I am thinking about taking on weaving in order to make textiles for small uphosltered peices accent chairs and ottomans. I am currently in the furniture business. 

Can you tell me the approx time if takes to weave a siple/plain textile approx 4'x3'?

is there a calculator to figure out the approx cost per project of materials?

thanks in advance  

Comments

Mon, 03/25/2013 - 15:57

laurafry

Yes, there are forms where you can figure out how much yarn will be required for your cloth and then the cost.  However, how long it takes to make any cloth depends on how fine the threads are.  The more threads per inch, the more time it takes.

Upholstery fabric also (generally) needs to be quite sturdy.

As an example, I'm just getting the loom ready for some fabric for clothing.  I'm using 2/16 cottolin at 32 ends per inch and the warp is 40" wide in order to achieve a 33" finished fabric.  That is a total of 1280 ends.  Each end then needs to be threaded through a heddle, then 4 ends will go into a dent and then they all have to get tied to the front of the loom.  And *then* the weaving begins at 32 picks per inch.  With a length of about 30 yards on the loom it will take a couple of weeks for me to finish weaving this warp (and I'm considered fast).

And then the job isn't finished.  After cutting the fabric from the loom it needs to be wet finished including a hard press.  Once that's done I can cut and sew the summer tops I'm hoping to have ready for June.  :)

cheers,

Laura