Hi everyone.

I saw a video where Becky Ashenden of Vavstuga was featuring some Swedish weaving projects. I was interested in the special hemming technique she mentioned used for tablecloths stitched one thread at a time...does anyone know a book or website which explains this and other techniques? I only have a few books in my weaving library (Chandler's "Learning to Weave", "The Handweaver's Patternbook"...though the finishing techniques section is a bit sparse). I've been thinking of getting the Big Book of Weaving, though I haven't found much info on the book (or sample pages). From what I've read it mostly talks about the mechanics of countermarche/balance looms and some projects, so I'm not sure if it would be much use to me. I'm not really looking for a project book.

I'm experimenting with color and weaving small rectangular pieces using very thin linen threads and I'm curious to find some ways to hide the raw edges. I'd like to find a nice way to finish them by hand so the corners are perfectly square.

I appreciate if someone can point me to some useful information.

Thanks!

Comments

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 09:19

Yvonne K

Peter Collingwood's book, "The Techniques of Rug Weaving", has a chapter which gives instruction for a big variety of hand finishes. He mentions a Swedish finish, where each warp end is darned back in along the next warp end, working across the cloth. He calls it Swedish Tapestry edge. Although these are finishes for rugs, there might be some methods to interest you.

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 11:47

debmcclintock

First I would urge you to contact Vav Stuga and adk them if they cand tell you what finish you saw in their video. They might have a book which details those specific finish. If you find out please post it so folks may learn about the reference. Also take a look at this book list we compiled in the scarf finish group. Some of these might be useful to you. http://weavolution.com/group/scarf-borders-finishes/book-resources-warp-finishes-10557
Tue, 05/21/2013 - 14:15

laurafry

There is also a smallish book called something like Finishes in the Ethnic Tradition, possibly by Suzanne Baizerman with lots of different knotting and tying finishes.  Memory is rusty.

cheers,

Laura

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 15:19

sarahnopp (not verified)

Laura is correct: Finishes in the Ethnic Tradition, by Suzanne Baizerman and Karen Searle. Great little book. I hope you have a guild or library system nearby you can borrow it from though. It is spendy to buy right now, ouch! I wonder if InterWeave has published a finishing techniques book yet. Seems like they should have.

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 19:20

ReedGuy

Possibly 'Finishing Touches for the Handweaver' revised 2006 edition. I don't see it on Amazon, just the older version there. But it is available elsewhere.

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 19:27

sarahnopp (not verified)

I was puzzled that I couldn't find a book about finishing on InterWeave's website, so I contacted their Facebook page and got the following response:

"Hi Sarah, we do have a book on finishing techniques that covers pretty much all the different fiber arts and crafts. It was at one point available in a physical form (I know because I have a copy), but for now it's only available as a downloadable eBook. It's titled Interweave's Compendium of Finishing Techniques: Crochet, Embroidery, Knitting, Knotting, Weaving eBOOK and it's by Naomi K. McEneely. It's got some very cool stuff in it, especially for those weavers who do knit and crochet finishes/edgings.

There are so many wonderful potential finishes out there, but I think we tend to rely on the basic 4-5 techniques (hemstitch, hem, fringe, braid, twist). I'll have to see if I can find a copy of Finishes in the Ethnic Tradition; it probably has a lot of ideas I've not seen before!

I hope this helps!
Christina Garton
Assistant Editor
Handwoven"

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 19:37

ReedGuy

sarah, the reviews are not that great for "Interweave's Compendium of Finishing Techniques". It seems to be very basic, techniques that most reviewers already knew. "Finishing Touches for the Handweaver" got better reviews and you can get it for $20 brand new.

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 19:39

ReedGuy

I'm surprised there are not old books out there digitized about finishing. Most are on the weaving process it seems.

Tue, 05/21/2013 - 22:11

NancyHassel

Finishing Touches for the Handweaver by Virginia M. West - I have the third edition (1988) from Interweave Press - ISBN 0-934026-40-8 I believe it may be out of print but available via the http://addall.com search engine. It is 93 pages: chapter titles are Ways to Secure Fringe, Decorative Fringes, Weaving Fringe on the Loom, Details for Bags, Joining Widths of Handwoven Materials, and The Embroidery Techniques as Finishing Touches - an abundance of diagrams and quite a few pictures.
Tue, 05/21/2013 - 22:21

ReedGuy

There is a newer revision from 2006. I didn't see it on Amazon, but one of the forum members here sells it.

Wed, 05/22/2013 - 01:50

WKS84 (not verified)

I thank each one of you for your responses. And thanks Sarah for the inquiry...!

I Googled the Vav Stuga website and found out they have a web store with books. There's one book called "The Swedish Weaving Book" which might contain the info I was looking for so I'm going to contact them about that publication.

Though I was on the search for a book that strictly focuses on various finishes done by hand so thanks for the suggestions. "Finishing touches for the Handweaver" and "Finishes in the Ethnic Tradition" both are titles I'm interested in...but I'm not sure if I'd be willing to spluge yet on the latter.

