Readers, I went to Paron’s today to buy fabric for somered pieces from this months Burda. (Not that I finished my Fall PaletteChallenge, but, it’s nice to have everything in place for the next project…) I bought red wool and a couple of other pieces I didn’t planfor (fabric junkie! arghh). So, all the wools I got are apparently extrasponged according to the label.
It was the first time I saw ‘extra-sponged wool’ fabric.Labels at Mood and at many other fabric stores are rather laconic, so I washappy those at Paron’s gave more information. My immediate thought was that “extra-sponged” is GOOD, Itmust have been pre-treated as in man’s tailoring, where the wool is spongedovernight to pre-shrink the fabric. But I was not sure.
So, tonight, I combed through the web, trying to find moredetailed answer, but there was hardly any information available. I started to worry, but a brief article in a 1987 issue of TheTelegraph re-assured me explaining that 'sponged-wool' was not a Paron's invention but a real thing.
“sponged wool is wool fabric that has been treated forshrinkage. It’s nice to sew because you don’t need to preshrink the fabricbefore working with it.”
Well at least something and... no preshrinking IS excellent infact. And, then, I found this poston Fashion Incubator, which explained the process of preshrinking in moredetail. The post also mentionedthat sponged wool is about 20% more expensive than regular wool, so I was veryvery happy since I got it for really decent price at Paron’s.
Book search was also mostly a failure. AllI found, was a brief note in the Claire Shaeffer’s fabric bible that wool is sometimes labeled as “needle-ready” or “London-shrunk”, which means that these wools areready to sew and do not need to be pre-shrunk.
TESTING FOR SHRINKAGE
What I learnt however, is how to test whether your woolfabric will shrink. Claire Shaeffer recommends steaming a fabric corner with adry press cloth for roughly ten seconds. Allow fabric to dry and examine thearea. “If an imprint of the iron shows,” explains the book, “the fabric hasshrunk and must be treated before sewing.”
Readers, do you know more about “extra-sponged” wool?
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