Creating a handwoven British wool cushion on a rigid heddle weaving loom using a 4 shaft extension kit

Introduction: Using a TabbyandTweed rigid heddle weaving loom and a 4 shaft extension kit to weave a British wool handwoven cushion

The 4 shaft extension kit for our rigid heddle weaving loom enables us to weave various patterns but also fabric which is double the width to normal. The handwoven fabric is now large enough to make cushions. This blog discusses the steps of a project to making a handwoven cushion using British wool using one of our rigid heddle weaving looms.

The completed handwoven British Wool cushion

Getting started: Tools and materials used for the project to weave a double width cushion on a rigid heddle weaving loom

For this project I used the following:

• a TabbyandTweed rigid heddle weaving loom

• 8epi heddle

• 4 shaft extension kit

• West Yorkshire Spinners Colourlab DK wool (around 25g of four colours, Sky blue, True Blue, Navy and Cream)

• four weaving shuttles

Setting up the rigid heddle weaving loom to weave a double width cushion

For this project I warped the full width of the loom with a warp length of around 1m. I decided that I wanted to weave a rectangular cushion so the warp length didn't need to be too long but sufficient to allow for warp wastage at the start and end of the weave. The threading of the warp threads was a straight 4 which means that the first warp thread is attached via a heddle to shaft 1, the second to shaft 2, the third to shaft 3 and the fourth to shaft 4 with this being repeated across the warp.

Weaving the double width cloth on the rigid heddle weaving loom

Once the loom is warped the lifting pattern is as follows:

Step 1: lift shaft 2

Step 2: lift shafts 1,2 and 3

Step 3: lift shafts 1,2 and 4

Step 4: lift shaft 1

By following this weaving pattern steps 1 and 4 will weave the top layer and steps 2 and 3 will weave the bottom layer. By starting at step 1 the left hand edge will be open with the right hand edge being the folded edge.

The left hand edge (selvedge)

The right hand edge (folded selvedge)

Challenges and tips for weaving a double width fabric on a rigid heddle loom

When weaving a doublewidth fabric there are a number of potential challenges.

(a) Choice of yarn has an impact

I have woven with both cotton and wool when doubleweaving. I have written a blog on double with weaving with cotton which can be read here. My experience was that the cotton was more challenging with respect to some of the issues identified below. In addition, cotton is less forgiving of errors and the correction of errors when finishing is more difficult and errors more difficult to address. This is partly because when washed the wool shrinks and felts which goes some way to hiding errors and also evening out any anomalies in the tension.

(b) Issues with warp separation

Shafts 1 and 2 weave the top layer and the weaving of this top layer can be seen all the time. This means that any issues with the weaving can easily be identified and addressed. The weaving of the bottom layer is underneath. In addition, when weaving the bottom layer three of the four warp threads are lifted up and if any sticking of the warp threads occurs this can lead to weaving errors on the underside of the cloth. To avoid this I made sure that there was a good warp tension and I checked the shed regularly and on occasions stroked the warp threads to encourage them to separate.

(c) A cramped fold

The fold is at the right hand side selvedge edge and it was easy for this edge to become cramped. To avoid this I wove with a looser weft thread at this edge and make sure that I didn't pull it tight too the edge. In addition, I designed the weave so that the pattern used lots of warp changes around the fold to create a busy fabric at this point so that any issues with the fold would be hidden more easily, The fold was also much less visible when weaving with the wool, in fact I would say it was almost impossible to identify the fold in the finished wool cushion.

The finished handwoven fabric

The fabric when woven and finished was a width of 20 inches with a height of 15 inches.

Making the cushion

(a) Overlocking the fabric

The first step was to overlock the edges of the fabric. I did this because it helped to stabilise the edges and prevented any fray weft threads for coming loose from the body of the fabric.

(b) Sewing the cushion

I decided to sew the cushion with a co-ordinating blue denim back. I made a fabric inner which was stuffed with polyester wadding taken from a purchased pillow thus creating an inner pillow which fitted perfectly inside my cushion.

The finished cushion

The cushion had a finished size of 13 inches x 19inches.

Rigid heddle looms with scarf weaving kits and the 4 shaft extension kit are available in our TabbyandTweed website shop for UK delivery and our TabbyandTweed Etsy shop for delivery elsewhere. We sell a variety of scarf rigid heddle loom weaving kits which include the pattern and yarn for both 8epi and 10epi reeds.

In the fast paced world we now live in it is our opinion that it is something quite special to take time out of life to be creative. Weaving fabric and scarves as unique items of clothing for yourself or gifts is hugely rewarding and helpful when trying to both unwind or keep warm!

Interested in learning to weave? Then our workshop page has all the details found by clicking the link here.

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