Tulle

Schematic drawing of bobbinet. Schematic drawing of bobbinet.

Tulle is a lightweight, very fine form of net with a hexagonal mesh, machine-made and often starched. It can be made of various fibres, including cotton, nylon, rayon and silk. The word is often used synonymously with net. The name comes from Tulle, a city in the south-central part of France. Tulle was well known as a centre for lace and silk production in the eighteenth century. It is likely that early tulle netting originated here.

Tulle was produced in large qualities from the late eighteenth century in Nottingham and surroundings, in the main because of the mechanical innovations of the tulle weaving machine by Lindley, Heathcoat and Leavers, 

During most of the nineteenth century, and later, tulle is actually bobbinet, which was invented in Britain in the early nineteenth century. Bobbinet is made by wrapping the weft thread around the warp thread in order to create a strong hexagonal design that does not twist or fall out of shape, because the wrapped threads remain in a state of tension.

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 27th June 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Sunday, 06 February 2022 15:38
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