One one of Tutankhamun's robes there is a delightful double fringed narrow band around a shaped collar.
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| The original collar with the fringe down both ends. |
I have woven a sample and made a short YouTube video.
There are eleven warp ends. The warp order is:
1 white, 1 red, 1 blue,1 white, 1 blue 2 white, 1 red, 1 white, 1 red, 1 white.
Susan J Foulkes October 2025
The drawdown is a weave diagram which shows the first four picks that is raising the heddle and lowering the heddles.
Here is a picture of the woven band.
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| The finished fringed band before trimming the weft. |
To weave, two wefts are needed. There is a binding weft of a single strand of linen and the fringe weft which has three strands. I used 16/2 linen for the warp and wefts.
I started with white loops.
I changed to red loops.
The weft for the loops can be wrapped around a piece of card. This makes it easier to insert into the shed.
Here are two samples that I wove.
I changed the centre pattern for the bottom band. I also used two parallel warp threads to try to keep the width of the loops even. This is more difficult as the wefts have to go around this additional warp guide thread. This band was woven on a rigid heddle loom.
Some further references.
Tutankhamons väverskor by Kazuyo Nomara and Christina Rinaldo published by Borförlaget Signum: Stockholm in 2013 is a detailed description of the weaving of reproductions of Tutankhamun's textiles.
There is also an excellent paper which can be downloaded from Academia Marie EKSTEDT BJERSING – Tutankhamun’s collar Repeated reconstructions of a single collar. This is a detailed study of the way a circular warp faced collar can be woven.
Woven Patterns on Tutankhamun Textiles by NANCY ARTHUR HOSKINS is a fascinating introduction to this subject and is also available on Academia. (https://www.academia.edu/)
