Weaving with Upcycled Fabrics

Brown Fabric Weaving by Kathryn Sturges

Ok, so this post comes from the wayback machine! I like to envision the little bit of Scooby Doo effort that went into my makes back in the early 2000’s! I didn’t know a thing about sewing at the time, and had not yet been influenced by books and online tutorials. So I just came up with ideas by experimentation.

These two weavings came from my experiments. I was working with pre worn corduroy pants, and also got a bolt of white corduroy fabric. I used procion dyes to dye the white corduroy in batches. Eventually I decided to do a couple of weavings to hang up.

The concept here is that you just need fabric strips and a glue stick along with a sewing machine. As you are weaving, dab a little glue onto the backs of the woven strips to keep them in place. Let the glue dry overnight. Then sew along the edges of the rows with a wide zig zag stitch. On the orange weaving, I worked by creating sixteen patch of woven squares, and then sewed them together to create the larger piece.

I can see weaving being really cool for the back of a jacket, as a tunic or the top of a dress, or even as patches to mend clothes! Work small, work big, the process is pretty much the same!

I hope this little bit of inspiration gets you thinking creatively!