Behind The Scenes : Sewing + Laundry

August 18, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Close ups of the stitching activity in the make of a jean. This is a short sewing line of a mere few but lines can be some 40 machines long. In Asia Pacific and The Far East both men and women operate the lines. In the more sophisticated factories every process is computerised to avoid any operator errors. Thereby guaranteeing every jean is exactly the same.

On the left we illustrate an industrial front loading washing machine and on the right two barrel washers. The jeans are loaded with different sizes of pumice stones depending on the level and type of stone wash effect and softness desired.

A completed load of dried jeans.

Below the unused pumice stones are scooped up for future use.

On the right a finishing operative is fitting a jean onto a blow up mannequin in preperation for the scraping and spraying process.

Trollies of some 100 Jeans are waiting to be "finished" - where the threads are cut; the accessories and sundries attached; and the jeans are pressed ready to be bagged.

Behind the Scenes : THE DENIM FABRIC

July 21, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Making modern denim fabric is a highly technical and mechanised affair.

The looms are either Rapier looms which are more slow but capable of making great developments. For speed in production air jet looms are the choice of most Mills. they are less flexible than the rapiers but super fast.

these charming drawings from Danny Southern pictures the processes from weaving through finishing and sanforizing to the final quality inspection.

The weaving shed, finishing ranges and inspection in a modern denim factory today.

Behind the Scenes: COTTON YARN FOR DENIM

May 19, 2016 Jill Lawrence

Originally denim jeans were made from 100% cotton and in spite of jeans now containing other fibres the main component is still cotton.

After the cotton processes, the cotton is then spun on an open end or a ring frame. The latter creating a superior quality yarn.

These little drawings give a birds eye view of the spinning and warping processes which are magnified in the photographs.

The above drawing depicts an open end spinning frame whilst the photograph shows a modern ring spinning frame capable of producing thousand of spindles per day. A small denim plant can manufacture around 20 million yards of denim per annum and a big plant up to 120 million. Therefore such mass cotton spinning is very much required for today's mass manufacturing requirement.

Over the coming weeks we will share some of the old denim making processes which were much more of a craft than those of today.

Workers in Pakistan going home after a day in the factories. A colourful local scene in Lahore.

Cotton and denim is delivered in heavily decorated trucks in Pakistan. Each driver takes great pride in his truck paying artisans to personalise the truck under his watchful eye.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Making denim fabric.

April 19, 2016 Jill Lawrence

From delivering the cotton bales to dispatching the finished denim fabric.

This charming drawing by Danny Southern late of Burlington Denim in North Carolina depicts the whole process of making the denim fabric. Although the equipment has been modernised and some added the processes remain the same today as they were in the late 1800's. Over the coming weeks we will take you though the journey of Indigo denim from cotton through original indigo dyeing to the finish jean.

Cotton fields ripe for picking

Raw cotton bales are stored outside during the dry months in Pakistan. Which is one of the biggest manufacturing hubs for the supply of denim and jeans to the USA and Europe.

The following charming images depict the flow of the cotton from the opening process through to drawing.

Local construction workers working on site at a Pakistan denim factory.