Weaving is only a part of the process of making a handwoven item. As you saw at the beginning of this chapter, warping is a large component of making cloth. Another is finishing, taking the cloth from its raw state to completion. Like warping, finishing can take a long time, and like warping, doing it well is crucial to the success of the end result. I think of creating a handwoven item as a three-step process: warping, weaving, and finishing.
There are many ways to finish a cloth, from simple to intricate. The following sections describe the finishing process and several techniques you can use.
When you first take your cloth off the loom, you’ll notice that there’s nothing holding the weft in place except friction. Slippery yarns like rayon will begin to unweave themselves immediately; you’ll have a bit of extra time with sticky yarns like wool. The first thing you should do when you finish weaving is control the cut ends of the warp to prevent the weft from falling out. This can be as simple as making overhand knots, or as complicated as a netted fringe. If you will be using your fabric to sew a garment that will be seamed or hemmed, you can secure the raw edges with machine zigzag stitch or serging.
Fringe is a finish that doesn’t add bulk to the end of the cloth and can be quite decorative, showing off beautiful warp threads. A proper fringe enhances the textile, is durable, and resists tangling. Ideally, you decide whether to have fringe during the planning stages of your project, since fringe requires extra length in your warp. If you are weaving a single item, such as a scarf, you can usually get enough length out of the loom waste and the front knots to create an “afterthought” fringe. If you are weaving multiple items, however, you’ll need to leave unwoven warp between the items in order to have length to create a fringe.
Often the final use of the cloth will determine whether you want fringe on your project. A delicate silk shawl might be enhanced by fringe, but fringe might be not be practical on a set of cotton dish towels that will be washed often.
Before you begin your fringe, decide how many threads to have in each fringe bundle. Find a number that will divide evenly into the number of warp threads you have. You can fudge this if necessary by sneaking in extra threads here and there.
If you’re weaving for a competition or for something like the Handweavers Guild of America’s Certificate of Excellence for Handweaving, where your cloth will be scrutinized closely, you’ll want to plan the number of threads in each fringe so they work out evenly.
Select a number of threads in each bundle that is neither too thick or too thin. A too-thin fringe has fewer than two threads. A too-thick fringe looks awkward and creates gaps in the bottom of the cloth. This happens because it’s gathering together warp threads that are spaced too far apart. Typically, fringe is anywhere from two to eight threads in size, with thicker threads having fewer warps in
each fringe and thinner threads having more.
The simplest fringe is an overhand knot. The tricky thing about this fringe is that it leaves cut ends of the warp loose, exposing them to abrasion and fraying. If you use this fringe with a tender or loosely spun yarn, you’ll soon end up with a row of knots at the end of your cloth and no fringe. I recommend this fringe only for items that won’t be washed often (like a table runner or lamp shade) and only for fibers that are tightly twisted and fray resistant, such as linen or tightly spun cotton.
This style of fringe creates a plied cord out of a group of warp threads. Plying the warp threads together protects them from fraying. You can create this type of fringe using just your hands, a mechanical plying device, or an electronic hair braider (which, despite the name, actually is a hair-plying device.)
There are several mechanical devices that you can use to create a plied fringe. They are a bit faster than using your fingers, and offer the advantage of making it easy to do three- and four-ply fringes, something hard to achieve just using your fingers. The ones made by loom manufacturers tend to be utilitarian, but if you go to conferences or weavers’
guild sales, you may find some more whimsical models created by local woodworkers.
Before you begin, decide whether you are creating a two-, three-, or four-ply fringe. The more plies in your fringe, the rounder it will be. Which you use is largely a matter of aesthetics, so you may want to experiment with some cut pieces of extra warp yarn to see what you like before you begin.
A braided fringe can be as simple as the three-strand braid used to plait hair, or as complicated as the patterned square braids woven in the Andes. A three-strand braid forms a fringe that is flatter than a plied fringe and requires no special equipment. As with plied fringe, you braid the fringe and then tie an overhand knot at the bottom in order to secure the braid. I recommend using a ruler to get all the knots at the same length.
Why roll to the right and pass to the left? Because most commercial yarns are spun Z and plied S, which is spinner’s speak for saying spun to the left and plied to the right. By rolling right and plying left, you will be increasing the overall twist on the yarn and strengthening it. If you rolled left and plied right, the rolling left would unply the commercial yarn, thus weakening it, which is not what you want your fringe to do. If you find that rolling right and passing left seems to be creating a loose and floppy fringe, check your yarn: it may be one of the few yarns that was spun S and plied Z (such as a yarn designed for crochet, or a handspun yarn). In that case, roll left and pass right. The other time you should roll left and pass right is if you are working with a singles yarn (see Balanced Twist) that was spun S.
Hemstitching is an elegant edge finish that doesn’t add bulk at the end of a fabric. It takes more planning than other fringes because it is performed while the fabric is on the loom. This means that you do one row of hemstitching after you’ve spread the header but before you begin weaving your item, and another at the end of the item.
As with the plain fringe, hemstitching leaves cut ends of warp threads and thus is best used with tightly spun yarns that won’t fray or with projects that won’t experience much abrasion. A common use of hemstitching is at the end of linen goods or silk scarves.
You can use hemstitching in combination with other types of fringe, such as at the top of twisted or braided fringe, or in the middle of a fabric to create delicate lacy openings.
Another common way to protect the warp threads of fabric is to hem it. Because hems encapsulate the cut warp ends, they are one of the most durable ways to finish off handwoven fabric and are commonly used on household goods, such as placemats, dish towels, and garments that are washed often. (For instructions about other types of hems than those covered here, see a basic sewing reference.)
