It just a narrow piece of woven cloth that has finished edges that was used as a stabilizer for seems or as a narrow fold over strip to edges of whatever your sewing, flags, blankets, washcloths, etc.. It comes in a verity sizes, 1/4”, 9/16” to 2” wide, a modern sample is the two pieces cloth tape in either sides of a zipper. For the time period it was made of wool, cotton, twill or other cotton cloth and silk. Made on a narrow loome or narrow lome, invented in England around 1645. Narrow Ware refers to those items of Haberdashery, as tape, ribbon, garter’s, fringe, braid, etc., that were sold in penny-widths up to six pennies wide. Cloth tape was also used in bookbinding.

A pressure-sensitive tape made its first appearance in 1845. One Horace Day, a surgeon, used a rubber adhesive applied to strips of fabric to make a new invention: surgical tape. I haven’t seen any evidence that Dr. Day’s tape was used on flags.

Happy Trails! 

Tom Martin