After a hiatus, I am starting this blog back up. I have been wrestling with the concept of this blog for some months, and have finally settled on a direction.
So, welcome again!
***
Sometimes while doing research, you come across things that make you think. The other day, I came across this little article in the Daily Morning Astorian, dated November 23, 1890. The article states that the Sioux had been warning travelers and settlers to "look out for themselves." The captain of Fort Abraham Lincoln stated that there was no reason to worry. The piece also included a statement from a settler near Pine Ridge, South Dakota, saying, "We are all well and safe. Pay no attention to newspaper reports."
Just a little over a month later, December 29th, was the massacre at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, led by the U.S. Calvary and leading to the deaths of 146 Sioux.
Finding things like this, randomly, sometimes gives me chills. It's seeing a snapshot of a moment in time in history, and knowing more than everyone else; knowing what is going to happen and how it is so much worse than whomever authored the piece likely anticipated.
These are the things that make history interesting.
Until next time...
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Friday, January 25, 2013
Fruit of the Loom... mercerized thread??!?
So while cleaning out drawers out of an old sewing machine, I came across some old wooden spools of thread.
My mind immediately went in two directions- #1. How can I do something creative with these AWESOME spools, and #2. When, where, and who went into manufacturing them. I've never heard of the Star or Belding-Corticelli companies, and how weird and cool is it that Fruit of the Loom made sewing thread??
A Google search on "vintage sewing thread" and a large number of variations revealed nothing.
So then, I started to search for the individual companies. A search for "Fruit of the Loom thread" revealed an interesting, if not very useful for my purposes, Vintage Thread Chart that lists all the manufacturers and size and styles of thread. This list confirmed that Fruit of the Loom manufactured thread. Hmm. Good to know.
The Belding-Corticelli company search was more interesting. I found an entry from the American Heritage website, which showed a similar spool that is housed in the Charlotte Museum of History. Unfortunately it just listed the spool, not the date or any specifics. The Norwich Bulletin in an article about the Belding-Corticelli Mill states that the mill closed in the 1960s. These threads all come from the same era, all priced at 15 cents and containing about the same amount of thread, so it's safe to assume all were manufactured prior to the 1960s.
A search for Coats and Clark helped solve the puzzle. Coats and Clark company became Coats and Clark after a merge in 1952. The company began to widely utilize the mercerization process in 1955. Originally developed in 1844, mercerization strengthens fiber and helps retain color-fastness of cotton thread. By 1961, Coats and Clark converted to plastic spools.
So, without going into research on the other threads, its possible to conclude that these threads were likely manufactured in the mid-to-late 50s.
And probably not great for machine sewing any longer, seeing as cotton fiber breaks down after a while.
What to do with them is the next question!
Onto the craft desk....
My mind immediately went in two directions- #1. How can I do something creative with these AWESOME spools, and #2. When, where, and who went into manufacturing them. I've never heard of the Star or Belding-Corticelli companies, and how weird and cool is it that Fruit of the Loom made sewing thread??
A Google search on "vintage sewing thread" and a large number of variations revealed nothing.
So then, I started to search for the individual companies. A search for "Fruit of the Loom thread" revealed an interesting, if not very useful for my purposes, Vintage Thread Chart that lists all the manufacturers and size and styles of thread. This list confirmed that Fruit of the Loom manufactured thread. Hmm. Good to know.
The Belding-Corticelli company search was more interesting. I found an entry from the American Heritage website, which showed a similar spool that is housed in the Charlotte Museum of History. Unfortunately it just listed the spool, not the date or any specifics. The Norwich Bulletin in an article about the Belding-Corticelli Mill states that the mill closed in the 1960s. These threads all come from the same era, all priced at 15 cents and containing about the same amount of thread, so it's safe to assume all were manufactured prior to the 1960s.
A search for Coats and Clark helped solve the puzzle. Coats and Clark company became Coats and Clark after a merge in 1952. The company began to widely utilize the mercerization process in 1955. Originally developed in 1844, mercerization strengthens fiber and helps retain color-fastness of cotton thread. By 1961, Coats and Clark converted to plastic spools.
So, without going into research on the other threads, its possible to conclude that these threads were likely manufactured in the mid-to-late 50s.
And probably not great for machine sewing any longer, seeing as cotton fiber breaks down after a while.
What to do with them is the next question!
Onto the craft desk....
Sunday, November 6, 2011
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