Improvements in Dress Guards.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Aug., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 13th Apr., 1895-Accepted, 2nd Aug., 1895
Improvements in Dress Guards.
I, ADOLPH VORWERK of Barmen, Rhenish Prussia, Germany, Manufacturer
Kohlgartenstrasse 5,9 do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to an improved attachment to ladies dresses serving as a
guard to protect the bottom edge of a gown to be torn and worn whilst at the same
time the new dress guard shall have the quality not to injure the fine and soft
leather of ladies boots.
Various fabrics and methods have been proposed to guard the bottom edge of
ladies dresses from too rapid wear and tear, they have been lined with hard woollen
or linen cords, with cords which themselves were surrounded by metal wire; these
latter, indestructible as they were, had the great drawback that they very much
injured the boots and that they caused a disagreeable tapping noise when going up
and down stairs.
Now I have overcome all these difficulties by my new and improved dress guard,
which not only is almost indestructible but which at the same time forms a real
ornament to a gown and which does not injure the boots in any way.
It consists of a band or stripe made in any sort of weaving and having one edge
provided with threads bound thereon or projecting therefrom like plush weaving.
This plush border has a soft and sinooth feeling like velvet; the threads or the
yarn used for its manufacture being very strong, it resists wear and tear whilst its
softness does not injure the fine and tender leather of fine boots.
Doted his 20th of T.J. AD 1001
ADOLPH VORWERK,
Per Karl J. Mayer,
Agent.
I, ADOLPH VORWERK of Barmen Rhenish Prussia, Germany, Manufacturer
Kohlgartenstrasse 5/9 do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to an improved attachment to ladies dresses and serves as
a guard to protect the bottom edge of a gown from being torn and worn, whilst at
the same time the new dress guards shall have the quality not to injure the fine
and soft leather of ladies boots.
Various fabrics and methods have been proposed and tried to guard the bottom
edge of ladies dresses from too rapid wear and tear, they have been lined with
hard woolen or linen cords, with cords which themselves were surrounded by thin
metal wire; these latter, indestructible as they were, had the great drawback that
they very much injured the boots, and that they caused a disagreeable tapping
noise when going up and down stairs. I have overcome all these difficulties by my
77

page_text: new and improved dress-guard which not only is almost indestructible, but which
at the same time forms an ornament to a gown and which does not injure the
leather of the boots in any way.
The new dress-guard may be made in different ways: by weaving in a loom, by
means of the braiding machine or also by means of the so called crotcheting
machine and whether made according to one or the other method it may vary in
details the attaching strip may be carried out in plain work or in more ornamental
or fancy work, it may consist of a single strip, or two strips of different character
may be worked together; but in all cases the main feature and characteristical
point is that on one edge of the attaching strip or band the cross threads stand out
like the threads of plush or velvet and form, so to say, a little soft brush. These
threads are firmly bound, that is to say so, that they can not be pulled out easily,
they are of best yarn, and since the wear on them is crossways to the direction of
the fibre, they resist wear and tear almost absolutely, whilst their softness and
smooth feeling does not spoil the leather of the boots. The dress-guard may also
be made by weaving separately a plush strip and an attaching strip and sewing
both together.
On the accompanying drawing I show various forms of the new dress-guard as
made by weaving with a single or double strip, or by means of the braiding
machine, and also by the crotcheting machine.
Fig. 1 shows the simplest form of the new dress-guard consisting in a separately
woven band or ribbon A to which is sewn a separately made strip of plush-like or
a brush-like character. It will be understood that always when I speak of plush-
like quality mean that the threads giving that character stand out open endways
and not vertical to the surface of the stripe, as it would be in the case of plush
proper. A is the woven band, B is the plush stripe, C indicates the threads
running in zig-zag by which both strips are sewn together.
Fig. 2 indicates a sample of a single woven dress-guard. In making the same,
I proceed thus: The strips D D' are woven as usually in any convenient binding,
between the two warps of the strips a corresponding space is left empty, and into
this the special weft forming the plush part is interwoven, of course in suitable
and secure binding with the edges of the two warps forming the attaching strips.
In the middle of the part E two warp threads are bound in, which serve as a guide
for cutting in two afterwards the fabric thus produced in the loom, as indicated in
the upper part of Fig. 2 in order to obtain the dress guard as it will be required
for sale and in a marketable condition.
Fig. 3 shows a sample of a dress-guard with a double fastening strip, or rather
with a bread fastening strip F F', and an ornamental strip G G¹ woven upon it,
the weft forming the plush part H being hound in in the same way as described
under Fig. 2, and the complete part being then cut in two as indicated on the top
of Fig. 3.
In Fig. 4 indicate a dress-guard made in the braiding machine; it distinguishes
itself from the woven ones only by the peculiar sort of binding, in all other respects
it is similar to the samples first described. JJ are the two attaching strips,
and H is the plush part being produced by spools or hobbins running between the
set of bobbins forming the lace-strips J and J but without interlacing with each
other so that the threads remain open and lying parallel to each other as shown.
Finally show in Fig. 5 a sample as it may be produced in the crocheting
machine. KK are two flat strips having a woven character; L is the plush part
ate of lies of threads laid crossways in a zig-zag form and secured to the
parts K and K by crotcheting threads binding the plush threads to the flat strips.
The art L is also cut in two as it is done with the other samples.
I beg to observe that it is not absolutely necessary to make always two pieces,
a single dress-guard may be made and the plush threads cut open edgeways, but it
is of course more convcuient and cheaper to make them as described above.
I prefer to make those according to Fig. 2 and 3 because they are the most
durable, though they be hardly dearer than the others.

