Why I CAN'T Tell You Where to Buy Historical Fabric!

one of the main questions people ask me either in the comments on youtube or in comments on instagram and occasionally in direct messages on facebook and on instagram as well is where should i buy fabric and that is a very very difficult question for me to answer not just because i'm a fabric snob but also because i'm a fabric snob living in edinburgh with quite a stringent set of rules that i try to live by when i'm buying my fabric so we're going to dig a little deep into some of the reasons behind that some of the things i can tell you and a lot of the things that i can't tell you so if you think that this is just going to be an abc on where to buy your fabric from you're going to be disappointed but please keep watching or at least leave this on in the background because i need the money so buying fabric is both a science and an art it's a science because it involves things like knowing fiber content it involves things like knowing the percentage of the fibers in your fabric knowing what is represented by the fines from the period that you're reenacting knowing the requirements of the garment that you're going to be making and those can be pretty confidently stated when you're planning a garment for example if you're making an early medieval tunic you know that you need a wool that is not too thick but that is also not too thin so that it has the correct drape and that suits the environment that you're living in if you're making an undertunic you need a linen that is soft or that will be soft when you wash it and that is not too bleached white if you're looking at a low status persona or maybe something that is fairly naturally bleached looking if you're a high status person so there are these factors that you can kind of put in boxes to say this is what i need this is what i don't need this would be ideal this would be inappropriate equally it's an art because every person has a slightly different interpretation that's key to reenactment and archaeology and every other discipline i'm somehow involved in you have your human brain and heart telling you what you want and what you need and that's not going to be the same as the next person or the person after that or the person after that it's also the art of getting to know what's near you or what you consider acceptable so i wouldn't buy fabric from the united states of america for instance unless i were in the usa because i'm a big ass environmentalist and i don't want that on my conscience you might not consider fabric from china to be acceptable because of the working conditions in the factory where the fabric was made for example it's a delicate art when you're buying fabric what should you consider this is something that i can help you guys with so when you're buying fabric consider what you need and what you're representing let's say you are upgrading from peasant kit to merchant status in the viking period and let's say that you're not confident with your natural dying right now and nobody in your enactment group is either so you're looking for something that represents a natural die from the period that would be accessible to somebody of middling status okay cool maybe you'd go for something like a pink or a madder red and you can certainly find that kind of thing you're gonna want something that's wool or at least something that looks like it's 100 wool to a member of the public who's coming up to you if you're okay with it having a little bit of cotton in it or even a little bit of polyester in it that's up to you that's your decision that's your personal standards so now you're going to be looking for a wool fabric that looks like it's dyed with matter that looks good enough to wear so it's going to need to be of a fairly tight weave probably a nice tight-ish tabby weave because that's what the majority of them are as far as i can remember and you're going to look for something that is not too heavyweight you don't want a blanket weight wool you don't want it necessarily a suiting weight wool let's say that you live in i don't know northern france [Music] or new york state where you can get cold you're looking for something somewhere in the middle so those are some of the criteria that you have to think about you need to think about the color the fabric composition the fiber composition the actual fibers within it are they all walled they have polyester in them the color the status of the person you're representing you are representing a person and if that person is a king that means that you have a much wider palette of colors to choose from than joe scumbag who digs pete for a living although pete digging was a relatively specialized trade in itself in the early medieval period but anyway so that's a few of the things that you need to think about which limits where you're going to buy your fabric from if you're buying your fabric initially from i don't know the upholstery shop in your town and you go there and all they have is really chunkily woven polyester fabric none of it's the right color it's either a barbie pink that doesn't look like a mada dye or it's crimson of a shade that doesn't speak to your status and none of it is wool all of it is going to make you sweat you don't go there what do you do next well you might have to widen your net broad and cast your net wider maybe your county or your department if you're living in northern france why did i make it northern france where i don't really know the geography might have something available you might see something in a charity shop you might find something in a market a local market you never know what you'll find especially in france you do get antique linens and really useful stuff for markets sometimes i always feel a bit bad cutting an antique lint to make new clothes so you have to broaden your reach a little bit and that's where the problem can start coming in where if you're on your own you don't have many people who buy fabric in your family or in your friend's circle you might have people to ask for advice and i suspect that's where a lot of guys come to me because i sound like i know exactly what i'm talking about so of course they think that i can help them but the truth of the matter is i never ever claim to be an expert people have told me in troll comments before and hate comments you