MATERIAL REVIEW.
Foun attractive woollen scarves, made from hand-spun, hand-woven wool, have been sent us for review by the Escote Weavers, Ltd., whose offices are at 45 Great Charles Street, Birmingham. These scarves are retailed at £3 each, and are about 21 yards long. The makers give as a reason for their high price the fact that they are entirely hand-made and are dyed from purely vegetable dyes ; they also say that they are practically everlasting and guarantee them to wash without either shrinking or fading.
One scarf is orange with ornaments in natural-colour, brown and black. The colour is bright, and at the same
time soft. A brown scarf has broken stripes of orange, yellow, black and undyed wool at its ends, while a soft horizon blue scarf is striped throughout its length with broken stripes of natural wool, with fine lines of black and orange. Perhaps the prettiest of all is a green scarf with grey-blue, brown and natural stripes in it.
If this material has all the wearing qualities its makers claim for it (and we should imagine from handling it that it has), why don't the makers turn their attention to weaving frock and suit lengths for small children ? The scarves submitted could not be cut up for this purpose as the striped pattern is too large in scale, but the blue and the green would be particularly becoming to children, while the softness, lightness and warmth of the texture would make the stuff delightful for little boys and girls of from two to six.
As to design, one criticism would refer to the use of brown on the green scarf. A more attractive effect could be got without this colour, which takes away from the freshness of the green. Another criticism would be of the price of the scarves and of the fact of the making-up of this beautiful material into scarves. These scarves, unlike knitted scarves, invite com- parison with the machine-made quality of the cloth used for the dress or coat with which they would be worn. We have suggested children's frocks, but, if the price of the material could be reduced, skirt or short coat lengths in this material would be delightful for grown-up people. The texture of the stuff would be suitable for spring or cold summer days.
Previous page
