Hello everyone,

I would like to weave some fabric for a jacket so it has to be somewhat stiff (like denim-ish stiff) and have some body and weight. So my question is has anyone woven with fabric strips as both warp and weft?

My plan is to do something with strips much more narrow than what you would use on a rag rug and have a balanced plain weave on my rigid heddle loom.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Marie

Comments

SallyE

I'm sorry, but none of the help links worked . . .

I haven't been here in awhile.  I got into the site with a temporary link, but the reset password doesn't work.  That means I have have to request a tempory link each and every time.   Is there a tutorial about how the sites works?  It's much different than the last time I was here.

Thank you,

SallyE

sandra.eberhar…

I think that you may have large problems with raveling using strips as warp, unless you use a bias tube maker to turn the edges in and press it.  I think you are also going to have a very bulky fabric, and with a rigid heddle, you may have difficulty beating against the friction of the strip warp to make a fabric with a denim like hand.  Think a thick, spongy rag rug.

One reason that denim is so popular for jackets and jeans is that it is a twill.  A plain weave fabric of the same weight as jean-weight denim would be much, much stiffer.  A twill, using carpet warp and srips as weft, makes a fairly heavy fabric with enough drape to make clothing from, especially if washed several times.  To do that on a rigid headdle will take two heddles.  Denim can be made with 3 shafts as 2/1 twill, or 4 shafts as a 3/1 twill.