Finishing

Finishing entailed the final cutting up of the cloth into individual blankets or blanket pairs. The top and bottom edges would then be blanket-stitched or bound to stop them from fraying. Finally the blankets' surface was worked over using hand cards to ensure the nap of the cloth was soft and fleecy.

'Cornering' or 'rosing' (hand stitching a pattern onto each corner of a blanket with brightly coloured worsted thread) was especially popular in the 18th century. These stitched patterns (which were often rose or crown motifs) may have had several functions: at first they were probably done to mark where the ends of individual blankets in a stockful were before it was cut up, but they may have also been used to indicate the size and quality of the blanket as well being a fashionable adornment. Cornering was often done by the weavers' wives, daughters, maid servants or the boys who also did quilling: in 1787 the pay rate for this work was a halfpenny per corner.

Clare Sumner