Bed in the Making
Guest blog post by Molly Freshwater,
"I am and have always been in a romance with fabric, patterns and cloth. I am a Mum, textile designer, and a founder of the bed linen brand Secret Linen Store."
The craft of making bedlinen is fascinating and often over looked. A staple item in all households, we all have a bed and sheets and spend a third of our lives in them. The making of these sheets is a science and craft that is full of tradition, tales of bobbins and yarns and the work of crafts people around the world over. Bedding is predominantly made from natural fibres, cotton and linen or a combination of them both.
Plain bedding is very popular, the yarns that are used to create fabrics for bedding vary hugely and there is an obsession with thread count that has been applied to this industry since the 90’s. The attention to thread count in a fabric is important, but it does not make a fabric. It’s baffling that the same criteria is not applied to a shirt that would be worn for example.
Applying pattern to bedding is as varied as it is for the fashion industry, with jacquard weaving and printing being the most popular. Embroidery is often used for small areas and details, but it is an expensive addition to apply on such large pieces of cloth.
The Secret Linen Store’s focus is on jacquard weaving. This 300 year-old technique (it has evolved somewhat) allows the creator to add a pattern within the cloth. A technique that still in 2016 takes 2 people a whole day to thread the warp of the machine. A loom that can weave a 3.3 metre wide fabric with a design with up to 12 colours in the weft at a rate of 170 meters a day. Amazing.
A bed can be a delight of textures and patterns, coloured in with fabrics of different qualities and woven surfaces. A bed should be a creation, a considered place to spend quality time.
www.secretlinenstore.com
The craft of making bedlinen is fascinating and often over looked. A staple item in all households, we all have a bed and sheets and spend a third of our lives in them. The making of these sheets is a science and craft that is full of tradition, tales of bobbins and yarns and the work of crafts people around the world over. Bedding is predominantly made from natural fibres, cotton and linen or a combination of them both.
Plain bedding is very popular, the yarns that are used to create fabrics for bedding vary hugely and there is an obsession with thread count that has been applied to this industry since the 90’s. The attention to thread count in a fabric is important, but it does not make a fabric. It’s baffling that the same criteria is not applied to a shirt that would be worn for example.
Applying pattern to bedding is as varied as it is for the fashion industry, with jacquard weaving and printing being the most popular. Embroidery is often used for small areas and details, but it is an expensive addition to apply on such large pieces of cloth.
The Secret Linen Store’s focus is on jacquard weaving. This 300 year-old technique (it has evolved somewhat) allows the creator to add a pattern within the cloth. A technique that still in 2016 takes 2 people a whole day to thread the warp of the machine. A loom that can weave a 3.3 metre wide fabric with a design with up to 12 colours in the weft at a rate of 170 meters a day. Amazing.
A bed can be a delight of textures and patterns, coloured in with fabrics of different qualities and woven surfaces. A bed should be a creation, a considered place to spend quality time.
www.secretlinenstore.com