As the weaver sits at the back of his frame or loom when working, he has to come round occasionally to examine the face of his work. Sometimes he keeps a looking-glass in front to show him how he is getting on. He has also a rough pattern on the back of the cloth similar to that on the front, as the nature of the weave must give him the same on both sides were it not for the loose ends at each change of bobbin, which have to be tacked up at the back. Tapestry weaving is a very tedious process of working, but in skilful hands very beautiful, and artistic results can be produced.
_Figured Pile Fabrics._--When we come to pile work we have a great scope for the ornamentation of fabrics, but the nature of the work is such that it is only suited to heavy or moderately heavy cloth, and a large number of either threads or picks per inch are required.
Forming stripes of plain or figured pile alternately with twilled or figured stripes can easily be accomplished with either a weft or warp pile, but when we come to figure indiscriminately over the cloth there is more trouble. For a length of time there was a difficulty in cutting weft-pile figured fabrics, as the knife or cutter would not always enter the proper ‘race’ round the edges of the figure, and the floats were cut irregularly. This has now been overcome by arranging the design to suit. Fig. 169 is a common velveteen designed for a weft pile figure. Only a portion of the pattern is given, but enough to show the method of arranging the design. It will be seen that the figuring is produced by flushing the weft on one side of the cloth, and for the ground it passes to the other side. The edges of the pattern are moved across the design paper in steps of two, and no flush or float is less than over four threads. In addition to this the figure should be turned in the centre on an odd number of ends, which in cutting keeps the race end on the inside of the step into which the knife enters. The knife is run up on all the odd numbers of ends moving across in steps of two, and, leaving no flushes of less than four, gives it a better chance of entering in the proper place along the edges of the pattern.
Fig. 170 is another make of velvet for a heavier fabric, with 60 threads of warp per inch, and from 350 to 400 picks. It makes a good firm cloth, suitable for curtains or furniture coverings. The principle of designing is the same as for Fig. 169. Both these patterns are portions of a diamond figure.