A client sent us a piece twelve centimetres by nine and asked for it in bolt lengths. There were no records of any kind. All we had was the cloth.
Under the counting glass, 128 ends and 104 picks to the inch. Near-equal densities, a crisp handle and a faint crosswise rib: plain weave, with the weft heavier than the warp.
Twenty threads of each were drawn from the raw edge at ten centimetres and weighed. That put the warp at roughly 20/22D doubled and the weft near 40/44D. S-twist, and a high turn count — which accounts for the particular springy stiffness. It is the twist doing that, not any dressing.
Three attempts on the loom. The first was too soft: not enough twist. The second had too pronounced a rib: the pick density was low. The third, at 104, matched.
Six weeks in all. When the first metre came off we laid it beside the original at the window. The client did not say anything for a while, and then spent a long time handling it.
Bring a swatch, a drawing, or just a sentence — "it should drape without going soft" is enough to start. We work backwards from yarn count. Minimum run 30 metres.