Summer always brings back that crafting nostalgia. The memories of all those summer camp crafts. Take us back!! If you’re longing for those long days of creativity and bug bites, why not throw it back to a craft that’s been around forever- weaving!
This is a craft is a little time consuming, but is all about the journey. This would be a perfect craft to do together as a group. Have everyone bring in old fabrics and shirts and swap them out for a truly colorful organic look!
Materials:
- Fiskars Craft Knife
- Fiskars Fabric Shears or Rotary Blade
- Cardboard
- Glue Gun
- Cotton String
- Different Colored Fabric Scraps & Chunky Yarn
- Stick or Dowel
In this post we will show you how to make a loom and weave it up! The outcome looks impressive, but the process is easier than you’d think!
Make A Cardboard Loom:
- Start with a heavy duty piece of cardboard for this. If the cardboard is flimsy it might bend during the weaving process.
- Cut it down to size. We used a 8×10 piece of cardboard.
- Maker out parallel spots about a cementer apart across the top and the bottom edge of the cardboard.
- Use a craft knife and cut a quarter inch slit on each mark.
- Cut out two half inch strips of cardboard and glue them directly above and below the cut slits. This will help raise the string and make it easier to weave.
- Add cotton string through the first slit and string it directly down to the parallel slit. Continue to wrap the string around each slit.
- The stings should be secure, however if you want you can add a little dab of hot glue to the loose ends.
Cut Fabric Into Strips
- Gather different types of colorful fabric. We went for a rainbow look, however you can decided if you want your fabrics to be a all different colors or all in the same color family.
- Use fabric scissors or a rotary blade & a cutting mat to cut different colored fabric into strips.
- There are no right or wrong ways to cut up the fabric, however a veriety of thicknesses in the fabric help give the project interest.
- Depending on the type of fabric you’re cutting there might be fraying. Don’t stress about it, we think this adds to the charm of the weave and it stays pretty hidden. However, if you donnot want any fraying, you could use scalloped edge scissors.
Weave, Weave, Weave!
- Starting at the bottom of the loom, begin to weave your fabric strips. Over and under! Over and under!
- Tuck in your tails when done or leave them and tuck them in at the end.
- As you work, pay attention to how everything is looking. Try to add pops of different textures as you go. We found some cotton lace that we would randomly weave in and it totally pulled everything together.
- Work until you make your way ontop the top.
Attach To Stick
- Flip the loom over and cut off the strings directly in the middle of the cardboard. This part seems scary, but don’t worry your woven masterpiece wont fall apart.
- Place a stick or dowel at the top of the loom and begin to tie the top strings to it. Place one string in front of the stick and one string behind the stick and tie them together. Continue this process until all the strings are tied together.
- Tie off the bottom pieces the same way. Pair up and tie together strings that are next to each other.
- Don’t pull the strings too tightly or it will distort the shape of the weave.
- Tie a piece of string to the ends of the stick to make it easy to hang!
- Feel free to secure any knots or string with a glue gun! A little goes a long way!
Glue Loose Ends
- If you didn’t tuck in your fabric pieces you can tuck them in now or do it the quick way and hot glue those pieces to the back. Most likely you won’t be showing the back so this way works great.
How cute is this throwback project!? It just brings back all the feels and considering we used everything we already had it was free!! Weaving is one of those crafts that seem to be coming back in a big way…but did it ever really go away?
Watch the full tutorial from our live class we did with Fiskars through Michaels!