Fri, 05/24/2013 - 12:28

Kade1301

Do you know that you can get Collingwood's Techniques of Rug Weaving for free from http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books.html#C ?

Secondly, there's a chapter about finishing in Rachel Brown's Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Book (probably not enough to warrant buying the book, though it sometimes can be had for little money, but you might check the library).

Thirdly, Lundell's Big Book of Weaving is primarily a project book and the useful information that's in there is extremely hard to find because it's scattered all through the projects (I've written a review on Amazon.co.uk as I have the British version of the book). I don't remember a compendium of finishing techniques, though there must be some sort of finishing instruction for each project, I guess.

Last but not least, I wonder whether the technique you have seen might be the hemstitching one a friend has shown me, which I have also seen in Weaving in Style by Catherine Gourlat (well, I have the French original, Tissages pas sages, but I hope the content is the same in the English edition). I'm sorry, I tried to write a description, but I can't - you thread the end of the weft into a needle and sew it around one warp thread and one pick of plain weave at a time so that in the end each warp thread is covered by weft on both sides. (That's not a useful instruction, I know.) The thing is that this method only serves to stop the fabric from unravelling while you work on the fringe or sew a hem.

Now that I think of it - why do handweavers need special finishing techniques? If we produce garment-quality fabric, each sewing book schould be full of different hems for all sorts of uses. And for heavier fabric, the rug finishes should work nicely...

Fri, 05/24/2013 - 18:18

ReedGuy

When I do a wool blanket I hand sew a blanket stich. It simply cannot be done ona sewing machine. The yarn is too heavy. However on a cotton table cloth I can use a wide zig zag with dense spacing with 16/2 cotton yarn in my sewing machine. I will paste a piece of freezer tape across the ends of the weave before removing from the loom and do a wide zig-zag stitch with wide spacing first. Trim the ends and go back over with the denser spaced zig zag to make a clean edge. Your first pass should probably be a piece of polyster fine thread, then the 16/2. That's just one way and one example product. Or make a fold before doing a zing zag in fine polyester. It would be too thick for the feed on the sewing machine to try and stitch a fold with 16/2. If I were you, weave off some 'playing around' piece (s) to experiement on with the same warp and weft material and see what worked best for your skills. I find corners are tricky business. :)

Sun, 05/26/2013 - 14:58

cottageweaver (not verified)

An addition to the good suggestions already mentioned is Joinings, Edges, and Trims by Jean Wilson with many topics: selvedges, hems, warp-ends, embroidery joining, seams, tassels, fringes and closures. There are copies available on Amazon, and you might be able to borrow it through library loan or from a guild library. Both Handwoven and Threads magazines have published articles on sewing with handwovens. Becky at VavStuga learned her classic hemming techniques in Sweden. You should find similar hemming techniques if you look for hand hemming fine linens rather than just looking at finishing handwovens. As Deb suggested, you can email Vav Stuga, too. There are some new books out on hand sewing, and the older ones like Vogue Sewing are good references. Any hand sewing book should have slip hemming and blind hemming instructions.
Sun, 05/26/2013 - 16:37

debmcclintock

just a note for all, most of the books suggested above ARE already in the scarf finish group referenced in message # 2 above....

I guess I am the only one that likes to link stuff in groups where one can find the info again...listing info like this in the "weaving forum" lends itself to fading off into dataland.....just saying  Deb Mc

Sun, 05/26/2013 - 16:51

sarahnopp (not verified)

Ahh scarf finish group. Didn't know it existed :) Thank you for cross posting the discussion threads.

Honestly, if I want to find a subject on Weavo, I go to Google, type in Weavolution.com and the word or phrase I want to search. There are bazillion groups and threads. But at least it is indexed!

Mon, 05/27/2013 - 02:39

WKS84 (not verified)

Hi Kade,

The hemstitching sample piece in the video was of a folded edge finish. I apologize...I suppose my original post should've mentioned that! I do know how to finish a warp from unravelling using a length of weft yarn (if that's the technique you were referring to). So more specifically, I want to handsew a folded finish on all four sides of the cloth which is why I was curious about the Swedish hemming technique and how it differs from other stitching methods.

And thanks for mentioning the Big Book of Weaving on the Amazon UK site...it had a preview and I browsed the index that gave me a bit of an overview of the contents. :)

Mon, 05/27/2013 - 03:10

WKS84 (not verified)

Hi cottageweaver...

I'm currently browsing some books on handsewing...I'm a bit of a novice though I did acquire some basic hand-sewing skills when I worked on a set of fabric books for the artist Louise Bourgeois some time ago.

I'm looking to refine my technique since the fabric I'm weaving will be cut to relatively small sizes and I'd like to show handsewn stitches rather than machine sewn. Hence, I was so intrigued by the Swedish hemming technique.

Thanks for the reply and helpful suggestions!