of allowed u s patent application ser no 750 618 and u s pat no 4 085 700 both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in fig1 pile fabric 10 which has been printed with stiffening agent in accordance with the teachings of the above mentioned applications is stored in scray 12 to insure that pile fabric 10 is unwrinkled and evenly tensioned as it passes over nose bar 14 adjacent to blade 16 it is first passed over rollers 18 driven rollers 20 and then over spreader 21 roller 22 and spreader 23 pile fabric 10 passes over nose bar 14 and is taken up by driven spreaders 24 driven rollers 26 and is stored on take up roll 28 since it is important that pile fabric 10 be uniformly tensioned as it passes over nose bar 14 and to avoid start up problems band knife 30 having translating blade 16 is mounted on pivotable carriage 32 while the fabric handling system is rigidly mounted on frame 34 this makes it possible to always maintain pile fabric 10 in a tensioned state even when blade 16 is retracted to allow seams to pass since blade 16 is a translating endless band it is advantageous for it to have a slight amount of curvature so that it can easily be maintained in one position the above mentioned applications teach the desirability of matching the curvature of nose bar 14 to the curvature of blade 16 fig2 and 3 illustrate an especially advantageous mechanism for supporting nose bar 14.