I know with absolute certainty, because I do spin and dye and weave, that people were not careless with cloth or trim. It takes too long to make to be careless with it.
So, as a tie belt ? I doubt it. As a trim, most definitely.
Mounted on leather
Here they didn't have cotton, and bog cotton takes ages to make anything from. The gathering alone is backbreaking work.
They did have hemp, flax, nettle, small leave lime, etc., all good fibres, all make good cloth, all hard work to make cloth from.
I know more of what we now call fingerwalking braids (see image of the marriage document of King James to Anne of Denmark....the Danish one shows all the cords that tied the seals to the vellum) and those we know were used to tie clothing in the days before elastic, studs, zips and lycra.
You can make cords in many ways, the lucet for instance, (nasal bones of a small cow are the right shape)
The flat braids made by weaving strands (the tump line) can be very firm though and bear weight.
I have made belts of tablet braid (I think there's an early one in the bag I gave you ? ) and while they work, they felt (which is good) but they fray and don't really take a lot of wear. I'm pretty sure that knotting and untying repeatedly would not be a good idea.
Tablet braid is right when used as a trim, a headband. I made a two inch wide one and used it as the strap and side panels for a bag. It worked but it became very fuzzy, even though I'd worsted spun the wool. I don't think it would have been any better if I had mounted it on cotton. Tablet braid can be fairly substantial, that braid was pretty heavy.
