Making a bag for the Weave Fair.

A mobile advertisement for the Weave Fair.

A selection of my woven bands.

Poster for Weave Fair

I decided to make myself a bag to hold my anticipated purchases at the Weave Fair in Umea. I loved the poster so I printed it on some unbleached calico.

I chose several of the patterns to weave. I used one pattern for the handles and another for the trim around the top of the bag. A third band I stitched down the sides.

I liked the simple black and pink and black and green designs. Here is the weave draft for the bands.  I wove the green pattern for the bag trim.

weave draft

Two bands using the same weave draft.

Here is the pink version being woven on my Swedish band loom. This loom weaves bands very quickly.  My YouTube video shows this loom in action:  Five ways of weaving narrow bands.











The colours of the poster inspired me to try another band. Normally, I would not have chosen these colours or patterns but the overall effect is very lively. I stitched this band down the sides of the bag.

Poster design

This band has 61 warp ends. 

The band is woven in 16/2 cotton.

The green and yellow band has 15 pattern threads.  I used this band for the bag straps.  Here is a picture of the two sides of the band. The pattern draft and weaving instructions are on my blog under Weaving Bands.

Poster design

This band has 15 pattern green pattern threads.

I also wove a version of the pink and black patterned band.

Poster design

Black pattern threads and pink weft. 

The seven pattern threads are black. This has one border in pink and the other border in black.  Using a pink weft creates a small dotted pattern on the black selvedge.  I wove it using the double slotted heddle with 7 pattern slots. The pattern draft and weaving instructions are on my blog under Weaving Bands.  I also wove another examples of this 7 pattern thread band with pink pattern threads and a black weft.

The simple white pattern on green has 5 pattern threads. This was very quick and easy to weave.

Poster design

Band with 5 pattern threads.

There are many more bands which can be designed using the poster as an inspiration. Look at my blog under Weaving bands for details and the pattern drafts.

Here is my colourful and very attention-grabbing bag: a mobile advertisement for the Weave Fair!

Greetings from Durham

It is fun to design your own bands from patterns.

Graphic representations of weave patterns crop up in many different places.  The Latvian men's bobsleigh team in the Sochi winter Olympics had a band pattern on the back of their clothes.  A longer version stretched down the bob sleigh.

Latvian bobsleigh team.

This would make a lovely patterned band.

Happy weaving.

Durham Weaver  August 2014