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Cost: $ $ $ $ $

Difficulty: • • • • •

Time: 2h00

Play with color and pattern by weaving simple fabric strips
This project gives you an opportunity to
really play with color and pattern by weaving simple fabric strips. These woven art pieces make great gifts - and remember, you can make them small enough to sit on a desk or large enough for a gallery wall.

From the book Weaving Un-loomed by Diane Gilleland. Read our review here.

Posted by Weaving Un-loomed • Published 27th July 2009

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Step 1
Two Things You Need to Know...

In this project, we’ll use two weaving terms: Warp and Weft. Here’s what they mean:

Warp
All the obvious Star Trek jokes aside, “warp” is a weaving term that means: the vertical threads that give a piece of weaving its underlying structure. If you string a traditional loom, those strings are called warps.

You’ll often ﬁnd that warps are made of simpler materials, like thin yarn, thread, or twine. This simplicity makes sense, because the warps’ main mission is to provide structure for the wefts -
which we’ll talk about next.
Step 2
Weft
This is another weaving term, meaning: the horizonal threads that pass under and over and under and over to form the actual weave.

Depending on your project, the weft might be one super-long, continuous strand that weaves its way back and forth, or it might be a bunch of short strands.

Weft is warp’s more ﬂamboyant cousin. Weft can be made of bulky or novely yarns, or fabric strips, or pipecleaners, or a multitude of other things.
Step 3
Choose some fabrics
You can use as many or as few fabrics for this project as you like, of course. I like to assemble four prints - two splashy ones and two subtle ones. That combination weaves together nicely.
Step 4
Assemble the stretcher bars
Canvas stretcher bars are sold in pairs. They’re fun because you can choose the length and width you like, and then put them together into a custom size. Just ﬁt the corners together as shown. You might need to tap
the pieces gently with a hammer or mallet so they ﬁt tightly.
Step 5
Measure the fabric strips

Next, we need to ﬁgure out how many fabric strips we’ll need in order to cover these stretcher bars with weaving. So, begin by measuring the width of your stretcher bars. Mine are 9” (29 cm) wide.

Now, decide how you’d like to divide that 9” up into fabric strips. You might, for example, plan to use nine 1” (2.5 cm) strips of fabric. Or you might use one 3” (7.6 cm) strip, two 2” (5 cm) strips, and two 1” (2.5 cm) strips. There are tons of possibilities here.

Once you’ve decided what conﬁguration of fabric strips will cover the width of your stretcher bars, repeat this process to decide how to cover the height.
Step 6
Prepare the warps
I like to tear my fabric into strips rather than cutting it. Not only does tearing give you a nice, straight edge, it adds a pretty bit of texture to the edges of the strips. So, make a small clip in the end of the fabric and rip your way to the other side. Press all your strips with an iron.

Make sure your strips are long enough so there’s about 5” (12.7 cm) extending from each side of the stretcher bars, as shown.
Step 7
Lay out the ﬁrst warp, and then center the stretcher
bars on top of it. Make sure the fabric strip is nice and straight.
Step 8
Wrap the top end of the strip around to the back of the
tretcher bars and staple it in place. Use two staples for
strips wider than 1” (2.5 cm), and one staple for strips 1” and narrower. Wrap and staple the bottom end of the strip.
Step 9
Continue placing and stapling new warps on either side of the ﬁrst one. Keep them very close together and make sure they’re stretched taut across the stretcher bars.
Step 10
Weave the wefts
You might also ﬁnd it handy to pin a large safety pin to the end of each weft strip. Use it to help guide the strips over and under each other.
Step 11
Begin with the center strip, as you did during the warp
process. Weave it under and over the warps, pthrough until it’s centered across the piece.
Step 12
Bring the edges of this weft around to the back of the piece and staple them in place, pulling it taut.
Step 13
Continue this process to weave the rest of the wefts.
Make sure they’re placed close together. I like to wait until all the rest of these strips are woven in before I staple them - that way, I can make little adjustments in the weaving if needed.
Step 14
Stretch those remaining wefts taut and staple them down.
Step 15
On the back of the piece, trim away any loose ends of fabric.
Step 16
Finish & Embellish
• Add some sparkle to the project by gluing interesting buttons, appliques, or other shiny things to the front of the piece.

• If your piece will stand on a desk rather than hang on a wall, you may want to also glue on a backing of heavy paper.