Unfunded Liabilities: a/k/a The Cloth Thread - Page 3

PART IV: Linens

12 ounce (maybe 11) or so "natural" linen. A little darker than cream, a little lighter than tan:



9 ounce (or so) blue. The color doesn't come through to well. It's lighter than navy, and duller, more "slatey" and less purplish, than it looks in the pics:





8 ounce "handkerchief" linen, olive:





My absolute favorite, 14 ounce light, light gray:

In bags, in a cedar closet in my attic.

The weave will generally be a little rougher and less fine. But the main thing is that it will wear better. It's a godsend for lightweight and/or porous fabrics.

Well, on the one hand I agree with you. It is a lot of cloth, and it will take eons to make.

I do sometimes save a bit of money, though not a lot. The real reason I bought nearly every piece because it was something I wanted to have, and had never seen it in the books. Every piece up there is, if not necessarily unique, at least rare in some way or other.

Donkey flannel: totally unique color, not in any current books.

Dove gray w/f: if not unique, then at least the best of its kind I have seen. And I don't know that it is available in any current book.

Blue triple check: a one-off exclusive.

Charcoal chalk: common enough, but I got a good deal on that and succumbed. Plus it's made by a mill I like that does not sell much over here.

Brown plaid w/blue: probably still available, but it's from a book that is running out and that I know will not be remade.

Brown plaid w/red: one-off exclusive.

Brown 3x3 worsted: totally unique.

The three sharks: I could get something like them from the books, but the light one is better than other light sharks I have seen, and the darker ones are just killer quality.

The blue w/royal nailhead and silk: totally unique.

The gab: English gab is getting harder to find; the Italians have taken it over. Plus, Burma shade is something I had thought was all in the past until I found that.

Triple dot nailhead: I've seen that pattern, and that color, but never together in one cloth.

Nailhead fresco: the only ones I know in current books are in Crispaire, and I don't like that book.

The tan 3x3 window: totally unique.

The mohairs: all rare and all gone.

First linen: I've seen tan, and I've seen cream, but not this. This I like better.

Ditto on the blue: it's not quite so dark as a true navy. I think linen is better in this color.

The olive I could have gotten anywhere, but that was cheap for good linen.

And the gray -- I don't know where to get that. Not in the three good linen books: H&S, Drapers, or W. Bill.

And, finally, some day the makers of all this kind of stiff are going to go out of business. No joke. When that happens, I will be glad I have this stuff.

Most through Tip Top. They comb through European closeouts so I don't have to!