Plain Jane or the girl next door?….

Cloth is constructed using a warp and a weft thread which is woven in certain ways to create different types of weaves. The warp thread travels up the cloth and the weft travels across the cloth. ( I like to remember it by pronouncing warp like a Yorkshire man, so it sounds like ‘up’ and weft rhymes with left. ) The plain weave, as you can see in the diagram is a simple ‘one under, one over’ pattern. This is sometimes deemed as a ‘plain Jane’ type of cloth. I like to think of it as the ‘girl next door’ type of cloth. It is simple, but has a certain beauty in its unfussy appearance.

A lot of plain weave cloths are woven in the mill and are then sent to be dyed in a whole piece. This then creates the simple flat colour that is often the typical characteristic of a plain weave. However, there is also the technique of dying the yarn first. This means that a plain weave cloth can be created using two different colour threads. This creates a deeper, richer and more alluring plain weave without having to be complicated. Hence, plain Jane becoming the girl next door.

Here is a photo of a plain weave, but has two different shades of blue thread.

Here is a plain weave with only one blue colour thread.

Toodle pip! Celia.