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S1-Episode 10 - Our first year ends with FINISHING
Season 1 - Foundation
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Hi folks, I'm wondering about advice on laundering pieces with cotton warp and silk weft? Machine? Hand? Dryer? I did watch season one finishing but don't remember seeing anything about silks. If I missed it perhaps you can guide me to the time stamp for it? Thanks, Leslie
Jane often uses silk in the scarves she weaves at the end of some gamps and washes them by hand. Personally, I would never wash silk in a machine or a dryer and I doubt that Jane would either. It’s just a gentle hand wash that’s needed with gentle soap, a good rinse and hang to dry before ironing using the silk setting on your iron.
Monika Katrycz
Hi JST team, I'm a newish weaver working my way through Jane's wonderful lessons. I am after some advice regarding the order of finishing. I have woven a 9 ish metre cotton warp with cotton weft into towels. I had a couple (or 5!) knots in my warp -Egads!! So followed Janes on loom repair method.
I've cut the warp off and assumed I couldn't leave it as a 9 m length of fabric so cut into the towel lengths, zig zagged and machine hemmed into individual towels, so now... Do I wash/full before trimming off tails? Or after?
And cotton towels...just chuck em in the machine for fulling?
Hi Pauline, welcome to our world of weaving! I cut long tails about an inch away from the cloth before washing and then do a final trim after they are dry. They have had a chance to do any draw-in during their fulling process in the washer and dryer. You might want to browse the Knowledge Base ( https://janestaffordtextiles.com/knowledge-base/ ) to read questions that weavers have asked over the years with Jane's answers. I still find tidbits of helpful information there!
Fantastic Thanks Sandra
Hi Sandra and Jane, do you find in the finishing process, that some of the fabric is softer than others. I'm doing season 5 turned twill and when I washed and dried the towel fabric, some broken twill was a "rougher" hand. I found that the cloth woven in tie up #1 was soft, tie up #2 with broken treadling in both X and Y were not as soft (all woven at the same sett).
I washed twice in warm then hot in machine, dried on high for all. Pressed to finish. Feedback about softness in the samples you kids wove?
Sorry for the delay, Kit..... There are so many different variables that can affect your finishing results. From the structure you have woven - for instance, the length of your floats, your beat while you weave, etc. Their trips through your washer and dryer have given them a full finishing - and I doubt that they will change significantly from now on. Sometimes Jane hangs her towels on the line to dry - but because I live in the city and don't have that option - mine head for one trip through the washer and dryer. I wish I could give you a simple answer, but experience and discovering what works best for you is what this journey is all about! ;-)