The Time It Takes.

I've been doing textile maths again recently - regarding weaving processes, and how long things take. The question of "how long did it take" for medieval fabric production is one that comes up again and again.

Quite often, these calculations run for a single garment, or a small piece of cloth. I've had a sort-of revelation regarding spinning time when I did a rough estimate for a bolt of cloth about 20 m in length, medium quality - which would take me approximately half a year to spin the yarn for, working full-time.

Full time. Half a year.

The funny thing, though? If you're looking for yarn for fabric replicas, and you want to get a spinning mill to make your yarn for you, it won't take much shorter... because a lot of the small mills have waiting times of several months before they are able to process your order.

So, just in case you're a museum thinking about getting a textile replica? Be aware that it will take a lot of time even in the best case, unless it's only a very small item. I think most planners are not aware of how complex making a textile replica is. Of course there are several categories here as well, from "should look roughly like it from a distance of 2 metres in low light" to "our visitors are encouraged to touch and handle the piece". 

If it's the latter, things start with researching details of the original pieces such as type of fibre, fibre thickness, yarn diameter, the amount of twist and the look of the finished fabric. Then the hunt for the appropriate materials starts, followed by making the yarn, followed by weaving (or whatever other textile technique was used in the original). Not all modern weavers will work with historical style yarns, by the way. They are different than the yarns people are used to today... Dyeing, if required (which it often is) is another interesting beast to tame, and will also take some time.

With the masses of fabrics available these days in the shops, and the easy and quick buying of clothes, it's not on most people's radar anymore how time-consuming textile work is. Knitters will know about it, as will people who spin, or sew their own garments, but in most of those cases, the activities are hobby activities. Which means that there will be a general awareness of "it takes a long time", but the actual time is not measured objectively, and we all know perception can be misleading.

I have no good idea yet on how to propagate the knowledge to museums, though...