Kelly

Cutting handwoven cloth, one method

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Cutting a length of cloth of the loom is so exciting! But then what? If you’re not leaving a fringe you have to finish the fabric somehow, and if you’re cutting into it you may be afraid of unravelling. This is a great, easy method to use for either finishing to hem or if you need to cut into the fabric.

Firstly, once off the loom, the fabric needs to be wet finished and dried before you consider cutting.

When you’ve determined your cutting line (whether it’s at the end of the fabric or somewhere else) cut a length of light, fusible interfacing the length of the cut and about 2 inches in width. It must be the fusible type or this won’t work. Iron it so that your cutting line is roughly in the middle (so you have half of the interfacing on either side of the cut line). For me, the cut line was where the end of the woven fabric met the beginning of the fringe. Cover with a pressing cloth and iron until fused.

The underside of the fabric now looks like this, nothing is really visible from the front side.

Using your cutting line as a guide, serge right across. Can you see where the fringe begins and woven cloth ends? That was my guideline for serging. If you don’t have a serger, a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine will suffice, but the serger definitely does a superior job. Janome is a reliable brand if you are in the market for a serger.

Now you have a neat serged edge. The threads are completely secure and haven’t moved in the serging process due to the interfacing fixed in place. From this point you can go on to use your fabric according to your plans or begin to hem.

To finish the fabric with a hem, I fold over the serged edge once and iron down flat.

Then a second fold to enclose the serged edge and interfacing, press with the iron once again and pin in place if you wish.

Sewing the hem can be done by machine or hand. I used my machine with a straight stitch, close to the folded edge at the back. My machine is a very simple and straightforward Janome, although mine is an older model you can see something similar here.

Voila! Easy peasy and all secure, no loose or displaced threads and the interfacing gives extra support when hemming!

I have a Youtube video covering this topic for your further research.

Great Expectations

by Kelly 3 Comments

I planned to weave a baby blanket. I spent weeks planning this project, first visually in my head, then on paper with measurements and particulars, then in the dyeing. I researched weave structures and matched colours, choosing the contrasting colours I thought would best show off the somewhat complex pattern. I spent a lot of time planning this blanket.

Then came the warping, the threading, the sleying, the tying on. Hours and hours of work. Finally, I got to the exciting part – the weaving! I began weaving with great anticipation, concentrating on the sequence to ensure no errors. After a few inches, I got up and stood back from the work, as I always do, to view the emerging pattern with pleasure.

And I hated it.

It’s busy, it’s thick and textured, it looks messy and the pattern is barely discernible because of all the colours. To say I was disappointed would be a grave understatement. I felt like cutting the warp off the loom and shoving it in the bin. Instead, I went to bed.

Contemplation set in. I remembered a talk I had heard some time ago by a holy priest. He talked about expectations and how we get upset when things don’t turn out “just so”. He talked about expecting ABC and getting XYZ. He illustrated how readily we lose our tempers, get offended or grow angry at the smallest things. I chuckled when I heard this part of his talk – it was so true that people are selfish and expect the very best all the time. People. Me.

You know what? I’m going to soldier on with this project that I hate. I’ve already learned a heap of new skills and tricks with warping, threading and colouring. Now I get to practice weaving a pattern I haven’t woven before and is actually the most complex one to date for me. I get to practice weaving the full width of the loom, I haven’t done that before either.

When I begin each weaving project, I pray for God’s blessing on my work. I pray also for the future recipient of the project. Prayers are never wasted, even when it seems we don’t always get what we asked for.

It may be that you ask for ABC but instead God blesses you with XYZ.

I Heart Faces “Pet” photo challenge

by Kelly 5 Comments

I wasn’t planning to enter the pet photo challenge on I Heart Faces. Our lovely ginger cat passed away this week after a brief illness and I haven’t really been in the mood for photos. But today THIS happened, my husband brought home this gorgeous little guy. I had no choice, I had to capture that cuteness!

And then, I couldn’t leave this little guy out! He’s rather taken with his new playmate.

One project finished, onto the next!

by Kelly 4 Comments

The rose path scarf is finished!

It felt so good to cut my first project on my new loom off and finish it.

It’s the first time I’ve woven with Bambu 7 as well, it is truly beautiful – so soft and a gorgeous sheen.

The reverse side.

The front.

And now I’m working on some more luxury face cloths for my Etsy shop. They were so popular last time, I’ve been wanting to restock ever since.

I must say, it was really nice to direct warp the rigid heddle loom after going through the debacle of warping the 8 shaft loom for the scarf. So many errors! But, as I’ve heard many people say, you tend to learn more from mistakes than successes.

New loom progress

by Kelly Leave a Comment

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Did I tell you about my new loom? I’ve been saving for this one for a while! It’s an 8 shaft Ashford table loom, and it’s a beauty. And a real learning curve. I’ve had it for a couple of weeks, but only yesterday did I start weaving on it.

The warping and threading process is very different to the simple old rigid heddle, so I’ve had to learn warping on a board, reading pattern drafts, threading texolv heddles and following lift plans.

Lots of reading, watching videos and asking questions on Facebook groups. But it’s all starting to come together and…

The results are stunning. This is a rose path pattern on only 4 shafts (soon I might be brave enough to use all 8 shafts, but oh! the threading time is so long!) I’m starting out with a scarf using Bambu 7, which is just gorgeously soft and shiny.

