Warping

I have begun to warp the JACKET at last.

I lay out a section of the loomskin on a pin board (made of  many layers of thick cardboard) and place a pin everywhere the warp will need to make a turn. There is a row around the neck edge, along the hem, and where the shaping requires extra pairs of warps.

I did the buttonholes area in sections. These are some shorter bits of warp which I apply using a needle and thread through the holding stitches.

Then, I wind the warp continuously onto the pins.

Applying the holding stitches

Holding stitches for take up at the hem

Now I have begun putting in the holding stitches. There are special kinds for different purposes. Around the hem, I have a rows of stitches through which I will put threads to hold the warp down. I will be able to release one row at a time during weaving to gradually release the tension.

Holding stitches to hold shaping wedges

In the middle of tapered parts, I put single stitches with the ends unfastened. When I wrap the warp threads around the pins, I will tie these ends to hold the turns in the warp in the correct position for weaving.

Holding stitches for neck edge, yoke & buttonholes

For the top edge of the neckline I have put in a row of stitches which will hold a thread which goes through the turns in the warp. I have done a similar row at the yoke line. Here the holding thread will go over pairs of threads. The buttonholes have a row of stitches to hold the turns in the warp in place.

Final adjustments to the loomskin markings

The whole loomskin

I stretched out the loomskin and charted the last details accurately. Various places needed clean fabric to cover the messy charting I did while the jacket was whole. I checked over all the shaping wedges and made both sides exactly match.

A patch on the yoke to fix the chart

Warping test

Now that the loomskin can be laid flat to work, I'm ready to do the last bits of charting. I'll need to mark the places for all the holding stitches. 

I decided to do a quick warping test to see if the kinds of holding stitches I plan to use are actually going to work the way I imagine. I drew up a square on a rough bit of fabric and marked some holding stitches. Some stitches I put in before pinning down, some more I need to try after pinning.

I warped it and threaded through the previously placed holding stitches to hold down the warp. That worked quite well.

Then I tried using an upholstery needle to add more holding stitches. These were much more difficult than I thought and probably aren't practical (see the row holding down the top of the warp). I'll need to do almost all the holding stitches before pinning down the loomskin. The only exception will be the large anchoring stitches across five or six warps which don't need precision.