THE SHEEP
All of our wool originates from pure, hand selected flocks of "Dorset Horn" sheep, which are descended from the Spanish Merino Sheep that escaped from the crashed Armada ships dating back to 1588.
The breed is know for its aspirational fine white fleece of magnitude and quality.
"Wife make us a dinner, spare flesh neither corne, Make wafers and cakes for our sheep shorn."
- from A Winters Tale by William Shakespeare
SHEARING
We bring our sheep into a shearing shed once a year during late spring. We carefully remove the fleece by sheering the sheep's wool off, this is just like getting a hair cut. At the same time we check every sheep to make sure it's in great health, then we give sheep vitamins and sheep medicine to ensure the sheep continue to be fit, healthy and happy.
THE WOOL BALE
When the fleece is removed, we separate the belly wool from the prized skirt wool and pack into different bale bags. Each bale weighs 150 kilograms and containers about 50 to 60 fleeces.
All our wool bales have "Sheep to Shoulder" proudly printed on the side and top so we know it is our wool. Only Dorset Horn wool from the Bliss Flock will ever be packed in these bale bags.This wool is called "Greasy Wool" as the natural grease from the sheep coats the wool.
SCOURING
After travelling 262 miles the wool arrives at the master wool processors in the town of Delph in Lancashire from Dorset. The greasy wool contains a high level of valuable lanolin as well as dead skin cells, sweat, pesticides and vegetable matter.
With warm water and detergents we wash the wool fleeces to remove the lanolin from the wool.
SORTING
We then dry the fleeces and let them rest. The wool now weighs 70% of its original weight.
The grease and other material we pack in steel drums ready for different processing into ultra grade surgical lanolin in Hull.
CARBONISING
As the sheep have been freely and naturally grazing on the beautiful Dorset countryside, it is only expected that the wool contains the vegetable matter such as seeds and twigs.
By using heat and various acids and solutions we disintegrate the vegetable matter.
Finally, we are left with natural pure wool that is ready to start its journey to be turned in to cloth and fabulous garments.
CARDING
The first process of treating the pure wool is carding, which is a mechanical process.
This is where the fleeces are passed between rollers made with wire brushes called "teasels".
This process detangles the fibres and turns them into a a continuous web of fibres that all face the same direction. The fine web of wool fibres is called a "sliver".
COMBING
When the "sliver" of wool enters the combing machine all the fibres are at different lengths. During the combing process the long fibres are separated from the short fibres.
The long fibres, called "tops" will continue into making cloth. The short fibres, called noils, are classed as "shoddy" and are used to make furniture padding.
DRAWING
During drawing all the processed wool tops are drawn out into one thickness to ensure evenness and regularity of the yarn.
SPINNING
This is the process where we spin the tops into thick ropes of yarn, and then we spin into finer and finer thicknesses of yarn to prepare them for weaving.
DYEING
We then dye the thick ropes of wool to our colour pallet. We have 56 different colours of wool in our colour pallet and they have have different names so we can identify them.
TWISTING
Before weaving we must twist and mix the the coloured yarns several times to ensure they are the correct thickness. At this stage we can also mix different coloured yarns together to create interesting melange colour combinations ready for weaving.
This creates a perfect and even thread of wool ready for the weaving process.
WARPING
In Huddersfield, Yorkshire, we prepare the individual threads of wool (called Ends) under tension onto a specific boom that is designed to fit the weaving loom.
Our highly acclaimed fabric designers in Huddersfield give detailed specifications to the warping department to ensure the correct design is woven.
WEAVING
When we are ready for weaving, the boom is loaded onto the loom. The looms we use are the world's latest advanced technology in weaving.
Each end is passed through a Heddle. A heddle is a metal wire which holds and moves a single end into different positions on the loom depending on the cloth design.
The weaving machine will be programmed to start weaving. Weaving is the process when the weft yarn (called a pick) is run and laid at right angles to the warp yarn.This is the time we start to see the fabric being woven.
MENDING
After weaving the fabric is course, rough, and has holes and imperfections that need to be removed and mended. There is no machine or technology developed that can undertake this skilled job.
It takes many years to learn and understand how to mend cloth, and is an essential process in delivering a quality fabric.
Menders use their expert eye and skilled hands to remove and repair these imperfections.
Afterwards you would have never known if the fabric was mended.
FINISHING
Finishing is a very technical and skilled process using many multiple combinations of different specialist machines and components. Due to this we work together with the worlds leading textile dying and finishing company that is also based in Huddersfield. The components used to finish cloth include water, detergents, heat, cardboard, metal, wood, fire flames, sharp cutting blades and teasels. The final product is an incredible fabric we are proud of, made exclusively from the Bliss flock of Dorset Horn sheep. Our cloth is exclusively British and it is globally recognised as having a superior quality, handle and drape, and tailors to perfection.
This whole journey from the fluff to fabric is only 320 miles, which is less than driving from London to Edinburgh.
CUTTING
To turn this wonderful fabric into fashion garments designed by the world leading designers for fashion brands, we deliver the fabric to specialist factories who cut the fabric into the creative garment designs.
SEWING
The cut pieces are then sewn together by skilled machinists using their trained eye, hand skills and years of experience.
PRESSING
Finally, after a light pressing, hanging on specific hanger, the garment is given time time to relax before being shipped to the retail stores and brands around the world.
FINE WOOL CLOTHING
The finished 100% British Wool clothing is ready-to-wear!
