difference between the roll above and the bands I tried before, is that this time the hair passes under the frizette and then is smoothed up over it, rather than being smoothed down from the scalp over the pad initially. (I'll spare you all my attempts at illustrating this in MS paint unless requested.)  In fact, it's basically the side-twist with a frizette/rat for extra volume.

For this tutorial, I'll be making the low, wide, side roll, as seen above.  I all tried applying the method to a double side roll, but it wanted for neatness, and further experimentation will be required.

Double rolls from Der Bazar, 1862

1. Part the hair Y or T style, and arrange the back as you desire (ideas).

2. Take one bunch of side hair, and smooth it with a little pomade.  I had no pomade, and the neatness of the style suffered for it. Pin the frizette at the point you want the roll to be widest.

3. With your hand, smooth the hair up over the frizette.  Run a soft-bristle brush over it as needed.  Though I didn't use any, a few pins stuck into the upper part of the roll (joining the rolled hair to the scalp hair) may be useful to stabilize the structure.

4. Hold the tail of the hair behind the frizette and give it a twist or two; I find this helpful in preventing the rat from sliding backward.  Bring this excess side hair to the back and arrange it around or under the back hair, tucking in the ends. Secure with pins.

5. Repeat on the other side.  I attempted to use the same method for the double roll, but found it very difficult to execute, and impossible to make neat.  Further experimentation will be required, but it it helps anyone, here's what I tried:

5.a. Part the side hair horizontally.

5.b. Fold the top section of the hair over a frizette, making a roll as before.

5.c. Take the remaining side hair, and make a roll under the previous one.  

The double rolls just didn't quite work: between a lack of definition at the front, and the difficulty in getting the rats covered (however small I made them or however much hair I tried to put over), I won't be using these without serious revision.  The style's pretty and novel, but only if it's a lot neater. The big side roll is an easy addition to one's repertoire, and I'd highly recommend them.

Photo-credit to Mom, whose help made this about a million times easier.

Happy New Year!

And also, Happy Eighth Day of Christmas.

NEW YEAR'S DAY
Wake and see the morning ray--
This is happy new year's day!
View your toys and presents gay,
This is happy new year's day!
Brother, sister, come and play,
This is happy new year's day!
Father, mother, hear me say,
A happy, happy new year's day!
Waiting maids and nurses grey,
To you a happy new year's day!
Friends at home, and friends away,
May you enjoy your new year's day!
And while I laugh, and skip, and play,
I'll thank God for the new year's day!
--Caroline Gilman, Mrs.Gilman's Gift Book, 1850

The Saturday Magazine has a short article on the historic practice of giving gifts at New Years. At that time (1840), sweetmeats and jewelry were the popular presents in France, while the English favored commemorative "annual" books.  More modest presents are also welcome as "the presentation of almost any trifle was, and even now is, considered a momento of good feeling at this season".  The practice was nonetheless falling out of favor--it's called "obsolete" in 1843, amid a description of festivities among Shakespeare's contemporaries (which sound quite excellent, featuring gifts, wassailing, and cross-dressing).

Of course, this is also an excellent excuse to revisit "New Year's Cookies".

Met Publications & Favorite Resources

Silk Dress, 1856, from the Met

For New Years' Eve/the 7th Day of Christmas: free books and articles from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I regularly link to their on-line collections, which contain a variety of original garments and have a user-friendly search function. They also apparently make their older publications available on-line.

Of particular interest to readers of this blog:
From Queen to Empress: Victorian Dress 1837-1877
The Imperial Style: Fashions of the Hapsburg Era (mostly 18th-19th century)
In Style: Celebrating Fifty Years of the Costume Institute
Infra-Apparel 

I have a list of helpful museum databases here, but particularly want to point out Wisconsin Historical Society's large collection of children's clothing, and the IQSC's beautiful quilts.  For adult clothing, The Met has the most searchable database, followed by the UK National Trust Collections (an honorable mention goes to the Victoria & Albert Museum). One fun recent find is the Europeana Fashion Project, which is extensive, though somewhat difficult to search through, as there are no year parameters and the items are labelled in several dozen different languages.