claim to be an expert in the viking age i've never claimed to be an expert in anything in any of my videos so eat my shorts but this is a problem and it's a problem lots of people have and my advice if you're in that situation is email a local reenactment group email a local tailor hell go to your local tailor shop or your local even your local clothing adjusting shop and say hey i'm looking to buy fabric 100 wool fabric do you know of a good outlet nearby if you don't necessarily want to buy local and you're okay with buying it from further afield great you can buy from a shop somewhere else i try to buy locally as often as i can so this green wool that i made into my cloak from my pinula brooch video this i bought from the weavers on the isle of lewis this is a harris tweed woven on the isle of lewis i know and i bought it from the people who made it that linen is from a local indoor market last time i was in leeds i bought like eight yards of this because it was cheap and it's good linen this cloak that was given to me let's not talk about cloak i try to buy fabric wherever i am if i go on a day trip to glasgow i will go to manda's fabric and see if they've got anything in if i happen to be going down to york i might pop into a fabric shop leads i might pop into the indoor market so it's really really really difficult for me to just give you generalized advice there are loads of websites you can buy fabric from i tried to limit it to fabric stores based in europe in the eu just because i don't want fabric i don't want wool to have to come from north america or asia or australia for me to make it the furthest i want my world to come from is europe at least that's not too far away considering this island great britain used to run on wool production it is disgusting how hard it is to find affordable wool fabric in great britain it is appalling farmers are burning their sheep's fleeces daily and it makes me physically ill if you are a subscriber from new zealand i cannot offer you advice flat out i cannot offer you advice because i have never bought fabric in new zealand if you are okay with using a european warehouse like like sartor to buy your silk brocade or faster house to buy your wool great but i can't recommend you anywhere local to you and i know most of you guys sympathize with me in wanting to limit your air miles and the carbon dioxide emissions that we put out as people and trying to support local businesses and local crafts people and that's fantastic but it means that unless you are me i can't give you personalized advice because i have never traveled to all of the places you guys come from i've never been to australia if i go to toronto to visit friends and family i will go to the toronto garment district but even then i will shop around every single shop there look two or three times in each shop sleep on it and then come back to the right shop for me if i go down to london i will go to goldhawk road and i will look in every single shop and then i will think about it over a pint or a cup of tea and then i will go to the shop and maybe i will buy a yard or three of fabric if it's something highly specialized yes i will order it off the internet i have friends who weave their own fabric i have friends who weave their fabric at home non-commercially and i can phone them up and ask them if they would please mind getting me a couple of yards of something if i provide them with the yarn i have friends who uh spin their own yarn and maybe i will ask them for stuff but in terms of person x saying hey jimmy where do i buy wool from i haven't a clue man maybe it's burnley and trowbridge maybe it's coaching phillips maybe it's bernie the bolt maybe it's hartfordshire fabrics maybe it's faster house maybe it's someone completely different maybe it's wooltrade.com idk sorry i wish i could give you guys this kind of general advice but i really really can't and that's down to basically three reasons one i've probably never been to where you live two i will only recommend somewhere that i have bought stuff from otherwise it's not a recommendation it's a suggestion and recommending somebody means that i trust them and three see what i did that's good three i can only recommend a place after i've bought fabric from them tested the fabric by which i mean usually a burn test where if you light wool and it turns to charcoal it's probably wool and if you light wool on fire with a lighter and it melts it's probably got plastic in it so it's probably polyester and that's happened a few times from places that claim to be selling 100 wool unless i've done all of those things i can't recommend somewhere to you and nor should i because this again like the research is a part of the hobby is getting to know where you buy stuff from and it may seem like an obstacle but it's just an opportunity and you could search for wool fabric shops your county your state your department your province whatever it may be you will find something and it's hit and miss and it is trial and error but trial and error is absolutely central to reenactment every single piece of reenactment kit i've ever made is wrong every single one of them and i will put the research in i will do all of the measurements i will check everything i will test the fabric i will make it and then the fabric will be the wrong thread count per inch the stitches won't be exactly as they were done on the original the cut will be slightly different it won't drape quite right every single thing i make is wrong it's trial and error they get less wrong every time but in terms of general advice let's look at a couple of things so in terms of general advice buying fabric buying fabric online i have basically three big points always always always get a sample before you buy any reputable fabric store will give you a sample normally it will be a couple of inches square and that costs them nothing because they have hundreds of yards of this stuff okay if it's a very specialist fabric store they weave everything to order for example they may not be able to do that but they should at least be able to give you some really good high definition photos and maybe a sample thread or two and a sample thread or two can be very very useful you can burn test that you can check the color of it next to some dye samples very very useful so always always try and get