I am working on a set of 54" wide pieces made out of zephyr.  I measured one I had made in the past and came up with about 15% shrinkage so that is the number I used.  I just washed the first piece off the loom and measured it and there was practically no shrinkage at all (in fact, it seems to have grown a bit in width...).  Anyone have experience with how much zephyr shrinks or if there is a trick to get it to shrink a little more?  I wet finished in warm water.  I'm hesitant to go hotter since I don't want to risk my colors bleeding onto the white background, but now I have two pieces that are larger than I wanted and I am still a bit cautious about making the third one smaller.

Comments

Wed, 05/21/2014 - 12:37

sally orgren

might be able to help. She teaches the 3D's of 3D's workshop and we worked with Zephyr. For wet finishing, we were to check frequently and pull the piece at the point we were happy with the shrinkage and 3D effects.

Wed, 05/21/2014 - 20:49

Bonnie Inouye (not verified)

I teach a workshop comparing 4 different types of double weave for use with differential shrinkage to make textured cloth with curved shapes. (No squares, stripes, or rectangles because this is covered in lots of other workshops and articles.) Zephyr will shrink if you give it some space to move and enough agitation. Mostly the shrinkage with wool takes place when there is a fair amount of agitation in water. Sally is right, you can check frequently and stop when you like the results. If you feel like maybe just a little more would be OK, be careful because there is no way to reverse the process.

Bonnie

Wed, 05/21/2014 - 21:49

Dena (not verified)

The project is actually not a differential shrinkage project.  I am making a set of talleism for my dad and some friends.  Just trying to get the sizing correct, although at this point, I just went ahead and took my best shot.

Thanks to both of you.  And Sally, I did contact Ruby.  She is actually fairly local and I am hoping to get her to come and teach at the school since my promise to myself for this year was to explore differential shrinkage and, to be honest, perhaps the only way I will make good on that is to actually hold the workshop here!