Signing Off

When I started this Blog almost 2 years ago...I envisioned postings followed by questions asked and answered...which would lead to more information about the history of print and dye technology developments. It has not quite worked out that way.

I think for now...I will suspend Cottonopia. Margo Krager

Chintz c.1960

About 10 days ago...I did a 'road trip' with several friends from Bozeman to the Charles M Bair museum in Martinsdale, MT. There is new (July 2011) state-of-the-art museum space ( 7,000+ sq feet) to house the art work collection....including Charlie Russel, Edouard Cortes and Edward S Curtiss (photographer) as well as Native American items.

The house tour was fascinating...with interiors in a favorite color.... RED. Note toiles and chintz.

Guest Room at the Bair family home

The guest room was added in the  1960s...complete with drapery and chair coverings in Chintz of the period!

I would highly recommend a visit...open daily till Labor Day...and Wed/Sun through October.

Print run

Margo's first print run

It 'takes a village' to do a successful print run. The designer has an idea...but needs the help of a fabric stylist. This talented person...has a functioning left and right brain!! Their job is to interrupt your ideas...into something that will work with today's technology.
Once you 'ok' the croquis....the screen is cut. This is the most expensive part of the process.

This is my first print run in 1997. The egg yolk yellow with red is the document colors...the others are all c. 1830 possibles. Once the screen is set up and the machine is turned on...you need to run 3.000 yards to be cost efficient. Few printers want to have all their 'eggs in one basket'...so a 3 color run is common.

This print run...was accomplished with the help of Makower and my local banker!

Calico King

Mathew Chaloner Durfee Borden (1842-1912) was known as both M.C.D. Borden and the Calico King. He began work as a clerk in a dry goods house and moved on to a firm that represented the American Print Cloth Works in Fall River, MA. When this company went out of business in 1879, Borden reorganized the company into the American Printing Company, building three mills in Fall River. Eventually he owned the largest cloth printing business in the world and was known as the Calico King.


I was going through my collection of antique fabrics swatches recently and came across this sample ( it feels like a fine light weight wool) with an attached label from M. C. D. Borden and Sons Inc.

Center Medallion Workshop

Elegant toiles or dramatic florals were often used as a point of interest in British and American Center Medallion quilts, 1800-1830. Printed Center Panels, originally designed for pillows and chair seat covers, were especially popular in quilts from 1820-40 in America.

I will be doing a hands on Center Medallion Workshop in Bozeman, Aug 18th. You may begin with a toile or a dramatic floral
or a Center Panel of your choosing.  We are no longer doing the Quilts on the Lawn show..but we are still having our BIG annual Customer Appreciation Sale Aug 17/18, 2012 and a History of Chintz lecture (Friday night) and the Center Medallion Workshop on Saturday, Aug 18th, 2012. Call Margo for further information....406-580-3358

Flax

Flax Flower

Linen, a natural fiber, along with wool was the main fabric of Europe before the arrival around the turn of the 17th century of colorfully painted cottons from India.

Woven linen goods are tan in color and often have brown flecks. The yardage must be bleached before it can be dyed successfully. The bleaching fields of Haarlem, Holland whiten most of the European linens of the early 18th century.

Linen woven during the winter months in England was sent to Holland in the spring. The fabrics were soaked in lye, washed and spread out on the grassy fields in the sun for weeks. The process was repeated numerous times and usually finished by October when the fabrics were returned to England ready for dyeing.

The modern chemical industry that developed during the First Industrial Revolution in Great Britain brought us muriatic acid bleaches that eliminated the 6 month long sun bleaching process. Now linen could be bleached in a factory in just a few hours.

When I taught Apparel and Textiles last winter here at Montana State University, I would begin each lecture with a current issue that related to the day's lecture topic.  Here is a link to an article about 600 year old linen bras.

Dargate Swatch Book

 I own nine vintage fabric sample books. My first and earliest is the Dargate Book....dated c. 1830 by Dr Virginia Gunn, Professor of Costume (retired), University of Akron and Susan Meller, author of Textile Designs.



Dargate Book


When I lecture about my books, I am often asked about their purpose or use. 

By the mid 19th century, there were fabric swatching services available from Paris. These samples were often pasted into ledger books, along with labels to identify the print houses.

I do have a Day Book from an American mill...that shows the patterns printed each day...from 1899-1901.





My favorite page in the Dargate Book
Copyright Margo Krager


The Dargate Book is earlier. Susan Meller thought the samples were from the Mulhouse region of France. My feeling has always been that they are from different mills from that region because there are many different 'styles' and levels of printing skill throughout the book.

I recently came across a wonderful description of swatch books in the collection of the Jouy factory.

' a large collection of printed fabrics ...pasted into ledgers like dried plants in a herbal'....Toiles de Jouy, Riffel and Rouart....page 41.