Making Woolen Fabric at Mission Mill: A Step by Step Process

Follow the “fleece to fabric” display that so graphically demonstrates 19th century technology in use when Thomas Lister Kay started Oregon’s famous textile tradition—a legacy still perpetuated at the world renowned Pendleton Woolen Mills, owned and operated by his descendants. Here are the steps that turn “Fleece to Fabric”

1. Picking opens and blends the wool fibers and removes impurities from the fleece. The picked fiber is blown into the mixing room and carried to the carders for processing.

2. Carding: The combing action of the wire-covered carding rolls cleans, blends, and untangles the wool fibers forming a uniform web that eventually separates into individual rovings suitable for spinning.

3. Spinning: The spinning mule used by the Mill crew draws out and twists the carded rovings into strong yarn. The mule can spin on 336 bobbins at one time.

4. Dressing: Yarn from the spools on the warp creel pass through a warp “dresser” and are wound onto a wide reel. Threads are “drawn” in through eyelets called “heddles” in the harnesses, and placed on the loom for weaving.

5. Weaving: Weaving is the interlacing of warp threads running lengthwise in the loom and weft thread which are inserted crosswise by using a “shuttle” carrying a bobbin of yarn.

6. Perching: The first process of finishing, where the fabric is inspected over a “perch” to find imperfections that are marked, weighed, measured, ticketed and passed on to the burlers in the finishing room.

7A. Burling: The burler finds and removes knots, bunches, and loose ends on an elevated table top or over a perch. She marks any “runs” for the menders to rework.

7B. Mending: Menders re-weave yarn into fabric where any warp or weft threads are missing.

8. Fulling: The fulling mills produce controlled shrinkage of fabric resulting in “felting” of the wool fibers. This created a denser, thicker fabric.

9. Soaping: The mixing of hard soap, hot water, and sometimes alkali forms a soft soap that is piped into the soaping vats then scooped into buckets and dumped in the fulling mills.

10. Washing: Cuts of fabric are washed and rinsed of soap, oil, and dirt still remaining after fulling.

11. Extracting: Excess water in the fabric is squeezed out by the spin action of the extractor, then loaded on “horses” for drying.

12. Drying: Drying fabric was accomplished by tentering or air drying in the 4th floor loft. Today, a machine dryer circulates the fabric in layers through the machine forcing it into contact with hot air.

13. Raising: A nap or pile on the surface of the fabric is created by raising using nappers with wire-covered rollers or by the teasel gig which produced a lofty, soft pile.

14. Shearing: The pile or nap on fabric is cut away or evened out by the lawnmower-like shear. The amount of pile or nap removed depended on the type of finished desired.

15. Pressing and Final Inspecting: The steam press flattens and levels the texture or surface of the cloth. An inspector gives the fabric a final evaluation looking for any imperfections, stains, or damage that may have occurred during the finishing operations.

16. The Final Steps: Final steps include stamping, measuring, weighing, folding, rolling, and labeling the cloth and “making up for shipping.” Blankets are bound, stamped if necessary, folded and wrapped for shipment.

Provided by Mission Mill Museum

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This article originally appeared on the original Salem Online History site and has not been updated since 2006.