A Typical Production Run – Part 2

A typical production run is split into two parts. The below highlights the second part of the production process – how we produce an order of tweed for an international retailer looking to make garments with our beautiful fabrics.

Once an order for a tweed is received we would place our yarn orders. Some yarns would be held in stock by suppliers but others would have to be spun specifically. Normally this takes four weeks, but depending on the intricacy of the yarn as well as other factors, it can take up to six weeks or even longer.

We would also at this time post an instruction to our twisting department to begin making our own fancy yarns. We always try to keep a steady selection of yarn in stock, but for large scale orders, this is nearly impossible. Therefore, as soon as an order for fabric is received, we would start producing the necessary yarns required for the fabric as soon as possible.

As the full stock or required yarns arrive, some yarns are sent to our dye house to be dyed to the specific colour required.

At this stage we would also set up a position in our yarn store to gather all the yarns for this job together until they are all available and ready to use. Some yarns would need to be rewound in our winding department to ensure there are enough ‘runners’ for weaving.

Once all the yarns are ready, we would warp the tweed. Each warp would take roughly 6 hours to complete per 500m. The weaving manager would then find the looms for the prepared warps. If possible, we will put them through the same loom consecutively as it reduces the time taken between warps.

When the fabric is fully woven, we check it to look for any broken yarns or faults we can mend. This is almost always done by hand and it is a taxing process that takes numerous hours as every single inch of the fabric is painstakingly checked.

Once we are assured that the tweed is free from faults, we send it to be processed. We scour, dry and finish the fabric with either a steam relaxer or a bailey blow pressed finished depending on the texture and nature of the fabric.

We do a final inspection to check shade, quality and straightness prior to considering either a submission to the customer, delivery of the total order or to add it our website for sale to the public.

The total time this entire process takes is normally 12 weeks. It is a long process, full of the possibility of error. However, the results are worth it!