What is Wet Finishing?

There were questions when I mentioned "wet finishing my hand woven fabric."  So, this post is dedicated to answering that question.  I should say that these instructions are for cotton and other cellulose (plant) fibers.

Once the threads/yarns have been woven,  they are still not considered cloth.  At this point we call it a "web" or "webbing."   In common everyday talk with non-weavers, I still call it fabric or cloth, even though technically it isn't yet. Wet finishing is the process that changes it from "web" to "cloth."

On the loom- it is still webbing.

 Wet finishing is a process of washing the newly made fabric so that the threads relax into one another becoming cloth.  It is the first time the woven threads have been exposed to water.  I personally just put the web into the washing machine with some laundry - the shirts and/or pants.  As I wash on warm, it works well.  A warm wash is what is suggested.  I leave it for the full cycle and retrieve the cloth when I am moving the other laundry to the dryer.  This cloth does NOT go into the dryer yet.

Next up is the ironing stage.  Ironing the wet cloth helps to somewhat align the selvedges. When I do it, I am pulling the selvedge edge straight as the edge gets ironed. My method is "both selvedges of a section first."  Then I press out the middle. And then I repeat pressing the selvedges, pulling them straight again. 

The next stage is  hanging the fabric to dry undisturbed. 

One length of fabric drying after being wet finished.

Once the cotton fabric has been made into a garment - or whatever- it can be washed and dried by machine like any other cotton article.

After doing all of that then the fabric is more cohesive and ready to use. It still requires special techniques for cutting so that it doesn't start to come apart.
 One technique for cutting handwoven fabric is to sew a line where you wish to cut and then sew another line approximately 1/8 of an inch outside that line. You then can cut between the two sewn lines without the fabric coming apart. 

For the armholes on my vest, I  used a different method.  I marked the armholes with masking tape and cut them. Then I took the pieces to the machine and sewed the line to stabilize it. I find that works far better for curved lines.

That was probably more than you really wanted to know.  But maybe someone will find this very helpful.  It is always good to share knowledge, don't you think?

 Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

The Handwoven Vest

About a week ago, in my "Side Stepping" post,  I showed you the fabric that was on my loom.  That fabric was taken off the loom and wet finished.  Then I lived with it a few days.  I was looking at something else I had made when it said "make me into something like that."  So I did.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Progress - The Night Sky

Today there was a nice bit of progress as I worked on The Night Sky quilt for my nephew.  I started with about eight large pieces.  I sewed some long and short seams to get the pieces joined.  Then once it was in three pieces, I took this photo to show you.

It is so large that I couldn't get it all in the photo.  It hangs nicely off the edges of my queen sized bed.

Here is the basic layout from EQ. 

You may notice that I changed the center block completely. I think that change gives it a little more "Pow!"  Don't you?    I also changed up the fabric in one of the blocks.  It added a bit more white to the design

The next step is to layer each section and quilt each of them. Then I will join them together into one big quilt.  I am excited with this progress. But I know that the next part will be time consuming. So if I don't post, don't worry.  I am probably working on it. But, I hope to post some of the quilting progress photos as I go.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Side Stepping

The Night Sky quilt is coming along, but I needed/wanted a break to do a couple of other projects.

I have gifted each member of our Spanish class with a quilted notebook cover and notebook.  But we recently got a new member who actually taught Spanish in public school.  She is helping us greatly.  So, of course, I needed to make a notebook for her also.

This will be her notebook.

I found a pre-pieced cover for it in my "chunk" bin. 

That piece was layered with batting and quilted.

Then it was cut to size. 

The interior lining and the end covers were added and sewn-

along with a pen pocket and a label.

Here is the entire outside of the cover.

I had a lot of fun quilting this piece.

And here is the inside front cover showing 

the pen pocket and the label.

I could not resist using the apple fabric.

I hope you get the symbolism 

but if not:

An apple for the teacher! 

I also pulled a warp that I had premade from the shelf and put it on my loom.

I could not resist starting to weave on it.

The weft thread (the one that goes side to side) is a thread that I space dyed 

some time in the past.  This warp seemed to be the perfect place to use it. 

This picture is probably more accurate in color

The weft thread is only red, blue, and purple, with spots of white where the skein was tied.  However, there is orange in the warp. Where the red sections cross the orange in the warp, the orange seems to intensify.

I am loving this fabric so far.  Of course, there will not be enough of the space-dyed yarn to do the entire length of the warp (it is six meters.)  I will try to use other weft yarns that  stay in the color family of the warp - but I make no promises. Ha ha.  Sometimes my muse has other ideas.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.