okay stupid question...

[llyrafantasyfae]

Prompted by my desire to have a Victorian bathing suit, Next year's plans for Costume College, and the fabric.com wool sale amoungst other things.
What kind of wool exactly are Victorian bathing suits made out of?
I thought wool did evil shrinking and felting like things when it got wet.... so why were all, (okay may not be all but this is what my research as of now is showing me) made of wool. So confused.
Please oh LJ brain trust HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

[countessof-roth.livejournal.com]

You can get wool that's kind of already felted. lIke my husband's civil war uniform? gets thrown in the washing machine because its already felted.

A great person to ask would be koshka_the_cat!

[llyrafantasyfae.livejournal.com]

Do you know what kind of wool that is? One of my weaknesses is knowing my fabrics.

[koshka-the-cat.livejournal.com]

I have an Edwardian bathing suit, and it's a very lightweight plain weave wool. I've seen reproductions made of lightweight wool too. I'm not exactly sure how it didn't felt--cold water and agitation will do it. Although I suppose you're not really putting the wool in felting conditions.

I vaguely remember someone who had made a reproduction having heavily steam ironed the wool first to make it shrink a bit.

And my wool jersey made it through the shower just fine. Smelled funny though :)

[llyrafantasyfae.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info! One of my main weaknesses in my sewing, is knowing my fabrics. I must admit I am going to go look in one of my sewing books to figure out what type of fabric is lightweight and a plain weave but it gives me a direction to go in. :)

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

I know I've seen bathing suits marked as wool flannel before, but since the fabric.com wool was so cheap, this is the one I bought, which I'm hoping will work for a Victorian bathing suit. If not, I'll either return it or use it for something else.

https://www.fabric.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=32f9d36e-15d1-4b10-91df-5e2dee87d0ac

[llyrafantasyfae.livejournal.com]

You'll definatly have to tell me if you like it and are going to work with it.

[aviendiora.livejournal.com]

Wool repels a certain amount of water and remains warm even when soaked with water. It can get ridiculously heavy when wet though because it can hold a lot of water once soaked and so might stretch out of shape. But I'd imagine you wouldn't want to stay in wet wool for too long after it got wet so that might not be such an issue.

Wool doesn't always felt. I'm not even sure if it always shrinks. Worsted wools are less likely to felt because the fibers have been processed more but can lose that nice smooth finish. If in doubt, throw a swatch in the wash and see what happens. Most of my wool fabrics have been through the wash and it's no problem. It might shrink a bit but that's before I cut it out so who cares. I use cold water and sometimes the wool cycle if I'm worried about it. Then line dry. Flem has gone through the wash more times than I can count and the hem is a bit wonky now but I think that's because the linen stretched. The kirtle, made out of linen, is longer than it used to be so I'm sticking with the stretching linen theory.

As for the exact wool used...not a clue.

[llyrafantasyfae.livejournal.com]

You brought up a good point. I probably won't be soaking myself in this... maybe just up to my knees. So some of my worries, I may not have to worry about as much. I think some of it may just be my bootcamp wool blanket phobia of wool.