http://www.fashionfabricsclub.com is probably your best bet for price &
selection, but be warned of a couple of things. First, I've watched the
owner as he takes a brief look and feel of unlabelled fabric before deciding
what to sell it as--100% wool ain't always 100% wool. Scary, no? He may
not care about that 2% poly or lycra, but it makes a big difference to us.
But most of the fabric he gets is labelled, and he does know a lot about
fabric, so it's not quite as scary as it sounds.
Second, and something that should definitely be kept in mind for all fabrics
from that site, just because two fabrics have the exact name, description,
and price, doesn't mean that they're the same fabric. In fact, they're
almost never the same fabric; once in a while he does get the same fabric in
different colors, but it's rare indeed. If it's really important, order 1/8
yd as a sample.
All that said, even though my personal preference is heavily on the worsted
side, I'd say you're definitely right about woolens being your best choice,
and not just because of the warmth. In the 14thC, fulled wool the hip
fabric, and as far as I can tell from my research, the biggest difference
that the impact of wealth would have had on the fabric choice (apart from
dye) would have been how well (& how many times) the wool would have been
fulled & sheared. When I saw wool that had been thoroughly fulled & sheared
multiple times in a period manner, I was shocked at how UNfulled it looked
to my eye. After that much work, I was expecting it to resemble felt (the
way that melton does) but it wasn't the least bit felt-like and the weave
was still clearly visible--it looked more to me like a slightly threadbare
flannel. (Speaking of which, flannel or some similar plain-weave woolen
would probably be closest to the most typical 14thC choices.)
Modern woolens go through an extensive finishing process--even the cheap
ones. The fabric you'd be buying has already been fulled! People (like me,
sometimes) who buy a woolen and then immediately set off to full it are just
fulling it MORE--it's absolutely not necessary if you just want fulled wool.
It's already been fulled. However, as part of that finishing process, the
amount of shrinkage allowed is strictly controlled, so if you want to shrink
the fabric further and tighten the weave more, extra fulling is necessary,
and might be a good idea if you plan to dag it.
Making sure that the fabric can handle your typical washing regime is
different; you don't need to expose it to the extremes and the harsh
treatment that are required for fulling, just in order to make sure that it
can handle the gentle cycle.
-E House
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