Weaving Basics, Part 4: Finishing

Once the weaving's complete, it's time to take the piece off the loom and finish it.

There are two edges to finish when the warp threads are cut--the selvages form neat finishes to the other two sides.  This may be done with a knotted fringe, with special stitching along the end, or with hemming the raw edge to stabilize it (hand or machine).  The stitching is easiest (in my opinion) when done on the loom, but the piece will have to be cut off first for the other two options.

If weaving multiple pieces on the same warp (such as matching placemats or dish towels), some waste weft may be inserted between the pieces, and the weaving continued.  Finishing stitches may be done in place when the individual piece is complete.  Be sure that sufficient warp space is left between pieces for any desired fringe.

I finished this piece using a used a hem stitch with extra weft thread, binding the final weft threads together and to the warp.

After relaxing the tension slightly, the warp is then cut.  If a fringe is desired, be sure to leave sufficient thread along the cut edge.

Once the piece(s) is/are off the loom, the fringe (if desired) can be trimmed to uniform length. Long fringe may also be braided or knotted.  Depending on the fiber and purpose, the piece can also be blocked, fulled, felted, or sheared, as desired.

Weaving Basics, Step 3: Weaving

And now, to actually weave.

The weft (crosswise) thread is loaded onto shuttles for easy movement back and forth.  I like the boat shuttle with its bobbins, but stick shuttles are equally effective.  There are other types as well, ranging from large ski shuttles for bulky yarns and rag strips down to small tapestry bobbins with pointed ends for darning through the warp.

The first "shed" (space between the warp threads) is made by raising one or more of the heddles, leaving at least one at its neutral position.  The shuttle passes through this gap, leaving the weft in between.  To maintain neat selvages, the weft should be slightly angled: this way, the weft isn't under extra tension, increasing the draw-in.  The shed is changed, then the reed moved forward to "beat" the new weft thread into position.

When starting a new weft thread (changing color, or just ran out), a tail of thread is left on the first pass; during the second pass, this tail is tucked into the shed, forming a partial extra row, and leaving a smooth edge with no thread ends.  The same method is used to hide the ends when you're done with the that shuttle; if it will be needed again shortly, the same thread can be used, it'll just "float" along the selvage until it's needed again.

Starting colors/new shuttles at opposite ends keeps the extra threads from distorting one end or the other.

Keep weaving as long as you want the piece to be.  When there's no longer room to beat evenly, the warp can be advanced by loosening the tension on the back warp beam, and then re-tightening it on the front beam (this frees more unwoven warp and wraps the finished cloth out of the way).

Weaving Basics Step 2: Warping the Loom

Now it's time to place the prepared warp threads on the loom.

The "X" of the warp threads is maintained by two lease sticks (each thread passing over one and under the other); this helps keep track of the ends and prevent excessive crossing. Put the lease sticks with this crossed thread over the breast beam (front) of the loom, with the long tail of chained warp out front.

Next, sley the reed.  Each cut end of warp is threaded front-to-back through a slit in the reed (which spaces and holds them apart, and allows the weft to be beaten).  Reeds come in different sizes, and ideally you use one of the same "dent" as the project at hand (if you want 10 threads per inch, use a reed with 10 dents per inch).  You can also double up threads if needed.  I only have a 12-dent reed for this loom, but want to weave 20 epi--by threading 2-2-1 I can get 20 threads through 12 slits.  If I was planning on weaving a lot of projects on this scale, I'd get a 20-dent reed.

Actually, the camera flash makes it look like this
12-dent reed needs replacing first.

With two people threading the loom, you can have one sley the reed, immediately handing each end to the other person for threading through heddles.  Alone, I sley it all at once, tying off bundles of 20 threads so that they don't fall out of the reed.

