History of Chenille Tufting
In 1895, Catherine Evans was inspired by a family heirloom and made her
first hand-tufted chenille bedspread. Five years later she sold a similar
spread for $2.50.
Miss Evans moved to Dalton from a rural community in Whitfield County.
Popularity of the chenille bedspread grew, and when she began receiving
orders for her work, Miss Evans asked some of her neighbors to help her.
Using quilting designs, she showed her helpers how to stamp the pattern on
the fabric and make the chenille tufting stitches. From this beginning,
Evans Manufacturing Company was established in 1917, and was operated by
the founder until 1963 when the business was sold.
Early chenille bedspread operations were conducted in people's homes.
The "company" furnished the stamped sheeting and chenille yarn
for tufting to the women and children who did the work. Tufting is simply
sewing yarn into the base fabric which, when laundered, shrinks around the
base of the tuft causing it to "bloom" and stay in place. By the
late 20's and early 30's, mechanization took the craft from the homes to
factories, and the chenille tufted textile industry was successfully on
its way.
The first chenille tufting machine was a Singer 31-15, normally used
for sewing heavy textiles, such as tents and work clothes, but converted
especially for tufting. About 1940, wide chenille tufting machines were
built. Forerunners of today's giant carpet tufting machines, the early
counterparts were used to turn out continuous rolls of tufted chenille
fabric or cotton chenille rugs. Dozens of people claim credit for
developing the first practical machine, and patents were issued to various
inventors, but it is impossible to name any one inventor.
It is the chenille bedspread industry that eventually became our carpet
industry of today. Until 1954 only cotton was used for tufting carpet.
Rayon, wool, nylon and acrylics followed and became the fibers of the
modern age of carpet, but the weaving process made it expensive and slow
to produce. With the advent of man-made fibers and the huge multi-needle
tufting machine, there have been dramatic changes in the carpet industry.
A wide range of styles, patterns and colors is available at prices
affordable in most budgets. Over 500 million yards of carpeting are tufted
every year, and 65% of that is tufted in the Dalton, Georgia area where
Miss Evans began the industry with her first hand tufted chenille
bedspreads.
The first 12-foot-wide tufted carpet was manufactured in the early
1950s. During the remainder of the decade, improvements to the tufting
machines patterned after the original chenille ebdspreads, and the end
product continued. Foremost among the inventions in this decade were
pattern attachment devices. These devices permitted machines to produce
multiple pile heights and geometric and other patterns in the same piece
of carpet, something that previously was possible only in woven carpet.
With these more intricate patterns and increasingly closer gauges, tufted
carpets began to compete successfully against woven carpets. By 1965 more
than 85 percent of broadloom carpeting sold in the United States was
tufted. Today, with minor modifications, loop and cut-pile carpets can be
manufactured on the same machine, and pattern attachments are
computerized. Efforts continue to duplicate completely the density and
pattern of woven carpet.
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