Leo, Ben & Greg,
I think I kinda confused some, this morning. Ply deals with yarn, the warp, weft & welt deal with the knitting (weave) of the cloth.
Ply - two or more yarns that have been twisted together. There are hundreds of ways to twist the yarn, regular, reverse, etc. You can have two yarns twisted together and take more yarns, two, three, etc., and twist them together to make a 2/3 ply.
WARP - is the yarns which run vertically or lengthwise in woven cloth. The nubbier can vary greatly depending on the pattern you are making. And then you can get into WARP-FACE, WARPING, WARP KNITTING WARP PATTERN, WARP PILE, and WARP PRINTING.
WELT - a strip of material seamed to a pocket opening as a finishing as well as a strengthening device. Like a raised or swelled lap or seam, or a covered cord or ornamental strip sewed on the border or along a seam. Then you can go into the deferent knitting processes. Some during the CW period call this tape, i. e. the Richmond Depot cotton cloth issue. Tape was the sewing of a extra cloth around the edge of the field.
WEFT - the crosswise or filling pick yarns in a woven cloth, which was popular in the British Isles and in hand weaving circles in the US.
Double WARP or Double cloth is the combination of two cloths woven in the same loom at the same time. Some call this double PLY but that is wrong.
I’m not going into the construction of wool bunting, gotta keep something to keep the fakes in the fake column. There was single-ply, Z- twist wrap, - single-ply, Z - twist weft bunting made in England that was shipped to the U. S. . They also shipped 2-ply, S - Twist warp, single-ply Z - twist weft bunting from England. The best bunting had a 2-ply, Z - twist warp and a single or 2-ply Z- twist weft. Thread count is also important but I’ll keep that to myself, fake and fakers out there. There was many grades of wool bunting, it was graded on Ply, WARP, WELT, WEFT, and the breed of sheep the wool came from. The method of dying the wool also added to the grade.
England started to make cotton bunting, around 1844, the PLY and weave was done the same as wool bunting. There are deferent kinds of cotton bunting, muslin, canvas, cheese cloth, etc., Muslin is also generic term for a wide variety of cotton fabrics, which include the above.
99% of all bunting pre 1865 came from England, all U. S. Military bunting flags were made of English bunting. Mainly, the mills here could not match the price of English bunting and the Government contracts call for the less expensive bunting. This changed in 1865 when the U. S. Bunting Company / American Bunting Company had the inside track with the help of the Navy & White House to win the contract for one year. The Navy & Army teamed up to make the order for bunting large enough that American Bunting Company could make a better price then what English Bunting was going for, per yard.
Around 1835, or a little before the Norfolk Navy Yard made all of the military’s U. S. Flags, you can tell a Norfolk made U. S. flag by the strip that the canton rest on. I’ll keep that to myself also, no need for the fakers to learn. The Brooklyn Navy Yard was used to repair the flags but became a manufacturing site for the war. Do to some overflows, the Brooklyn Yard contracted out the manufacturing of flags. The American Bunting Company started to make the flags later on, 1866 (?), or about. Around 1890 the mills in the southern State started to make the bunting, wool, cotton and a wool / cotton blend. During the war the southern mills made muslin and small amounts of cotton bunting as well as linen. Nylon bunting started to replace the wool bunting flags, starting after WW II.
Happy Trails!
Tom Martin