Making stuff 2: Electric Boogaloo
Feb. 16th, 2026 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merrileemakesA while back I posted about switching my Saori loom back to a 2 shaft and wearing a hot pink prewound warp. Well, it's done! And I didn't take any progress shots of the wearing for some reason. But I wove fabric for 2 freeform style tops. Before I get to that there's a bit of work to do first. When I was washing the woven fabric I noticed a section with some skipped threads.
Alas. But no weaver is perfect. The only difference between an experienced wearer and a beginner is that an experienced wearer knows how to fix their mistakes. So let's do that.
First I took a length of weft yarn (an 8/2 tencel in a delicious shade of purple) and used a needle to weave the correct path for the thread. As this is plain weave, that's over one thread and then under the next. Then I snip-off this new thread, leaving plenty of overlap between it and the original thread.
Repeat a few times and voila.
It's not 100% invisible but it's pretty close. Normally I would just leave the ends trimmed close to the fabric, especially in wool which is kinda clingy, but both silk and tencel are smooth and slippery so I dabbed some fray stop on the thread ends on the wrong side of the fabric to hold them in place.
After that little fix the sewing was easy, just cutting and hemming some long rectangles and then sewing them together. Seriously, this is the kind of sewing I enjoy the most, just simple lines and hems. It’s really quick and satisfying.
Here's the 2 tops I made. This one has the Ieno lace I showed in a previous post. I got tired of doing the leno and started having doubts about how stable it would be as fabric. So I wove 2 different panels and the garment has leno sleeves on one side and a leno panel across the chest on the other. You can wear it with either side as the front.
Hopefully the garment is freeform and arty enough that this asymmetrical approach is interesting rather than weird. Here's some incredibly awkward photos of me wearing this top in my disaster-level mess of a craft room.
I wore the other top in clasped weft using a grey wool and beige silk. This makes the little light patches on either edge of the fabric. I made them pretty random, just tried for similar sizes and alternating which side I started from. I also sewed this top with a mobius twist. Again, you can wear this at the front or the back. Ithink I like this one better. Wearing the twist at the front reminds me of wearing a large shawl, which is something I find comforting and do often.
Both tops will be up for sale at from the Canberra spinners and Weaves exhibition in May.
Alas. But no weaver is perfect. The only difference between an experienced wearer and a beginner is that an experienced wearer knows how to fix their mistakes. So let's do that.
First I took a length of weft yarn (an 8/2 tencel in a delicious shade of purple) and used a needle to weave the correct path for the thread. As this is plain weave, that's over one thread and then under the next. Then I snip-off this new thread, leaving plenty of overlap between it and the original thread.
Repeat a few times and voila.
It's not 100% invisible but it's pretty close. Normally I would just leave the ends trimmed close to the fabric, especially in wool which is kinda clingy, but both silk and tencel are smooth and slippery so I dabbed some fray stop on the thread ends on the wrong side of the fabric to hold them in place.
After that little fix the sewing was easy, just cutting and hemming some long rectangles and then sewing them together. Seriously, this is the kind of sewing I enjoy the most, just simple lines and hems. It’s really quick and satisfying.
Here's the 2 tops I made. This one has the Ieno lace I showed in a previous post. I got tired of doing the leno and started having doubts about how stable it would be as fabric. So I wove 2 different panels and the garment has leno sleeves on one side and a leno panel across the chest on the other. You can wear it with either side as the front.
Hopefully the garment is freeform and arty enough that this asymmetrical approach is interesting rather than weird. Here's some incredibly awkward photos of me wearing this top in my disaster-level mess of a craft room.
I wore the other top in clasped weft using a grey wool and beige silk. This makes the little light patches on either edge of the fabric. I made them pretty random, just tried for similar sizes and alternating which side I started from. I also sewed this top with a mobius twist. Again, you can wear this at the front or the back. Ithink I like this one better. Wearing the twist at the front reminds me of wearing a large shawl, which is something I find comforting and do often.
Both tops will be up for sale at from the Canberra spinners and Weaves exhibition in May.
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Date: 15 February 2026 09:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15 February 2026 10:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 15 February 2026 11:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16 February 2026 02:00 am (UTC)I know nothing about weaving but it was interesting to see how you corrected the errors!
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Date: 16 February 2026 02:35 am (UTC)