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Setting up a circular warp for sprang requires care. Setting up a long warp using fine threads demands extra care. Knowing this, I recruited the assistance of helpers. Local weaving enthusiast Paul Sparling volunteered. So did Sarah J Hull, who flew in from DC. She's interested in my work and wanted to participate, get an inside view ... well ... I expect she got an eyeful.  The experience of the first time through the creation of such a sash told me I'd be wise to have someone watching the cross and counting the threads. The cross absolutely must be 100% correct for the centre of the cloth to be error-free. Paul did this job admirably. Experience has also shown me that tending the umbrella swift, seeing that the threads came off the hank smoothly is another critical job. I've since decided that the stirring of the pot in the dying process tangles the threads slightly. Better to dye the threads first, and then combine into hanks, so that they are less tangled, come off the swift more smoothly. This makes for more consistent tension in the warp.  The next step is to work the initial row. It's important that each stitch is correct. Any error will show up at the very centre of the work. The challenge is compounded by the fine size of the threads, and even more so that I am working with pairs of threads. Each stitch needs to use the correct two pairs of threads.  Slight differences in tension mean slight differences in lengths of threads. This causes horrible tangles when pushing to the mirror-image side. I am stuck in a nightmare. It's like Red Riding Hood facing the wolf. Now, I know how the story goes. I know that the kindly woodsman enters the scene in time. He deals with the wolf, and there is a happy ending. I know from experience that the un-even-ness does work out ... it's just that I'm not there yet. I'm still staring at the open mouth of the wolf. But the interlinking stitch does have amazing forgiveness. And the silk strands are very strong ... will not break (just trusting that knots in between the various skeins hold tight). The un-even-ness will work out  The color of the sash that is in the keeping of George Washington's Mount Vernon is red. But what shade of red? I discussed the situation with curator Amanda Isaac. Dying is not something I consider to be my strong suit. Yes, in the past I've dabbled with plants and flowers, picking the petals, fiddling with mordants. There's just too much to explore there, too many things that affect the color, and I've found it necessary to narrow my focus. I focus on the technique, and short-cut the dye process ... all this to say, I've been using commercial dyes. I've been using Landscapes dyes. They are an eco-friendly dyestuff, using plants rather than chemicals.
She chose "chili" .... so that's the color I'll use.
The first step in making the replica sash is ordering the yarn. According to my records, the size of silk I need was called "machine embroidery silk". Yes, it's the gauge of sewing thread. And it needs to be reeled silk, not spun silk. I'm wanting my sash to be able to do the job that historically was its purpose: to transport the wounded off the field of battle. More about that later.
The original sash featured pairs of threads in the warp. The threads were not plied, but rather sit parallel in the sash. This seems to be typical for sprang sashes from eh 1700s. The reason for this, according to Coby Reindeers-Baas had to do with rules set by weaving guilds in Europe at that time. There was strong bias for "spindle spun" thread as warp (as opposed to "spinning wheel spun" thread). I've decided that the first thing I need to do with this silk, is to combine skeins, putting them into skeins of parallel threads.
The next step will be dying the silk. I sent three small samples to the curator. Waiting to hear what she thinks, whether or not any of those reds will be the color they want.
It all started back in 2009. I was looking at a photo of a sash with a date of 1709, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I thought, "That's exactly 300 years ago". Encouraged by the success of my book Fingerweaving Untangled. I was contemplating writing another book. What would be the subject? What textile method was I sufficiently familiar with, that needed an instruction book? The answer was sprang. Something people said they really liked about Fingerweaving Untangled was that it included pieces from museums. What pieces could I include in my book on sprang? Perhaps I could write to museums and get permission to use photos of bonnets from Scandinavian peat bogs or ancient Egypt. But, I thought, my audience would be mostly North America. Are there any examples of North American sprang? Looking through Peter Collingwood's book Techniques of Sprang I found an excellent example in the photos at the back. There is a photo that says it's George Washington's sash. I thought to myself, "That's the piece to entice North Americans". So I wrote to George Washington's Mount Vernon. Certainly they were the ones holding that sash. The photo they sent to me was of a different sash (apparently George Washington owned more than one sprang sash). The sash in the collection at George Washington's Mount Vernon is the one given to him while serving in the British Army in 1855. His commanding officer, Edward Braddock, mortally wounded, passed the sash to Washington, effectively handing over command of the troops. The photo they sent featured interesting lace patterns, probably do-able, I figured, with sprang, but the photo did not show the mirror-image aspect that always happens with sprang. Thus began some back-and-forth correspondence asking them to verify that it is indeed a sprang sash.
I had met up with the sprang technique in the 1990s. Fascinated, I needed to learn more. Local yarn stores taught classes in knitting and crochet. The local hand weavers guild offered instruction in loom weaving. No where could I find a class on the subject of sprang. I decided that I would need to create the opportunity to travel and that my teachers would be examples of sprang in collections. The Braddock-Washington sash was one such teacher, and I learned a great deal from that sash.
The people at George Washington's Mount Vernon tell me that the replica sash has created much interest. One aspect was the test of the story that the mortally wounded General Braddock was carried off the field on the sash. People have asked whether or not this could have really happened. My replica has allowed this theory to be tested ... and yes, the silk fibers are strong enough.  All this comes up for me because of a series of events last Summer. The eventual outcome is that I am now committed to making another copy of that sash for George Washington's Mount Vernon. They will be unveiling a new display on July 4, 2026. That display will include my replica sash, and, having a replica on display, it's their policy that they need a second replica. Hence this, my latest project.
