top of page
RESEARCH
The former Marshfield Center for Textile Research is now under the Weaver's Croft umbrella and is very committed to furthering research in historic equipment and textiles. We are open to any and all research ideas and to offer students the chance to have access to our amazing collection of historic textiles and equipment.
BY HAND
Reclaiming the Art of Historic Sail Making
July 25 & 26, 2026
This two day conference will focus on the experimental and archival research accomplished by the Weaver's Croft Sail Making Study Group in 2025. Conference topics will include historical tools for weaving sails, materials representative of the era, the spinners and weavers who supplied the cloth to the shipbuilders and the specifications of each sail type for appropriate reproduction.
Both the early 18th c. handlooms - that we believe were used to weave sail cloth - and the warp weighted loom will be set up so that participants can try weaving the different versions of sail cloths. We will also have workshops related to maritime skills
such as ditty bags and maritime knots.
More information coming soon!
EVENTS
Projects & Study Groups
Historic Sail Making
Lately we've had two people express an interest in making historic sail cloth - one from the 1700's in linen and the other from the 1800's in cotton calico. In the process of researching both these different techniques we have realized that there is quite a bit of historic evidence in the trade of sail making.
Our warp weight loom students are also interested in making replicas of Viking sails made from wool using the warp weight loom. Let us know if you would be interested in joining this group - info@weaverscroft.net
Shown above - J.E. Riggin
photo from the Maine Windjammer Association
Calimanco & Glazing
Fabric Finishes of the 18th c.
Kate Smith and Eaton Hill Textile Works spent 10 years studying the unique fabric finishes of embossing and glazing and eventually was able to reproduce fairly accurate embossed patterns for upholstery and bed hangings. The glazed fabrics used for whole cloth quilts and some historic clothing fabrics such as calimanco still remained out of reach. Our hope is to continue working on solving that mystery and to achieve a workable finish that rivals those on some of our historic pieces.
Contact Kate if you are interested in this topic.
Reproducing the Clothing Fabrics from the Homer Collection
This amazing collection of clothing fabrics from the 1850's was gifted to one of our teacher trainers and we have decided that it would be an amazing project to try and reproduce them as accurately as possible. Starting with spinning the singles warp yarn at 5000 yd/lb and then using natural dyes to achieve the correct colors. We will ultimately make the seven different fabrics and some are even woven with a very fine singles cotton. Let us know if you would like to join this study group - info@weaverscroft.net
Early Hand Loom Survey
Since first being introduced to working with early hand looms when attending the Marshfield School of Weaving in 1979, Kate Smith has been completely fascinated with these unique tools ever since. Both of her ex-husbands began to collect and restore looms to pass on to other students and it finally became obvious that some sort of data base was needed to collect information on all the looms that were coming through our hands. If you have an early hand loom please fill out the survey.
bottom of page