a sample before you buy tip number two always ask for the details get the details of it if it just says it's a beautiful worsted fabric is it is it beautiful worsted wool is 100 wool is it 90 10 is it 80 20 is there anything artificial in that what kind of wool what's it died with is it naturally dyed if so with what product with what kind of plant what more didn't did you diet did you get it commercially died down the road ask for these things most people will be able to tell you most reputable dealers will be able to give you information on the fabric if you're buying from a bigger warehouse they might not be able to give you all of those details like precisely what chemicals are used in dyeing it but they'll be able to tell you the thread count and they'll be able to tell you the composition of the fabric if it's 100 wool or if it's 80 well i go to a local shop for local people because i get to have a lovely walk through edinburgh and because i know the guy who runs the place he knows me by sight he recognizes me he gives me a student discount even if i've forgotten my student card and he knows the fabric inside out that he's selling he can tell me what his 100 will he can tell me which warehouse and which workshop he buys these things from and he has a great stock of things like harris tweeds and nice walls where you can see the threads it's not been felted which is what we want for most viking age stuff with some exceptions so my third big tip is get to know dealers get to know what is available where ask your friends and fellow re-enactors for tips where have you bought from that you recommend wherever you bought from that you don't recommend where have you had a terrible time where was ages waiting for a response and then they didn't give you a good reply with no details and the fabric wasn't as ordered that's just as important as knowing where's good because you might find somebody dressed impeccably at a reenactment event ask them where they bought their fabric from order that fabric and it turns out that it's 50 acrylic 50 wool and that might not be what you're after if you're working around fire you want 100 organic fibers that's probably tip number four is buy organic fibers because oh my god fire is bad so this is like a really vague and general video but i i just wanted to give you guys a reason why i can't just give you a general recommendation i will not recommend you a shop in europe if you're based in california because the usa is more than capable of providing everything that you need with the dealers there but i don't buy from the usa i buy from british and european fabric dealers because air miles if you're in australia i have never been south of the mediterranean so i cannot give you a recommendation i've never bought anything in australia because i've never been there so i i don't really know what i'm talking about unless you're in britain and you have the same sort of standards i guess standards makes me sound really snobby but like the same criteria of what's acceptable to you you know so i buy a lot of my fabric from hertfordshire fabrics i buy a lot of my fabric from the cloth hall but most of my fabric comes from reenactment markets where i will go to a reenactment market where somebody has got in their van driven there in the morning laid the fabric out and i can say tell me about this linen and i can say any chance i can just do a burn test on this wool and i can say this silk brigade is fabulous can you tell me who wove it for you that is how i buy most of my fabric because to me that's part of the hobby part of the reenactment hobby to me is going to these markets going to torm going to jorvik and getting to know these people face to face getting into this part of the hobby and the industry that has grown up around it because this is an industry you know this trade is a real trade and getting to know the people in the trade is a very authentic but also very rewarding part of the journey in the experience i love that i can tell you exactly who makes all of my tablet weaving i love that i can tell you exactly who makes my scabbard for my knife and who made my sword and where where their workshop is who may who made my temples for me i love that i can do that because that's such a rewarding and enriching experience and it makes you new friends and sometimes it gets you 10 off it's always worth [Music] putting that extra leg work in yeah it takes longer all right maybe it adds a couple of months between now and you having your kit ready but if i just tell you where to buy your stuff from that takes the fun out of it it's part of the fun so i really hope you enjoyed this video i really truly do because it's heartfelt and i want you guys to enjoy this process as much as you enjoy hanging out at your reenactments i think this process is so important and even if you don't buy the wool even if you just buy the garments i want you guys to enjoy building a relationship with the people who make your stuff and weave your stuff that you use it's so important i think it's a big part of loving history and loving the past is doing these things that people have kind of forgotten about over the last 100 years getting to know your weaver getting to know your tailor getting to know these specialist artisans who make stuff not on a production line in a factory but in their back sheds or in their gardens or in their bedrooms or in the bath maybe i don't know just me so yeah i really hope you've enjoyed this guys i hope that this has been at least enlightening and has explained a little bit of why i'm reticent to just give you guys recommendations um but as ever de alcanbaud thank you for joining and thank you so much to everybody who's been donating to my coffee fund and joining the patreon uh it's been really really really really helpful uh and it's it's so wonderful to see so many of you guys enjoying the discord uh and making new friends and making connections so until the next time tantronis i'm a straw [Music]

Channel: The Welsh Viking

Views: 21,672

Keywords: Welsh Viking, Historical Fabric, Historical CLothing, Viking clothing, Viking fashion, B&T, Burnley, Trowbridge, Norse, Norge, Asatru, Heathen, Anglo Saxon, Costube, Historical costuming, Bernadette, Abby

Id: hWwQmP5noGA

Length: 21min 4sec (1264 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 02 2021