This has been a real trip of a thread, you don't get this in-flight entertainment elsewhere!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRq61VypkLk

Roping, beading  and swelling edges for decoration, highlighting  and some stiffening has been going on for centuries. From rich velvet kings robes to scruffy old wool dressing gowns. I've got Harris Tweeds with swelled edges and some with none. Same with linen jackets. In general its my preference.

I've said it before and I'm about to say it again - all this obsession with singular clean linear influences and precise dates is an artificial imposed order that satisfies some peoples inner OCD or preferred version of history. Its nearly always messy with ebbs and flows. Stuff comes up from the street, down from the elite and wealthy, across from makers preferences, shortcuts and embellishments and mistakes. The shortcomings and possibilities of machines versus hand, new materials and so on and so forth.

Wool does not shrink, it felts. This is caused by the raised scales of the cuticle layer of the wool fiber catching on one another. The fibers in a fleece on a sheep are all growing out of the follicles in the same direction and they generally grow at a similar rate. This means that the cuticle scales (which are a bit like the teeth on a saw blade) are all pointed in the same direction. They don't catch on one another. These scales can be seen clearly under a microscope.

After the fleece is shorn, the processing stages cause the natural fibers alignment to be completely disrupted. As the fleece is cleaned and scoured, the "staple" structure is destroyed and the fibers no longer line up "tip to base" as they would in the fleece. The fibers end up in all dimensions and suffer entangling after scouring and drying. The purpose of washing and scouring is to remove unwanted materials and to disentangle and align the fibers into a parallel arrangement for spinning yarn. However the fibers will not necessarily be "tip to base". The scales now can be at 180 degrees to one another, which can cause them to catch on each other.

When the fibers are spun, they come in close contact with each other, and the interlocking nature of the scales is what helps keep the yarn together. Felting usually occurs in the presence of heat, water and agitation, and this acts as a ratchet, tightening the contact between the fibers in the yarn, and then the yarns in the fabric.

Wool tends to felt is because of the scales on the fibers. Other animal fibers have cuticle scales too, but to varying degrees. For instance, the cuticle scales on human hair are much flatter. Fine diameter wools are more likely to felt than broad diameter wools because they have a greater surface area, and hence more scales proportionately.

Shrink-proofing is a chemical treatment of wool, which uses chlorine to "burn" off the scales. This doesn't entirely remove them, but it does lessen their profile. The fibers are then coated with a resin to smooth them further. This allows the wool to be machine washed without felting / shrinkage.

Now let us consider what might happen if the wool hadn't been processed and the cuticle removed. Which could have been the case 100 odd years ago with Tweed.

A lapel has cloth on both the front and the back. It is likely that the front would get wet but the back would remain dry or dryer, therefore only the front of the lapel would be liable to shrinking or would shrink more.

This would cause the edge of the lapel to curl upwards because the cloth in the action of shrinking/contracting would pull it.

Adding stitching to the edge of the lapel can mitigate this effect by reinforcing the edge, making it stiffer and more resistant to curling.

These days due to advances in textile technology they may be no more than a cosmetic feature.  Like lapels themselves.

For Trip -

... Hiding drinks behind the sofa when the local vicar called unexpectedly only for the dog to knock them over and a slowly spreading pool of red wine starting to gather around the vicar's feet. Being English nobody could mention this. And having concluded his visit he then walked red wine footprints through the house as he left which we all had to pounce on to clear up before the stains set. Naturally the vicar got the blame for this for calling out of the blue and he was never allowed in the sitting room again for ruining the carpet. All we did in reality was to pull the sofa a little bit further forward to hide the worst of the stain and carry on as usual.

"Look out, here comes the carpet killer" my father would say under his breath every time he saw the vicar approaching after that incident.

... The vicar was a menace, always on the cadge. The biggest beggar in the neighbourhood. When he didn't want your money he wanted you to work for free for him. He was a hated figure that we all had to smile at and be polite to. This is the universal truth of all country clerics.

The whole thing was a game - He'd come knocking after money for his roof or 'helpers' for his daft projects and we'd all play the game back by inventing outrageous reasons why we couldn't help him that he could never quite call us liars for in return. I couldn't mow the churchyard due to my (invented) hayfever. My Father couldn't contribute to the buying of a piano because he was flat broke - And he'd sit there with a cigar as he said it. My Mother couldn't do the washing up after the Summer Fete because she had a skin condition - 'Oh we will provide you with gloves' said the vicar, 'No they just make it worse' replied my Mum. My Sisters couldn't join the choir because they were suddenly claustrophobic - An amazing excuse to pull off in such a large barn-like space as a church.

It all ended up as a bit of a war of wits...

Ultimately he fell into ill health and left the Parish.

Result.

... And then we had to train the next guy to clear off too.