Holiday Fabric Geekery Part 2

Whilst in the cafe at Lochcarron Mill, we also picked up some other leaflets of things we could perhaps do over the rest of the week. There is tonnes to do in the Borders area. Literally hundreds of things. But, as it turns out, not in February. They are all closed until Easter! Except for this:

 The Borders Textile Towerhouse!

 Behold! Yet more fabric geekery! I managed to persuade the boys that this would be worth visiting later in the week. On a side note, when we told Small Boy we would be spending the day in Hawick and Jedburgh, he repeated back: "Oik and Zebra?".

The Borders Textile Towerhouse was fantastic! Lots of information about the history of the Borders Textile Industry, which was a huge thing back in the day. Lots of information about the history of the tower it is partly housed in. And most importantly when you are accompanied by a 3 year old, lots of touchy feely interactive stuff.

Different types of tweed. Aren't the colours stunning?

You can use a magnifying glass to look closely at the weave of 2 different fabrics

"Carding" wool. Basically taking it from it's raw state to the state where you would spin it.

The dressing up box!

Display of vintage buttons and haberdashery

Before washing (on the left) and after washing (on the right). The change in handle was amazing!

I really wish I could have added to this!

We did try to weave, but we kind of messed it up, so moved swiftly on...

Interesting definition of the origin of the word "tweed"

Weaving timeline. From it's origins...

... to modern day

They had a "memory bank", where you could use these to listen to the personal memories of people who worked in the mills

An example of how well designed the museum is. I noticed this brass detailing at the bottom of every display. On closer inspection, it proved to be...

An inch tape! What a lovely detail!

Believe it or not, all of the above photos were taken on the first floor, which was about the industry's history. Then we moved upstairs, which was more about textile and clothing design.

You can make your own knitwear, from pre-knitted components which you velcroed together on a dress form.

Our attempt. Small Boy was in charge of pocket placement, and yes, the top one is upside down!

"Our" family tartan

Can't really remember what this was, other than obviously being knitwear

Making our own labels

The museum also had an exhibit about the history of the building, which was originally a 16th century L-shaped tower, which was extended over time and has had various incarnations between then and now.

Straddling the old and the new buildings

The offwhite building on the right is the original 16th century tower

The museum also had a lovely shop (not photographed) where I bought the badge/pin for my Sew Grateful giveaway. It is well worth a visit if you are ever in the area!

There is actually a Borders Textile Trail which details all the textile related things you can do in the Borders.

Source

To be honest, it is very tourist oriented and features mostly cashmere and tweed shops, which in a lot of instances will sell garments made in the Far East and potentially "finished" or "designed" in Scotland. But the mills and the museums are well worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

I do realise this is a hugely photo heavy post, but I thank you for indulging me and getting this far. I hope you have found it interesting. I know I did!!