Modern Fabrics Choices for Byzantine Garb

I've found this list of suppliers to have been reposted to a few groups and quite helpful.

Fashion Fabrics Club has been recommended through two or three separate sources. A $5/yr membership will get you 12 mailings of swatches, discounts and a $5 rebate on your first order. I have joined, but have not received my first mailing nor I have I purchased anything yet.

Linen
I am purchasing my linen from Fabrics Store. They've got the best prices for linen around--confirmed by several members of sca-garb.

Wool
I have purchased wool crepe from Fabricmart. This store is a hit or miss, but when you hit the prices are great.

Silks for Dyeing
I am looking to purchase silk from Dharma Trading. The twill has been recommended by members of sca-garb. Other companies are being researched for pricing now.

Thread
Several members of the sca-garb list have recommended machine sewing natural fabrics with Mettler Cotton-Silk Finish thread. The Craft Connection seems to be offering the thread at the best price on the net--other than ebay. $1.99/spool

Modern liturgical, ecclesiastical or church vestment fabrics are good choices for Byzantine looking patterned fabrics. I have been told it is VERY difficult to find 100% silk figural brocades. What is more easy to find are fabrics of a silk background and rayon or polyester design work woven into or embroidered onto them.

Modern Silk fabrics for Byzantine and Medieval Clothing recreation
Discussions on modern silks are taking place on sca-garb discussion list (2/24/05). Highlights are below. Permission to repost the comments has been asked. No specific requests not to use individual comments have been received.

`Silk Twill Comments from Laurensa de Chambord`
`If you are willing to dye your own, Dharma Trading sells a silk twill that would probably work nicely, for (I believe) about $8 a yard. They also sell the dyes and are very helpful.`
`Modern Silk Fabric`	`Comments`
`Used with the permission of Kass McGann of "Reconstructing History" http://reconstructinghistory.com`
`Charmeuse, crepe de chine and other crepe silks`	`are probably too light and flowy for your use [10th century Byzantine and 14th century garb]. You might find a heavy crepe that works well, but get a swatch first.`
`Chinese shantung`	`is nice. It's got much smaller slubs than dupioni yet has the body necessary to make 14th century clothing.`
`Dupioni`	`not period slubs are too large but used by many SCA Folk`
`Silk blends (wool/silk, linen/silk)`	`are good if you can see a swatch first. Again, we modern people like slubby, thick silks for suits. Medieval people didn't. I find that most of the linen/silk blends have a rough open weave that just doesn't look attractive. So ask for swatches before you buy.`
`Silk Habotai`	`It comes in many different weights. The most popular weight is 8mm (momme) and it's suitabe for underclothing. But I've gotten 12mm, 14mm and 16mm habotai from silkconnection.com.`
`Silk brocade`	`is absolutely the best stuff. But it's hard to get 100% silk. Most of the brocade that's out there is >70% rayon. Now rayon breathes so it won't kill you. But it sheds threads like crazy when cut and you have to know that before you work with it. You'll be French-seaming or binding all your seams if you use it.`
`Silk Noil`	`not period but used by many SCA Folk Definitely a no-no. Smells funny too.`
`Thai silk`	Fabric that is commonly called "Thai silk" is also good. Thai silk is silk taffeta from Thailand where they use tussah (wild) silk in the warp and cultivated silk in the weft (or vice versa -- I forget which). It looks identical to silk taffeta but is usual available in the most beautiful shot silk colours because the warp and weft are usually dyed differently. It's just beautiful... And depending on the exchange rate, you can sometimes get Thai silk cheaper than regular 100g silk taffeta. http://thaisilks.com is my favourite. They often have sales to get rid of discontinued colours and the savings can be up to 50% off!
`Tussah silk`	`I like to use tussah silk because it has incredible body.`
`Silk satin`	`is wonderful! But make sure you're getting real silk and not acetate satin. Acetate will ruin your day. It doesn't breathe, it marks up easily, and it moves like a brick wall.`
`Silk Taffeta`	`It's definitely a great buy. 100g taffeta is a dream fabric.`
`Silk Taffeta & Silk Satin Comments from Mary Taran`
`I agree with all that Kass said, but I'd like to suggest that you look for "silk taffeta" or "silk satin", both of which are available from internet sources, such as www.denverfabrics.com or www.fashionfabricsclub.com. Other people have favorite sites that they love, but I've found these two to be excellent. The taffeta and the satin have the drape and weight I've seen in portraits and other documentary sources.`
`Silk Noil, Dupioni and alternatives comments & period use of silk by lower classes by L. Keterlyn`
I will have to do some digging for the article and some other sites with bits of information, but as far as silk noil goes it's not that it wasn't period exactly. It's more along the lines of 'unaccepted' wear even in the proper period of history. There is no proof either way, since very few pieces of clothing actually exist, but the article I'm speaking of raised a lot of questions. It has been assumed for a long time that noil was waste and wasn't even woven. However only mentions of noil in Oriental history suggest this, and Italian silk history doesn't (per memory of said article). There was a lot of silk waste, and in many cases it is truly unknown if it really was used for lower class clothing. Dupioni is an Italian term... and of course I can't remember what it means exactly. Dupioni definitely /is/ period, but again would not have been so for upper classes. Dupioni is now of course purposefully slubbed, but I've read that dupioni of the past, even though dubbed so for its imperfections, was less slubbed. It was also not as shiny and crisp, but not by much, as it is today. You /can/ find nice selections of dupioni in good fabric shops. The dupioni to best represent so-called preferred 'historically correct' would be the type similar to taffeta; crisp, shiny, nearly slubless but slightly bumpy. `The article is probably this one by Jen Thompson of A Festive Attryre: http://homepage.mac.com/festive_attyre/research/silk.html ~`Kass McGann of "Reconstructing History" http://reconstructinghistory.com

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Wool, Silk and Linen Choices for Garb