I’m sure I’ll have my next project planned before this is finished, but for now I will just enjoy having it warped, threaded and the weaving!

The winner is…

by Kelly Leave a Comment

The first time ever that Random Integer has chosen the first comment to win!

Congratulations to Stephanie P.

I‘ll be contacting you with your voucher very soon.

Thanks to all entrants and once again, thank you all for your support, encouragement and kind comments 🙂

100 sales giveaway

by Kelly 30 Comments

I recently reached the milestone of 100 sales on Etsy! I’m so grateful to all my supporters who have made this possible and to celebrate I’m having a giveaway.
You could win a $50 gift voucher for my Etsy shop.
Leave a comment on this post to enter. A winner will be randomly selected in one week’s time (30th September).

Open to all earthly residents. You are responsible for any taxes or fees incurred for your country and please remember to factor in postage costs as well.
Good luck!

New woven garments

by Kelly 11 Comments

One of my new favourite pieces, this wrap just wove up beautifully. I used Australian 3ply merino and dyed a gradient of blues and purples for the warp.

Then a lovely teal-ish green for the weft.

This is the first time I’ve woven with 3ply and won’t be the last! It worked up into this most beautiful, soft and light piece of cloth, I love it!

And this one – a 1/3 warp float pattern using a pastel gradient and a commercial grey merino, both in 4 ply.

The reverse side.

The front. I’ve also been putting my new fringe twister to work and have a video in the editing process on using a fringe twister, so look out for that one if that interests you.

Both of these pieces are available now in my Etsy shop. By the way, I am very blessed to have 99 sales in the shop now – I think hitting 100 will be a cause for celebration, perhaps a special giveaway?

This morning I dropped off this scarf to be judged for the Melbourne Show in the spinning and weaving scarf category. It’s the first time I’ve entered my weaving into anything, so a bit nervous, but it’s a good way to challenge myself.

Hope you’re having a great week, if you’re enjoying sunny weather and blue skies where you are, please send some here, Melbourne hasn’t realised it’s Spring yet!

Linking up with Yarn Along!

The week that went so fast…

by Kelly 4 Comments

The word “busy” is a bit overused these days I reckon, but I will admit that it was a very “full and varied” week for us! I was looking forward to today and thinking of the sewing I need to do, that great looking cook book I got from the library I haven’t had time to browse, and of course, I could warp up the loom ready for a new project. The reality of the day has been taxiing my son to kung fu, walking the dog (well that was relaxing at least!), shopping, laundry work and cooking up huge batches of bolognaise and stew for next week, which also promises to be very “full”.

I started to reflect, in my tired and slightly overworked state, that I didn’t give enough time to the kids this week, I didn’t get to help my son with that maths he’s been asking me about, didn’t get time for much reading with the girls, didn’t get to do much preparation for my daughter’s up and coming First Holy Communion…

But then I had a little reality check, that is that God was so good to tap me on the shoulder and say “wake up and check the facts”. I was really busy this week, it’s true, but what was it that kept me so occupied?

My vocation of course!

A wife, a mother, this is my vocation and this is what I do. I may not have been able to do everything that I thought was necessary, but it was because I was actively caring for my family and home, something that takes a lot of time and work.

I thought of my future self, when the children are grown and making their own way in the world. Will they say “Mum, thank you for making us study so hard, I feel so much smarter for it”. Is that what I want to hear?

Or would something like: “Mum, thank you for your constant love, care and sacrifice. Thank you for letting us be children, for enriching our lives, for being fun, for passing on our beautiful faith by your example” be more pleasing to my ageing ears?

Bring on next week!

Gallipoli study

by Kelly 3 Comments

We’ve been studying Gallipoli all together over the last week or two. I was never interested in Australian History at school (oh, those boring text books!!) but now, not only do I find it very interesting, I think that, as an Australian, it’s my duty to know the history of this great country.

The Australian War Memorial website has some great information and in particular, this page about the food that soldiers would have eaten at Gallipoli provided us with inspiration to hold our own Gallipoli lunch.

As you can see, the younger ones weren’t too pleased with my soldier’s meal of rice, Spam, hard tack and jam. For drinks we had the choice of water, milk, cocoa and tea – all with powdered, not fresh milk. My littlest one declared that she definitely does not like soldier’s food!

But they were pretty good sports about the whole thing (except aforementioned little one) and ate their soldier’s meals. We imagined how grateful the troops would have been for a meal like this after a hard day of battle and misery.

In addition to researching with some library books we also watched a Gallipoli documentary on Youtube which was informative. Please note, there are images of corpses on the battlefield in this video – although they are in black and white and not too graphic they could be upsetting to some viewers.

I call our study a complete success and appropriate for each of us, regardless of age. My next topic idea is the Early Settlers with a bit of a focus on the gold rush. If it all goes well I plan to surprise the children with a visit to Sovereign Hill as none of them have been there before.

If you’re looking for ideas for study topics or ideas to share with your children I highly recommend you head over to Sue’s blog- Stories of an Unschooling Family where you will find a plethora of blog posts and many podcasts related to unschooling. Sue’s blog is a real inspiration to me.