Here, you can see that I’ve finished weaving a set of garments with fringe between them, about 11 yards altogether. They’re ready to come off the loom and be handed off for wet finishing.
To mark the place where I’d cut, I wove in a shot of rug wool. and affixed my measuring string. (I’ll write a whole post about my measuring system later.)
I had already woven far enough into the next set of garments so that I could unroll a bit and take the tension off the cloth beam entirely. This whole cloth cutting operation takes place while the warp threads are still held under tension on the other side of the sandpaper beam. I always put my hand between the scissors and the roll of finished fabric. I only had to accidentally cut my finished cloth once as a beginner for that lesson to be burned into my brain forever.
After I cut along the wool thread, I unroll the beam to remove the finished cloth, ending with about a foot of apron cloth unrolled as well. I then place the cut edge of the cloth on the beam. Notice that I haven’t picked up the finished cloth from the floor. I’m too lazy to stand up until I’m done with what I’m doing down here.
I flip the apron over my cloth, carefully smooth out wrinkles and roll once or twice around the beam with my cloth sandwiched under the apron. (See that awful dag in the selvedge? Nobody else will ever know because I’ll repair it before it leaves my studio to be finished.)
Then I roll it up until it’s ready to put under tension, hang the weight back on the takeup cord and go back to weaving. The cloth is now securely attached to the takeup beam without stitching, knots or tape. It takes very little fuss and doesn’t put stress on the cut cloth edge.
When I’m not photographing the process, it takes about ten minutes to remove a batch of yardage from the takeup beam, reattach the cloth and get back to weaving.
Related Posts:
Measuring String
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