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Textiles naturales > Blog

Can I weave this? (C) Cotton muslin baby fabric analysed by textile designer Anna Champeney


Woven fabric analysis by Anna Champeney Estudio Textil

baby fabric 500 pixWhat is the white fabric in this picture and what is it like?

This is traditional washable nappy fabric made from unplied cotton.  It´s a double-weave fabric woven as separate layer squares.

The way that this simple, everyday fabric has been designed and woven means that  fabric is soft, flexible and absorbent.  Whilst few people use this fabric for nappies today it still comes in very handy for using with babies as you can see;  it´s gentle on their skin.

How can you tell the fabric is double weave?

A double weave cloth is one that is woven in two completely different and complete layers.  So you can tell just by looking and feeling a fabric.  You can see each layer of this fabric more easily in the close-up photo.  If I pull at the squares I can actually pull them open with my fingers – they´re like closed pockets.

Looking close up also makes you appreciate just how open the weave is.  This makes it softer and more drapable but without reducing its absorbency.  Of course it´s also cheaper for the textile mill to produce a more open fabric as less yarn is used compared to a denser fabric.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAHow exactly is the fabric constructed?

The square design visible in the main photo is due to the separate layers of the fabric being joined together at the edge of the squares at top, bottom left and right.  In double weave there are several ways to do this depending on how many shafts and pedals your loom has.

Here, warpwise, the left and right sides of each square are joined with areas of simple, one-layer plainweave which looks a more dense fabric with the threads closer together.  You can see the 3 warp ends which create this effect on the closeup photo I took).

To achieve this effect means you need two extra shafts.  This plainweave section will be stiffer than the double weave but it´s necessary to give the fabric consistency and to join the two layers together.

The top and bottom sides of the squares are achieved in a different way – by weaving just one pick of plainweave.

Can I weave this on 4 shafts?

Sadly, no you can´t.  You need a loom with 6 shafts and at least 5 pedals to weave the double weave pockets.  However, on a 4-shaft loom you CAN weave double weave tubes.

Feel inspired?  Want to know more?  

Contact us to arrange tuition in weave, introduction to woven fabric design and fabric analysis with Anna Champeney Estudio Textil in north Spain.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Which threads are the warp? The woven selvedge at the right and the cut edge at the top of the fabric show you that the warp runs from top to bottom in this photo.

 

 

August 3rd, 2014 | Comments are closed

3 woven textiles analysed by Anna Champeney: (B) Stripey furnishing fabric

Stripey furnishing fabric

This is the second fabric I´ve chosen to analyse.  I have looked up close at it and turned it inside out to see the reverse side.  I´ve also analysed the weave to see which threads are warp and which are weft.

z cushions 900 pixIn this furnishing fabric you can see 3 different ways to make stripes.  It´s very simple and classic furnishing fabric used for cushions and a sofa throw in a weekend cottage outside Barcelona, on the mediterranean coast.  I don´t find it particularly innovative or exciting as a woven fabric but even simple fabrics like this often have more to them than initially meets the eye once you look up close.

The fabric is almost all woven in plainweave and the design elements are simply broad and narrow stripes in 3 different neutral colours.

So far so good.  But even in a simple design like this there are things to learn by looking close-up at the fabric.

Twill stripe

The dark slim stripe consists of 4 picks of weft-faced twill.  How do I know?  Because, proportionally speaking, you can see a lot more weft than warp.  Again, as the photo shows, if you look at the underside of the stripe you see more warp than weft which is always the case with a weft-faced twill.

Why use a weft-faced twill instead of, say, a standard 2/2 twill?  Because seeing more – dark – weft – creates a stronger darker stripe effect!

A weft-faced twill always results in a warp-faced twill on the reverse side. Here, on the reverse side of the fabric you can see more warp (white) which means the stripe is not nearly as strong and dark as on the weft-faced side. This was no doubt a conscious decision on the part of the fabric designers.

Weaving several strands of yarn together in a single pick

The other fine stripe (white on a dark background) is different.

Can you see it looks slightly raised and rounded?

In contrast to the 4-pick dark stripe this is just one pick, in plainweave.  But the stripe looks almost as thick as the dark stripe.  Why?  Because the white stripe pick consists of a multi-strand yarn which is a lot thicker than the warp or the normal weft yarns so it takes up more space and creates a textured effect.

Are you a weaver?  Why not come on holiday at Anna Champeney Estudio Textil one year?  We have holiday accommodation and looms you can use – and there is excellent walking and home-cooked local cuisine here in our little corner of north Spain.  It´s a great place to work on a personal textile project or simply enjoy time out in spectacular mountain scenery to refresh yourself, sketch or take photographs to inspire you.  Contact us with your ideas.

July 27th, 2014 | Comments are closed

3 woven textiles and their analysis: (A) Viscose dress fabric – by Anna Champeney Estudio Textil

z viscose fabric 800 pix modelled by laia

Italian viscose dress fabric modelled by Laia

3 textiles that inspired me recently – and their analysis  

by handwoven textile designer Anna Champeney (nw Spain)

A Viscose dress fabric

This industrial dress fabric looks a bit like a print but it is in fact woven.

It´s a lovely, high quality Italian viscose fabric and my sister-in-law was wearing it when I visited her recently in Barcelona!

You could tell the quality of the fabric by its sheer weight and its drape.

The fabric is in fact a double weave fabric – I would say woven on a Jacquard loom – and in just  two colours.  This goes some way to explaining its superior drape, its weight, and the fact that each side is the exact reverse of the other and the circles can be pulled apart slightly to reveal two separate layers.  As I specialise in designing hand-woven double weave fabric cushions and scarves in my own studio doubleweave cloth always attracts my attention.

I – and most other hand-weavers – don´t weave anything as complex structurally on my loom because our looms are different.  The fact that the design includes circles is a dead giveaway – incidentally you need a lot more than 8 shafts to weave circles in doubleweave although I haven´t worked out just how many you´d need!

You can see there has been some movement of the threads within the fabric by looking at the circles.  As the yarns are so fine you don´t notice this in the final garment and it doesn´t affect its performance.  Double weave fabric means that each separate face can have a slightly more open sett than normal (a slighly lower number of warp ends and weft picks per cm) because the fabric is reinforced by the intersections with the second layer.  This slightly more open sett in double weave makes it les stiff and hence it drapes better.

Although I can´t match the complexity of the doubleweave zigzag and circular design in my handwovens I can really appreciate the graphic quality of the design and use that to inspire me.  It would be easy enough to design a double weave warp with two colours with bold squares, rectangles and colour affects to add complexity.  And I could combine plainweave on one side of the fabric and twill on the other on my 8 or 12 shaft loom with no problem.   Handweaving gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of more spontaneous or assymmetrica design compared to industrial fabrics.

Woven textile analysis and designing – book some holiday tuition with Anna Champeney Estudio Textil in north Spain, enjoy time out in a weaving retreat or spend a week at the studio and hire a loom.  Contact us with your ideas.

 

July 27th, 2014 | Comments are closed
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