Fabric fading tones

[lukegilly13]

While browsing through the recent articles on the effects of different colors and items in period pictures I began to wonder something....
In examining original garments has anyone noticed a difference in the fading process of different materials? I know that the methods used to dye reproductions fabrics will play a key role in how (or if) if fades quickly. For instance, it doesn't take long at all for gray sumac cassimere to turn brown. But, does cassimere itself play a role? Will it fade quicker or more evenly than say typical jean, satinette, or kersey?
Food for thought on a rainy Saturday morning.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Fabric fading tones

Hallo!

I haver always assumed "yes." but do not recall ever seeing any analysis of it ever having been done.

My reason for thinking the affirmative is the inverse of dyeing. Meaning, the nature of the textile yarn or thread's make-up, when combined with the mordant that either opens the fiber up as well a shelp set the dye into the fibers rather than just on the surface means that some textiles are harder to dye than others. An example would be that cotton is harder to dye than wool.

IMHO, it would stand to reason that the the textiles fibers that take the dye deepest into their structure, would resist the effects of say UV light changes (color fastness and light fastness) moreso than the ones where the dye is closer to or "on the surface." (A problem later more remedied by the invention and use of aniline dyes replacing vegetable dyestuffs after the CW).

Also, IMHO, the consideration for say a military coat or jacket was ultimately "economics" both in terms of something that would be cost-effective enough and serviceable for the intended "service life" of the garment to last to the next issuance cycle, AND what fabric was available and on hand to be used (particularly a Confederate thing).

Curt

[Hank Trent]

Re: Fabric fading tones

IMHO, it would stand to reason that the the textiles fibers that take the dye deepest into their structure, would resist the effects of say UV light changes (color fastness and light fastness) moreso than the ones where the dye is closer to or "on the surface." (A problem later more remedied by the invention and use of aniline dyes replacing vegetable dyestuffs after the CW).

Many aniline dyes in the just-post-war period were quite fugitive, often fading to a strange brown unrelated to the original color.

But yes, I suspect that the fiber made a difference more than the weave (cotton vs. wool, rather than cassimere vs. jean), though of course a weave that showed more wool on the surface than cotton, for example, might appear to hold its color more like wool than cotton, compared to a weave that showed more of the cotton. Like Curt, I expect that fabrics which took dye well, like wool or silk, would hold better than cotton and linen which dyed poorly. For what it's worth, a few years ago I put a piece of walnut-dyed silk in the back of the car in the sun to see how long it would take to fade and after several months I gave up, when it was unchanged.

I've seen green in the period split into blue, when the yellow faded, on a pair of checked cotton trousers. Here's another illustration of that same thing in a quilt (third picture down) which also shows some other fading issues in older quilts, though a lot of it is post-war in the aniline era.

Hopefully Terre Lawson can come along and talk about her experiences with period dyes.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Spinster]

Re: Fabric fading tones

Hank, that's a fabulous link to the quilt analysis. I use a fairly fugitive yellow in my normal processess, as its native and local here--comes out whanging vibrating yellow, and settles down nicely in about 3 years to a more sedate yellow. This means my light greens are a constantly changing adventure. I use a much faster yellow for dark greens, and they hold well.

Fibers that have a hard time taking dye (bast and cellulose) also are quicker to give it up. The scales that make wool easier to dye also serve to bind the dye longer.

Also integral to the process---how the dyed material is treated. All dyeing is chemistry--and exposing dyed fabrics to additional chemicals can also change color. I can do an 'after bath' with an acid base or an alkaline base, and pull two radically different colors off the same dyepot.

Now, lets take a cotton shirt and repeatedly expose it to the alkaline bath of a good soapy washing. Same process--and one gets a color change. Not necessarily a lighter change either---I've had some colors to go darker with a repeated washing with lye soap. A wool shirt would not have been washed nearly as often.

Exposure to light and air also make a difference--the oxidation process can be really unique. One such adventure that we've noted over time is one of my long-time sellers in both 18th (Marchault cap) and 19th (Nightcap in the French Style)centuries. Same knitting pattern for both



This particular one was dyed with cochineal and copperas--in its earliest form, it was a deep maroon. After its first heavy fulling, it took the color pictured above. About two years later, it had a decided green cast as the mordant became more dominant. Since it is heavily fulled, and a double layer cap, it can also be used to carry water---which means its been exposed to everything from Louisiana swamp water to Tennessee creek water to Ohio cave water to the Minnesota headwaters of the Mississippi ---and each time it comes out sees a color change--and each fold is different, inside and out.

My personal cap of this style has seen many more years of use---it was once blue/brown, and is now a pale beige, except where I've mended it with this and that. Its color is much more consistent inside and out--but then, I pull the fold down completely over my face, so that it covers to my chin, and sleep in it. It's rarely subject to sunlight, as I change into a more ladylike headcovering once out and about. Its color change is attributable to oxidation and water carry....

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Fabric fading tones

The composition of the material definitely makes a difference. I experimented with logwood dyeing jeans and domet flannel last summer using a number of mordants. The result was the wool fibers absorbing/taking the dyestuff much better than the cotton, although the cotton fibers did have a very light tinge of gray. After exposure to sunlight the material actually darkened; the medium gray wool turned to brown-gray while the cotton turned from very pale gray to an orange-tan color.

The original trousers Hank mentions are interesting, and the fading pattern reminds me of some notable Federal uniforms. The facing cloth used to make caps for the U.S. Sharpshooters was originally yellow (possibly surplus stock from pre-war Engineer uniform coat facings) and was sent to Horstmann Bros. for a blue top-dye. Whatever dye they used doesn't appear to have been color-fast since the majority of original sharpshooter forage caps show irregular fading that gives the headgear a "yellowing" appearance. Schuylkill Arsenal also sent indigo dyed uniform coat cloth to Horstmann Bros. to be yellow top-dyed for the frock coats and trousers; although there are no known pair of issued dark green sharpshooter trousers extant, two original issue and field-used uniform coats are a rich dark green color and show no signs of the dye fading or "sloughing" off of the fiber surface. The trim used for these coats ran the gamut from dark grass green to bright emerald but like the forage caps, it too faded and now have a yellowish pea-soup color.

Below are some photographs that show fading in original Federal uniforms. The sharpshooter frock cuff trim is from the Sgt. William Tilson coat in the collection of Don Troiani. The artillery orderly sergeant's lozenge is sewn to a piece of what I believe is logwood dyed broadcloth; this is from a private purchase uniform coat in the Ross County Historical Society. The forage caps include the "Gettysburg" sharpshooter cap from the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum; one of two "sealed pattern" examples made by George Hoff of Philadelphia, housed in the Smithsonian; and Sgt. John Schermerhorn's forage cap from the Milwaukee Public Museum. The 12th New York Infantry officer's kepi was worn in 1862 and is a great example of poorly dyed fabric; the soutache and insignia field were likely originally black while the body of the kepi is irregular with an almost purple hue. This final photo comes courtesy of Heritage Auctions.