Adventures in Fibre Arts

I’m writing this blog post because I’ve been asked a few times how I finish my leg wraps. Please note I’m not saying this is the right or only way of finishing them. This is just how I do it.

Once I finish weaving I cut the finished piece off the loom

The next thing I do is trim the excess warp off the finished piece

I then do a double rolled hem. I like to sew it down twice just to make sure it doesn’t come undone. I also like to hand sew this because I spent all that time hand weaving and it feels wrong for something that will be seen to be machine sewn (or overlocked).

Once I’ve done this to both ends the leg wraps are almost finished. I then clean up all of the ends of the weft thread.

Now comes the scary part. Cutting the fabric in half (because I weave a pair together and then cut them on half). This can be a bit scary but trust your weaving. It’s now like normal fabric. To figure out half way I like to fold it in half and then pin. Then I fold it again to make sure I got it in the right location.

I then finish the ends with a double rolled hem again.

The leg wraps are now wearable, but I like to give them a wash, dry and iron before I wear them. I generally wash them in cold water. This will shrink the leg wraps if they are going to shrink and also is how I clean them when needed.

All done! The leg wraps are now ready to wear (or to give to the owner to wear).