Reuse and recycle your waste fabric to create a stunning sustainable coaster using a rigid heddle weaving loom

Introduction: Weaving a sustainable coaster on a rigid heddle weaving loom - a great way to reuse and recycle waste fabric.

Creating beautiful, eco-friendly projects can be both rewarding and enjoyable. Not only can you explore your creativity, but you will also be creating with a step towards sustainability. In this post, we outline a project to weave a vibrant sustainable coaster from leftover fabric scraps using a British wool warp and a TabbyandTweed rigid heddle weaving loom. By the end, you will see how we have transformed remnant materials that might have otherwise gone to waste into a practical and attractive item for our home showing how weaving can be a great way to both reuse and recycle.

The joy of weaving with waste fabric

Weaving is a fantastic way to work with colours and textures while giving new life to old fabric. As weavers we have a genuine interest in all fabric and yarn crafts and we also enjoy sewing and making our own clothes. As anyone who sews will know sewing creates lots of pieces of fabric scraps and waste. In this project, we show how we used some of these fabric scraps to create a piece of woven cloth. This project is simple to do and would be something that both beginner and experienced weavers could accomplish.

Using existing fabric as the weft fibers allows you to repurpose old clothing and scraps from past projects. For example, if you have an old t-shirt or some fabric remnants from a sewing project, these can be cut into strips and reused. This not only saves money but significantly reduces waste.

Gathering the materials

Before weaving was started we gathered the following materials together.

Essential Supplies:

• Rigid heddle loom: We used one of our TabbyandTweed rigid heddle looms.

• British wool: We used a British wool DK warp. The colours of the warp varied across the loom.

• Fabric scraps: We gathered colourful bits from the fabric scrap box. Rather than go totally random with the colours we selected fabrics in a range of blue shades with a few yellow and pink fabrics.

• Sharp scissors: These were needed to cut the fabric into thin strips.

• Sewing machine or needle and thread: A sewing machine was used to sew the bias binding onto the coaster.

• Bias binding: This was used to encase the edges of the coaster, giving it a polished look.

  
  

Steps to setting up the loom and getting read to weave

1. Warping the loom: First the loom was warped using British wool DK yarn. A range of colours was chosen as we knew that these warp threads would be visible in the final weave and we wanted these warp threads to form part of the pattern.

2. Cutting up the fabric scraps: The fabric scraps were to be used for the weft. Using a pair of scissors the chosen fabric was cut into thin strips about 1 cm in width.

3. Loading the shuttle: The fabric strips were wound around a shuttle ready to be woven.

   
   

   

   
   

Weaving the Fabric

We used a range of different fabric scraps using two weft rows of fabric weft with two rows of British wool DK yarn weft. The weaving with the wool gave a finer weave and this helped to stabilise the final woven fabric. We decided to really play with the colours. Initially we chose to use blue and navy fabrics but after weaving a little we realised that the fabric was looking quite dull. We then decided to introduce some lighter blue fabric and some areas of pink and green. The introductions of these colours created a brighter fabric with areas of interest with the pops of colour.

The completed fabric

This image below shows the completed fabric. An 80cm length of fabric was woven which was sufficient to make a few coasters. If we had wished we could also have used the fabric to make a colourful table runner or table mat.

Making the coasters

The steps to making the coasters is outlined below.

1. Cutting the fabric: The woven fabric was carefully trimmed into a square shape. The standard size of a coaster is around 4 inches square but as the fabric was quite fragile at the cut edges we chose to cut a 5 inch square giving some additional fabric.

2. Sewing the edges: Bias binding was used to sew around the edges of the square fabric. This not only finished the edges nicely but also prevented fraying whilst adding some colourful detail. A complimentary dark red bias was used.

   
   

The final coaster

This project was not just a fun and satisfying activity, it was also an an eco-friendly approach to crafting. Each coaster was made from recycled materials which would otherwise have gone to waste. Each coaster created was also unique as the fabric scraps used to create each one were different. This project shows that recycling and creativity can go hand in hand.

Rigid heddle looms 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, home accessories and scarves as unique items of clothing for yourself or gifts is hugely rewarding allowing people to express themselves creatively.

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

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