page_text: As stated above the dress guard according to Fig. 1 consists of a separately
woven ribbon or also of a separately made tape or braid of ordinary make and of
any sort of binding produced by the loom or by the braiding machine. To this
piece A is attached by sewing, the strip B of plush or brush-like character. This
forms the half of a separately woven strip which is produced in the loom by laying
down two sets of several threads forming the warp at the two edges or borders of
the strip, the middle part between these warps being left free, or having only two
auxiliary warp threads in the centre, which afterwards serve as guides for cutting
the strip exactly in two halves between these two threads. These warp threads
are bound in any sort of binding by weft threads shot into them, care being taken
to choose strong yarn for this weft and to make the threads of considerable
thickness or rather to form each weft thread of several single threads, which are
spun together or spooled together so as to form apparently a thick single thread.
The weft threads lying open between the two main warps, they will, when cut
in two, as stated above, stand out like the pile of plush or rather like the bristles
of a soft brush.
The sample shown by Fig. 2 differs from that represented by Fig. 1 in the way
of its making. Here the side strips or the ribbon part and the plush part are
woven together instead of being sewn together. In order to get a full and thick
plush edge the weaving is done in the following manner :
The warp is laid out in the usual way to form the two woven side strips D and D',
according to the width of these "ribbons." A free space is left between the two, in
the middle of which two single threads are laid as auxiliary warp threads to serve
as guide line for the cutting in two of the fabric. The weft is then run through
the whole width of the warp from the left edge of D to the right edge of D' and
back once or twice only, then it is run through the inner part only, binding up
four or five warp threads on the right edge of D and four or five warp threads on
the left edge of D' and this is done three or four times whereupon the weft is
again run through the whole width once or twice.
The loom for making this is an ordinary ribbon-loom and does not present any
new or particular features.
The double ribbon, after having been made as described, is cut in two as
indicated at the top of Fig. 2 and thus the dress-guard ready for use is obtained.
The sample shown by Fig. 3 differs from the preceding one only by a small
double strip G and G¹ woven together with the main ribbons F and F to form an
ornamental border; in all other respects it is made as the onc described before and
by ordinary means used for making double bands, well known by weavers.
J
Fig. 4 represents a sample produced on the braiding machine. Here the
"ribbon" parts J and J have not the binding of weft and warp threads running
lengthways and cross-ways at right angle to each other but, as it is with tapes and
laces, made on the braiding machine, the threads run diagonally. The bobbins
forming the parts J and J' run in the ordinary way as if two separate tapes were
made and between them special bobbins, carrying a thicker and stronger sort of
yarn are run, interlacing with the other bobbins only when they form the two inner
edges of the parts J and J and without interlacing with each other. Central
threads being laid through the drivers or notched dises at the inner corners of the
machine which form the inner edges of the strips J and J.
The sample shown by Fig. 5 and representing a dress guard or rather two, not
yet cut wholly in two, may be made in the crocheting machine by making two
strips K and K in any sort of binding as produced by this machine, a strong
thread being carried to and fro between the two inner edges of the parts K and K),
without receiving a special binding in the middle, but being merely bound or
joined to the parts K and K at their edges in the usual manner of the crotcheting
machine and being afterwards cut in two lengthways as indicated.
It may be mentioned that the two last named fabrics are not as durable as those
woven in the loom, the binding or interlacing of the plush or pile threads being

page_text: not so tight as that formed by weaving; it is not difficult to pull off the pile-
threads and therefore an inferior quality can only be produced by these two latter
ways and I therefore prefer making the woven dress guards.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
A dress guard produced by weaving in the loom or by means of the braiding
machine or by the use of the crotcheting machine, or by sewing two specially
prepared strips together, and consisting of a flat strip single or double, and serving
for being attached to the border of a dress, and of a strip united to the band and
the cross threads of which being left without longitudinal binding are cut open so
as to form a brush-like or plush-like border protecting the other part and the
border of the dress from wear and tear on account of the fibre of these threads
standing vertically when in ordinary use.
Dated this 11th day of July 1895.
ADOLPH VORWERK,
Per Karl J. Mayer,
Agent.