WEFT article index

These Swedish lace curtains in linen are a gorgeously airy option for window dressing. Find everything you need to recreate the project in this article.

What if we ditch the drape and weave a cowl that stands up to the cold – literally? This cozy wool matelassé project won’t fall down on the job!

Your project is off the loom. Are you prepared for the changes ahead? Wet finishing can be as important as the actual fabric construction – use this experimental article as reference for a better understanding of how that final step can make or break your desired cloth.

When and were can we stretch or break the “rules” of weaving? This project uses a single warp to produce a full set of table linens, including napkins, placemats, and a table runner at different setts.

We are often reluctant to use our beautiful handwoven linens for fear of damage. This experiment examines how cotton, linen, and cotton in plain and satin weave respond to household stains.

One special project brings together religious symbolism and practicality: a wedding chuppah that can be used as a tablecloth for years to come. This article shares the design and creation of a beautiful but durable textile.

Joining narrow woven strips to create a larger fabric is a common process historically. In this article, the author tests several stitches to create a strong and flexible join that blends into the fabric.

What goes into designing an upholstery fabric for a specific use? This article discusses the author’s design criteria and how she settled on a unique way to create padded seat cushions.

In the wake of devastating floods, this author designs and creates a handwoven table setting around a cherished tea set.

Some handwoven household items just don’t last or do the job as well as others. This article experiments with different wefts on a warp of 8/2 unmercerized cotton to test tracking, softness, absorption, maintaining a fold, maintenance, stain removal, wrinkling, surface sheen, and shrinkage.

Textiles have been a luxury good since the dawn of time. Learn about how present-day North American society differentiates “casual” and “formal” textiles and then weave your own napkins for each style.

This article presents considerations and lessons learned for creating your own perfect table mats based on their intended use.

A blended draft is a threading technique where different drafts are superimposed on each other and two or more structures are integrated into a single threading. Learn why and how to create a blended draft in this article.

This article walks you through designing and creating your own personalized set of placemats using name drafting, doubleweave, and integrated plain weave in Fiberworks PCW.

How do different fibers hold up to the increasing temperatures we throw at them, and what happens when they overheat?

Weave a set of table linens in crackle, one of the most useful and versatile weave structures: crackle is a block weave based in three-shaft twill that lets you weave big blocks of color without sacrificing structural stability.

Worried about finding the perfect finish for your piece? This article will help you choose based on the item’s intended use, the yarn, the weaving pattern, and how it will be laundered.

What is damask and how can weavers add it to their repertoire? This article walks through how damask is created using a drawloom.

Learn how to weave a single twelve-block damask table mat in four-end broken twill.

Have you ever considered how the heddles on your loom affect your weaving? Often as new weavers we get a loom and are simply happy to use whatever came with it. However, the type of heddle on your loom can make both the threading process and your weaving either pleasant and simple, or difficult and frustrating. It’s important to have heddles that are suited to your loom, your materials, and you. This article covers: heddle types, which heddles work on which looms, managing your heddles, adding heddles, and division and balance.

Weaving temples are instantly recognizable tools valued by weavers throughout history and across cultures. Old as the hills and infinite in variety, temples have been immortalized in the medieval stained glass of Chartres Cathedral and Van Gogh’s paintings of Nuenen weavers at work in the 1880s. These days, new temples can be purchased easily online so that devotees might have in their collection one of every possible size, while avid connoisseurs scour antique shops and old barns for vintage examples. Wondering what all the fuss is about? This article discusses what a temple does, how (and when) to use it (step-by-step), and what to do if your temple causes distress!

Do you ever avoid projects with lots of stripes because of all the color changes?  Have you ever missed or miscounted a stripe – or, worse yet, run out of yarn before finishing a warp – making your warp unintentionally asymmetrical?  Do you want to speed up the process of winding a warp in the first place?  If you answered yes to any of the above, then folded warps are for you!

The shifting ratios of gradient warps make for stunning results, but the amount of effort required to wind them can be prohibitive, not to mention prone to error. The good news is that symmetrical gradients are ideal candidates for folded warps: you’ll save half the effort of all those color changes, plus the gradient will be symmetrical even if you miscount the number of ends in a stripe or get – ahem! – creative with the blending ratios. This stunning project will walk you through creating a folded warp (f2b or b2f) and you’ll create a gorgeous gradient towl.

Susans prefers warping back to front with a raddle, and she’s tried loads of methods to help her wind on warps over the years. Some worked OK, some not so great, and some were just messy (like using water bottles). Nearly everything she tried had issues that appeared while weaving – broken threads, tangles, uneven warp tension. Her current favorite is easy to use and produces perfect results consistently: athletic weights, attached after the warp ends are through the raddle. This article explains exactly how to use this method and why it works so well!