Now for the Really Scary Part
Well, this is what happened. . . I wanted 6 yards of fabric for my coat. Okay, I wound a warp six yards long . . . duh, after planning every one of those 800 something threads you would think I wouldn’t make a weaving 101 mistake like not accounting for LOOM WASTE or SHRINKAGE!!!! Well, take a breath because I had grossly overestimated the yardage I needed (just to be safe). For a 60” width of fabric I only needed 3 7/8 yards. Whew! Right? Wrong!!! Although I wove 59.5 inches wide in the reed with take-up and shrinkage my final width was 50”. Okay, it might still be okay because at 45” width, I need 5 3/8 yards and I had about 12% shrinkage on my samples so I might be close . . .Noooo! On my actual fabric I was closer to 25% shrinkage. SO, as you can see above, I wound another warp – using the opportunity to change color and tie-up a little – and tied-on to the old warp. Now I have an additional 3 yards of fabric for the coat, and despite the embarrassing miscalculations, I am really happy to have a contrast fabric – really 4 different fabrics because def doubleweave can be quite different on the reverse. The two close-ups above are of the same fabric – just front and back. Live and learn, or in my case, live and sometimes learn.
Now that the fabric is woven – quake – I have to cut it! I’m glad I have those horseshoes handy.
I also put some photos up there to illustrate the “color problem”. The top photos are of the same warp in the same light – one with flash – one without. Which is the “real” color? Neither. I always try to color correct the photos before I post them.
