First sleeve finished

I found a better way to align the weft rows. I pinned a strip of paper below the working area and used my transparent ruler regularly. I only had to move the paper when I exceeded the length of my ruler (15 cm).

When the weaving was finished it was time to mark the vital features of the armhole edge. There are matching points: the centre of the shoulder and underarm and two predetermined side points. There are four distinct groups of warp threads: a set under the arm that will become warps down the side of the body, ones that go across the top of the shoulder, a few interspersed among those at the top of the shoulder that end at the shoulder (creating "gathering") and all the others which will be weft threads in the front or back of the jacket body.

Now I have all the pairs of warps tied around their pins with the groups tied loosely. I'll leave them like that while I repeat the whole process on the left sleeve.

Starting to weave at last!

The first step was to tension the sleeve warps. I untied the pairs, tied them more firmly around the pins at the armhole and anchored them in groups of four pairs. Then I began weaving at the cuff. After numerous mistakes in the first two rows of weaving I discovered that I needed to be able to see the threads better, so I slipped a sheet of black paper behind the warps. After that I made great headway (a couple of inches per hour!) with hardly any unpicking at all. 

In order to try to keep the weaving even, I regularly measured to keep the frequency at four threads per centimeter.

But even though I was doing that, as I wove around and around and up the sleeve, the weft subtly formed waves of higher and lower points. I felt it was essential that the weave be as perfect as possible to avoid distortions in the final garment. So I went back a bit and gradually straightened the lines of weft. 

I realized I can use the two rows of contrasting yarn I already had in place as measured markers to help keep the weft straight.

Then I finally met the armhole section where I stopped going around the sleeve and began to go back and forth across the top of the sleeve. 

The main weaving form

Front and back joined at shoulder

Building the weaving form for the body of the jacket was a bit tricky because I didn't do it all in the right order. But I got there with a bit of figuring out.

Front

The warp is mostly applied. There are two sections left to warp: the sides where the sleeve warps will be inserted; and the top of the front panels which will be warped after the "under pocket" is woven.

Shoulder section warped

Back section warped

Warping the sleeves

As I apply the warps I measure the amount each thread needs to extend according to where in the weaving it will be needed. I've knotted them in groups out of the way at the top of the sleeve. I'll make a final tension adjustment of all the ends before beginning to weave. 

The hem of the sleeve works well with the slits/holding thread method so I'll definitely use this same method for the hem of the body of the jacket.

Crossed threads were a problem while weaving the previous jacket. I often had to correct the order of the threads while weaving by twisting around each other back to the right order. The tweedy surface hid a multitude of errors! This time I have hit upon a simple solution to hold things in the right order. I weave in two strands of a contrasting yarn as I lay the warps. This is the same principle as having a cross when winding a warp. (Why did it take so long for me to think of that?!) 

Now the sleeves are both warped and the next job is building the weaving form for the body of the jacket.

Building the weaving form

It was exciting to see the full sized patterns roll out of the large format printer at Staples. I could hardly wait to unroll them at home. The first thing I did was consult my calculations to confirm the dimensions. The pieces look REALLY BIG but the figures work out right.

The sleeves are the first step, so I built those forms first. I carefully colour coded all the special warps and wefts. These colours will be translated into coloured threads attached to particular warps. Knowing which thread is which will make it possible to insert the extensions of the sleeve warps threads into the correct places in the body of the jacket. Threads from the underarm turn and go down the side of the jacket as warp threads. Warp threads extending from the top of the sleeves will become weft across the shoulders. Threads coming from the front and back of the sleeves will become weft threads across the front and back of the jacket. These will be supplemented with extra threads to get the right number of weft threads per inch as I weave.

Just before I committed myself to making a lot of slits in the cardboard around the cuff to hold the warp threads, I did a little test to check that this method will really work. It is a combination of cardboard slits and holding stitches. A second strong thin yarn loops around the back and catches the warp thread into position before going back through the same slit. The warp threads are held at exactly the right place without having to be looped around the cardboard. Accurate, simple and quick. After the whole hem is warped, I'll tape the slits closed for extra insurance. The advantage over pin weaving is that I don't need a hefty stack of cardboard to hold the pins.

At the top of the sleeve forms I have opted for that hefty stack of cardboard for the pins. That way I can tie the extensions of the warp threads around the pins temporarily. I'll be able to adjust tension as I weave. I'll be able to untie them again when the sleeve in completely woven and insert the threads into the right part of the body of the jacket.

Here is the first sleeve form completed and the next one ready to put together.

First step in making the weaving form

To make the toile I created a paper pattern from a favourite jacket (see previous post). After sewing it, I drew my adjustments onto the pattern. Now I'm starting to make the weaving form. I photographed the paper pattern and imported it into Adobe Illustrator at actual size. 