With the reed sleyed, it's now time to thread the heddles.  The heddles raise and lower the warp threads while weaving, so each thread needs to go through its own heddle.  These are divided between four different heddle bars, which can be raised and lowered independently. For the "rose path" pattern I'm using, the four heddle bars are threaded 1-2-3-4-3-2-1-4, repeated.  So, if you want every other thread raised, you lift 1 & 3 and the same time, leaving 2 & 4 down: _ - _ - _ - _.  If you only raise  3 on it's own, the shed will look like _ _ - _ - _ _ _ _ _ - _-, etc. Tabby or plain weave an be done on as little as two shafts: 1-2-1-2.  A basic 2,2-twill: 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4.  Since I'm weaving on a "jack" loom, I speak of raising the heddles from their starting position: other looms will change the shed by lowering a heddle bar, or moving it forward and back (vertical looms).

The warp threads are tied off in bundles again after being put through the heddles.  This is a good time to try raising and lowering the heddles, checking for crossed warp threads, which will catch on each other and produce a confused shed.

Clean shed: a good sign.

The warp bundles are tied to the back "warp beam" by loops of thread (they could also be tied directly on, but the bundle method leaves less warp thread as "loom waste").  Once all the threads are put through heddles and tied off, the back beam is rotated to wrap the warp around it.  A piece of paper between each layer of threads helps keep them neat and under even tension.

When all the excess warp is on the back beam, the front ends can also be tied into bundles and attached to the "cloth beam."  Instead of loops here, I use a long piece of linen thread laced between the bundles and the beam: I find this easier for adjusting tension than using single loops as on the back.

To spread the warp threads out (note how they bunch slightly moving towards the knots), some waste weft is inserted: this can be a chunky cord or fabric strip run across a few time, or even a piece of wood. The idea is to space the warp threads evenly a provide a smooth start for the actual weaving.

The loom is now fully prepared for weaving.

Weaving Basics, Step 1: Preparing the Warp

For those interested in fabric production, here's a short overview of horizontal loom weaving. As a sewist, I found it very interesting to learn about where my material(s) come from, and thought others might feel the same way.

There are certainly variations in how each step is done (consider the many different kinds of looms available), but the general process is this: measure out the warp, mount the warp on the loom, weave the fabric,  take the fabric off the loom and finish the fabric.  I'll be using my 4-harness table loom throughout to demonstrate.

The first part of the first step is math.  Without going into too much detail, you need to figure out how many threads are needed in each direction and how long each of these needs to be.  For the best results, one weaves a small sample using the estimated sett or ends per inch (the number of warp threads per inch of woven cloth) and picks per inch (passes of the weft per inch of woven cloth) to see that the desired effect is reached, and to figure out how much extra yardage is needed for draw-in (width reduction under pressure) and loom waste (additional warp length that goes onto the loom but can't be incorporated into the finished product). The sample is also then available to test laundering and finishing methods.

Once the calculations have been made and the yarn/thread has been procured, the warp will need to be measured and cut.

Take the total length needed for a single warp thread (finished length + loom waste + any planned fringe + space between pieces if more than one is being woven) and cut a guide thread equal to this length. Tie it onto the warping board, where it measures out a path equal to the desired warp length.

Now, the actual warp threads are run along this path, forward and back, until the right number of ends are reached.  The board keeps the threads from crossing and tangling, as well as ensuring constant length.

The "X" at the start makes it easier to count the number of warp threads measured, as you're dealing with exactly half of them.  When transferring the warp to the loom, this "X" will help keep the threads aligned and not tangled together.  It'll also help keep your threads uncrossed in future steps.

When the desired number of warp threads are measured, they are tied off at intervals with contrasting string, and the excess is chained together like a massive crochet project (to keep it from knotting up). The free end near the X is cut, so that you have individual warps instead of continuous yardage.

Next up: getting this on the loom.