Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Tutorials

Honeycomb without the calories

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The title is a little misleading, I am, of course referring to the weave structure honeycomb rather than something edible. 

It is a gorgeous structure though, and one that is easy to achieve despite the fact that it looks quite involved. 

Check out my latest video series on weaving honeycomb on a rigid heddle loom.

Follow this link to the introductory video!

Tapestry style weaving on the rigid heddle loom

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Another busy day where my thoughts turned to weaving and the temptation was to declare myself “too tired to weave”. I couldn’t bear to think of calculating and planning a project. 
So I didn’t.
 
*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on the link and purchase, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
I put a short warp on my rigid heddle loom and started to weave.

 

 
No real plan, just wanted to weave. I liked what I saw, so I decided to share with you in video format so you too can weave like this.
 
            There are three videos in total, here is the first one for you!
 

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.