I traced it as a clean new digital drawing to form the basis for the next phase. 

I enlarged the drawing to make it 25% longer and 20% wider than the finished size (to allow for the shrinkage and take-up) and began to create the warping chart on it. (At critical points around the sleeve and shoulder this chart will also need weft information which I am still calculating.)

Jacket Toile Finished

I took my pattern from a a favourite store-bought jacket. The fabric is pieced-together denim from old blue jeans and the lining is cotton from a men's XL cotton shirt. I like the simplicity of the cut. Length and shaping of body and sleeves, the fit of the neck and shoulder line, and the placement of the pockets were good. I need to change minor aspects of the top of the sleeve and the collar when I make my final pattern.

My next step is to adjust the paper pattern and scale it up for the weaving form. It'll need to be 25% longer and 20% wider than the final garment to allow for stretch, take-up and shrinkage.

 

Spinning almost complete - more samples

I have enough reasonably consistent yarn, so the next step is to finalize the final sett. Assuming a shrinkage after fulling of about 20% and working towards a final 10 cm square, I warped a 12.5 cm square in two different setts: 12 per inch and 10 per inch. After fulling them (by putting them through the washing machine with a load of towels) the weave structure of the 12 sett (sample on left) ended up looking a bit "crowded" whereas the 10 sett looked just right. Shrinkage lengthwise was 25% and across the width was 20%.

I'm still spindle spinning the brown wool which will be used for the tapestry sections. On the spindle is singles. The skeins are some of the finished two-ply.


The next step will be to make up a sewn toile of the jacket to make sure features and fit are what I want. From that I can scale up the pattern for the weaving form.

Spinning log book

I've been keeping track of spinning, plying and yarn management time. Two big batts of carded wool, about 60 grams, make one bobbin of singles and takes me about 6 hours to spin. When I have three bobbins spun, I ply them together making yarn which is 13 wraps per inch. One skein of three-ply is about 225 metres of yarn.

Spinning has begun

Here it all is! I got all the clean, carded ryeland fleece out from under the stairs in its pillowcases. The spinning wheel is oiled and ready and moved into the living room. This week I have begun to spin the yarn needed for the new jacket: three ply of the light grey on the spinning wheel; and two ply of the brown on the drop spindle. I'll try to keep track of the hours and skeins. I have no idea how long it will take me to spin a whole fleece!

New sample to apply all I learned

Step one warped

The plain weave section shrinks about 20% and the tapestry section hardly shrinks at all. I decided to try weaving and shrinking the plain weave section before adding the tapestry section. I designed two charts: one for step one at the larger size and one for step two after the first step has shrunk. The result was very pleasing and I am planning to do the whole jacket this way.

Step one after weaving

Step one after shrinking

Chart for step two

Step two warped

The finished sample

Woven samples

The samples I wove allowed me to test a number of things: the method for joining the tapestry section to the plain weave section; various methods for weaving the buttonholes; and how the finished fabric responds to fulling. The graph paper squares are what I used to chart the pin positions. The coloured sections show the amount of shrinkage after fulling.

Sample

With a little bit of the Ryeland wool spun to the thickness I want, I made a sample to test the sett, the colours and the way the two kinds of weave work together. The sample shows the even weave which will be used for the main fabric of the jacket; and tapestry weave to be used for the thicker sections like the front facings and the collar. It worked well to use three ply for the warp of the whole fabric, three ply for the weft of the main fabric and two ply for the weft of the tapestry sections (woven over two warp threads). There are two colours in the fleece.  I'll use the lighter tawny wool for the main fabric since there is a lot more of it and the slightly softer, variable brown for the thicker sections.

After weaving the sample, I checked how it shrinks by throwing it in the washing machine with a load of clothes on the low temperature easy-care cycle. The highlighted area on the pin-weaving chart shows the amount of width and height that has been lost through shrinkage. The even weave shrank more than the tapestry section. I can see that I will only be able to hand-wash this garment very carefully!

Finished weaving the doll's jacket

This was a fun test! I purposely used delightful colours to make the process enjoyable. To explore the structure, I represented different sections with different colours, warping the body of the jacket in teal, the sleeves in dark blue and the shaping wedges in purple. Then I did all the weaving with a bright pink. That way, the finished jacket shows really clearly where all the threads travel. The sleeve warps go all over the place on the jacket body, some of them forming warp threads down the sides, some of them making stripes across the yoke, and the rest becoming the weft threads on the shoulders. You can clearly see the shaping wedges at the sides. 