Figuring people like you, out there in the world of the internet, might be interested in the process of making such a sash, I am hereby committing myself to try to remember to blog about the process. Yeah, if you look, you'll see I've not been very faithful to this blog over recent years. But I promise to give it a try, to try to remember to update this blog over the course of the next few months, keeping you informed of the progress of this project: replicating (again) the Washington-Braddock sash.
I visited the Kelsey Museum collection in the spring of 2016, went home and worked out the pattern for this hat, and then came back in the summer of 2017. At the occasion of my second visit, I took a photo of my replica beside the original. Actually I took two photos. In one of them, my replica is inside-out.   If anyone is interested, my SprangLady website contains three tutorials that take you step-by-step, showing you how to do this twining technique on a background of interlinking. And I do still have the specific pattern for this bonnet.
In the Fall of 2013, I visited the Krefeld Textile Museum, at the invitation of the director, Dr Annette Schieck. I viewed their collection of sprang bonnets, and then went home to try to write up the patterns and make replicas. I now return to verify details that I failed to note on my last visit.
At the CIETA conference last month in St Petersburg, I met Aachen textile conservator Monica Vroon. She had a question about a certain set of 'dresses' for a statue at the Aachen cathedral. She met me in Krefeld, bringing the garments in question.  It is a set of two garments. They are for a statue of the Virgin holding the Child Jesus ... so two 'dresses', one for mother, and one for the child. Looking closely at the pieces, yes, this certainly could be sprang. The next day I travelled to Herne, to visit with Torsten Verhülsdonk of VS-Books. We are talking about a German edition of Sprang Unsprung. Mr Verhülsdonk treated me to a tour of a very lovely archaeology museum in Herne. I then went on to Munich, where I taught a one-day sprang class, organized by Gitti ... it was a pleasure to meet you and your friends. (Sorry that I did not think to take photos.) Looking forward to seeing all the lovely sprang things you will make in the future.
A while back I met a curator from the British Museum, who invited me to have a look at the sprang textiles in their collection. I took her up on the offer.  So, here I am in London, at the British Museum. They've reserved a spot for me in a 'study room' and bring my sprang bonnets to examine.  I've been writing out the patterns ... and I've informed the curator of my plans to publish these lace patterns. Hoping to add them to my book of sprang lace. The historic record is so incredibly rich.
En route to the British Museum, I stopped off to visit a friend who lives near Sheffield. I met Andy and Elaine a few years back. Elaine really wanted to know more about sprang. They were, at that time preparing to participate in an event, re-doing the battle of Marathon in Greece ... he was going to be one of the bad guys. I made him a pair of leggings, appropriate to the time period, and based on research by Dagmar Drinkler.  It seems that Andy has worn these leggings to several events. Imagine my surprise when I read on the internet that sprang is not at all suitable for leggings! Andy showed me a post indicating that, with one broken thread, the pants will fall apart. This, I thought, is the perfect moment for a bit of testing, some experimental archaeological if you will. Andy allowed me to cut a thread in his leggings. To make it a fair test, I cut a thread at the knee, a place that would be affected by movement of the leg.  Andy took a picture of me cutting the thread just in front of his left knee.  Here you see the broken thread at the left knee. Andy then went outside to do some work in the yard.   He cleared his deck of the leaves, and tended to his leaf-blowing machine. His leggings stayed on the entire time ... no falling apart ... no falling off. Indeed no increase in the size of the hole. The wool threads stayed put.  Wool has a certain 'grabbiness' to it's surface, and the wool sock-yarn that I had used to make the leggings is no exception. Yes, I've seen silk sashes in museum collections with long vertical slits, where a thread broke. The slipperiness of silk as well as the simple interlinking structure would allow a slit to develop ... but the slit will only open up so far. At some point the length of the cut threads will, itself, prevent further un-doing. The structure of the zig-zag pattern in these leggings also helps prevent un-doing. I repaired the damage I had caused, tied a knot to mend the cut ends, and tucked the knot to the inside of the leggings.  The damage is now repaired, the knot almost imperceptible.
A big Thank You to Andy Cropper for permitting me to carry out this test. The organizers of the Intermountain Weavers Conference asked me back for this year. I taught three classes: intro to sprang, sprang lace and sprang in S&Z. The students were eager and enthusiastic. The world has a few more practitioners of sprang!  Single Circular Warp  Vertical stripes  Sprang lace  Pattern writing and pattern reading exercises Then on to the DC area, to be specific, George Washington’s Mount Vernon. I’ll gave a talk on the subject of sprang. I also handed over another replica of the Braddock sash. This time the beneficiary was Carlyle House. They will soon unveil a mannequin dressed out as Edward Braddock in his military uniform.  Carol at Mount Vernon Then on to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. They have a collection of some 200 pieces of sprang bonnets, some complete, some just little bits.  Carol at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, in Ann Arbor, Michigan Researcher Julia Galliker and I had a look at these pieces. We’re intending to compile our findings into a database (Julia has a gift for databases) and we will present this information at the Textiles of the Nile Valley Conference in Antwerp, Belgium, at the end of October.
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