Freestyle Weaving -Tutorial part II: Cardboard Loom

Ther is another method to achieve pretty much the same as shown in the first part, I’m showing you this first before going into advanced weaving techniques. I’m calling it a cardboard loom. In the old needlework books, this is touted as a the way to do teneriffe lace (which is basically needleweaving in the round) and a very similar process is used for regular needlelace.

I am trying to keep further instalments of this tutorial series a bit shorter than the first for the sake of people with slow connections. I hope you don’t mind.

You need:
– two pieces of cardboard or thick, stiff paper
– Gridded paper, or epuipment to draw your own grid on the cardboard
– Sturdy thin sewing thread (buttonhole machine thread woll do fine)
– Some thread or yarn suitable as warp (preferrably somewhat sturdy)
– a sharp needle and optionally a pricker or a timble
– Any threads you want to use for the actual weaving
– A (blunt) tapestry needle for weaving

Draw the outline of the finished piece onto the gridded paper, and if you want the design. Put all three layers together. Now you need to sew backstitches arround the whole outline. One back stitch means two warp threads, chose the distance between them accordingly. Use the gridded paper to make the distances evenly. This is much easier if you pierce the layers first with a small pricker or a slightly bigger sharp needle using a timble. Next you can thread your loom like you would do with a pin loom, lacing the warp thread through the back stitches.

Closeup to show the treading process.

Now you are ready to start weaving. The first and last 3-4 rows need to be woven in canvas binding (one over, one under) to keep the finished piece from falling apart. At the sides you pick up the backstitches together with the last warp thread, that will keep you from pulling the fabric out of form.

When you are all done, you insert a sharp letter opener or kitchen knife between the two cardboard layers and cut them apart. Your finished work should fall off them then, all you have to do is pick the remnants of the backstitches out of it and hide all the loose thread ends.

The advantage of this method over the pin loom is the fact that it is highly portable, you can carry it in your purse and work on it whenever you find time. Also, the fabric isn’t easiely pulled out of shape because you can anchor it in the backstitches at the sides.
The disadvantage is that it takes much more time to set up than a pin loom.