The tops of the sleeves have two rows of blue grey. When I started I thought these rows would be temporary and that I would replace them with weft threads travelling around from the yoke. But in the actual weaving, this didn't work the way I thought so I just left the "temporary" threads in place. I'm not exactly sure how this will work in the full sized jacket, but I think (hope) it will become clear as I chart the warp and weft on the final pattern pieces.

after the sleeves have been added to the warp
and the weaving of the body has begun

I learned that all the warp threads must be very carefully planned before starting to warp. This I will attempt to do by colour-coding the grid on the pattern pieces. The places where I skimped on planning and left it to figure out on the fly while warping were the places where I had problems weaving. The place where the sleeves join the body and any shaping wedges will need to be very carefully thought out and marked in the final project. 
I intend to have a collar on the final full-sized jacket, but I haven't solved the warping problems for that yet, so this doll's jacket is collarless so far. My knitting friend Caroline will help me figure out how to make a knitted one. Maybe I will pick up stitches and knit it right on the jacket, or knit it separately and stitch it on.

Testing the weaving form concept

I intend to use a sewing pattern as the basis of the weaving form, so I decided to test this method at a smaller scale. I found a sewing pattern for a doll's jacket and scaled it to fit the doll I have and sewed a sample to see how it fits. 

Then I planned the adjustments I want in the woven jacket and marked them on the pattern (see the green marks on the pattern). 

Finally I traced the pieces on graph paper and used them to create the cardboard form. The graph paper aided me in planning the pin positions. I added 10% to the length to make up for stretch and take-up.

Another sample of thick and thin weaving

Embroidery stitches over an even weave base:
Top - cross stitch
Bottom - cross stitch and bargello stitch.

This created a firm, stable, thicker section and was quite quick to do, but the appearance of the stitched surface doesn't look good with the even weave. I don't think I would use this for the jacket.

Thick and thin weaving

tapestry and even weave

A problem I want to solve for this jacket is the need for thicker, sturdier sections of weaving for  collar, front edge, and cuffs (the places where sewn garments have facings and interfacing). On the previous jacket, I darned extra yarn along the back of the warp threads at the front edge but this wasn't quite enough and the buttonholes are pulling and sagging with use. The options that I have tried so far are: 

Weaving some sections with tapestry weave - I used a 3 ply yarn for the basic weaving and and a 2 ply yarn over two warps for the tapestry (weft faced) sections. I did the even weave first and then went back and did the tapestry weave, interlocking into the edge along the vertical line. The result is a smooth thicker section with pleasing vertical ridges.

even weave and soumak

Weaving some sections with soumak stitch - I did all this in 3 ply yarn. The first sample of soumak stitch proved to be too stretchy, so I tried another stitched over a thinner horizontal thread (I call this corded soumak stitch). This solved the stretch problem, but soumak stitch worked all one direction has a decided diagonal pull. So I did another sample alternating the direction for each row. This formed a stable section thicker and firmer than the tapestry weave of the first sample. It has a horizontal "herringbone" texture. 

even weave and twining

Twining some areas - I used 3 ply for the basic weaving and 2 ply for the twining over two warp threads. It turned out about as thick as the tapestry woven sample, but feels a bit sturdier. It has a faint vertical direction with little dots between the ridges where the twist of the twining shows.

Another idea is to do the preliminary weaving all in even weave and work solidly over some sections with an embroidery stitch. I'll need to research what kind of stitch would work for that. 

Whatever method I choose to make the thin and thick sections, I will need to develop a method to make a consistent pleasing edge.

Another jacket!

Another all-in-one-piece jacket is now in the formative stage. Since finishing the jacket last year and enjoying wearing it, I have had the fun of making lots of other woven projects, mostly small purses. I have also been learning how to spin both on a wheel and with a drop spindle. A friend got two fleeces for me and suddenly I fell in love with the colour and feel of some lovely tawny grey wool from a ryeland sheep. Wouldn't that make a lovely jacket ... I have spun and woven some samples. Now the clean carded wool is waiting in its bags while I spin the other fleece for a friend to knit herself a project. This achieves three aims: I will get hours of experience spinning a quantity of yarn to order; I will no longer have the other fleece taking up space in my house; and I'll have time to make my plans and do the experimentation needed for the new jacket.

I'm determined that making this new jacket will be a very different process from last time. I want to try a new approach in which I weave some parts temporarily and finish them at a later stage in the project. Hopefully this will make it possible to keep the body of the jacket on the weaving form for the whole time instead of progressing from one form to another. I've discovered some re-usable plastic clips called Makedo and am experimenting with them for building the weaving form. Have a look at the possibilities here!

The weaving continues

Now that I'm wearing the jacket this blog is finished. I've begun a new blog  to document the other projects planned. There is a set of little all-in-one-piece zipped and buttoned bags, river rocks I'm weaving covers for, and plans for a bag on a cardboard box, experiments in twill, and a watercolour effect weaving/embroidery. Check http://ruthsweavingprojects.blogspot.com/ for my further adventures in weaving.