Instead of hand-stitching an overcast hem, you may be able to do this on your sewing machine if it has a setting for overcasting. Or you can use a specialized machine called a serger, which sews an overlock stitch and trims away excess fabric in one pass. The best way to learn about sergers is to go to a sewing shop and ask for a demonstration. You may also find videos on YouTube that show sergers in operation. I use a serger in my studio to protect the cut ends of warp before I wash the fabric.
Note: Be wary of using a serger in a project that you plan to submit to a juried show or competition. Some judges have a bias against machine-stitching in a handwoven project, and especially against the industrial look of a machine-serged finish.
To hand-stitch an overcast hem, use a thread and needle to stitch from the top to the bottom of the cloth by going around the cut edge. This causes the thread to wrap the cut ends of the cloth and helps prevent them from unraveling. One advantage of an overcast finish is that it adds very little bulk to the project. A disadvantage of the overcast stitch is that it can be a bit fuzzy, since only some of the cut ends are encapsulated by the overcast stitch. The other cut ends may fray or stick out between the overcasting thread, which is especially true for hand-overcast hems, as they are typically not as dense as machine-serged ones.
One scenario in which a hand-stitched overcast stitch makes sense is in the case of a fulled woolen blanket. The moderate amount of felting that takes place during the fulling process prevents the cut ends from fraying, and the additional support of the overcast stitch adds strength to the edge without adding bulk.
The thread that you use to overcast can either blend into the fabric for an unobtrusive look, or you can pick a decorative thread that adds a design element to the fabric. You often see the latter, for example, along the collars and hems of coats that could use a bit of an accent.
A serger is a great tool for any weaver who plans to use handwoven fabrics for sewing projects. The overlocked edge shown here along the bottom was done on a serger.
Encapsulated hems use a supplementary cloth such as commercially woven fabric, lace, ribbon, or bias tape to wrap the cut edges of the handwoven cloth. The wrapping cloth is generally lighter in weight and tightly woven so it doesn’t fray.
Handwoven and commercial fabrics can complement each other. The handwoven fabric brings high-texture, high-touch uniqueness, along with the ir-regularities that let you know it was handmade. Commercial cloth contributes evenness and smoothness, but it is finer than most of us care to weave. Com-mercial cloth is great for lining garments, adding strength to the inside of handwoven bags, and for finishing off hems.
While you can save a lot of time by buying ready-made ribbon or lace from a fabric store, for an heirloom-quality project you might choose to make your own trim. Making your own trim can be rewarding and give you trims that exactly match your project. If you weave a band using the same threads as in the warp, for example, you can finish off the inside of a garment in a way that’s just as lovely and handcrafted as the outside. Whether you purchase trim or make it yourself depends on the project and your personal preferences.
This is often used on the bottom hems of garments such as jackets, skirts, and pants, as well as curtains and table runners, where the wrong side of the fabric won’t show.
This is often used on the outside edges of projects, such as placemats and pillows. It is also used on the inside seams of garments.
The double-fold hem is the simplest type of hem, but it has some limitations. It may be too thick for bulky fabrics, and it may not thoroughly protect a diaphanous fabric. On the other hand, it has the advantage of being self-contained, meaning that you don’t need to purchase or make anything to finish the hem, and it will exactly match the rest of the fabric. If you plan a double-fold hem on the finished project, you can weave the 11⁄2" that will be folded under using a thinner weft than the rest of the project. This reduces bulk in the hem.
To tell where one item ends and another begins, you can also insert one or two picks of a contrasting weft between projects in order to establish cutting lines. Or you may choose to run two lines of zigzag stitching between each item, cutting between the stitching lines after washing to separate them. Be sure to weave enough for both the previous item and the next item you’re weaving.
Alternatively, if it will not make the cloth too stiff, or for a high-use item where durability is more important than handle, you can stitch the ends of the tube. I find stitching the ends of the hems closed with a triangle is more durable and more visually pleasing than a straight line (b).
When you take your finished item off the loom, it’s a web. It’s not until you wet-finish it that it becomes cloth. This transformation can be dramatic or it can be subtle. When you immerse your finished cloth in water, it releases the tension the warp and weft threads experienced while the cloth was on the loom. You’ll find that after wet-finishing, the cloth is denser and more flexible as the warp and weft yarns mold in and around each other. This causes dimensional loss in both the weft and warp directions, as the yarn deflects into the thickness of the cloth.
Before you wash your cloth, make sure you have secured the warp ends so the fabric won’t unravel in the wash. You can do this using one of the techniques in this chapter (see Getting the Perfect Finish), or simply tie a loose overhand knot at both ends of the warp.
In general, it’s best to wash handwoven fabric according to its fiber content. For example, a cotton garment fabric will benefit from being washed in hot water so that it will shrink fully and prevent surprises the first time you wash your handwoven shirt. On the other hand, a cashmere-silk shawl would best be handwashed gently and laid flat to dry.
That said, sometimes washing things in exactly the wrong way reveals wonderful surprises. For example, rayon chenille weaves up stiff as a board. Despite the delicate nature of the rayon yarn, what the fabric really needs is to be beaten up in the washing machine a bit to bloom fully into a soft, velvety cloth.
Daryl Lancaster, an inspiring weaving and sewing instructor, taught me this invaluable technique: Weave a sample length, remove it from the loom, then cut it into three parts. Leave one third unwashed, handwash another, and throw the third piece in the washer and dryer with a load of jeans. You may discover fun surprises. For example, singles yarns may develop tracking, which makes organic twill-like patterns in the simplest weave structures, or a multifiber project may distort
Unwashed
Hand washed
Machine washed and machine dried