Tuesday, August 5, 2014

T-shirt mat

T-shirts are so stretchy but so soft and nice to work with. This is a great bath mat. Sturdy, soft, thick.

What looked great on my makeshift loom stretched and pulled in every which way but straight when I took it off. I might try spraying it and ironing it to straighten it out but this is mixed straight weaving (under-over-under-over) and a few rows of twined cotton strips to secure the rows.

Materials: t-shirts, cotton cord, cotton bed sheets.
Finished size 70 x 100 cm


Twined Ottoman

Using PET bottles for a base, I used strips from a summer yukata and kimono to twine a cover for the ottoman. The warps are some scrappy polyester suit lining that I picked up at the flea market.
I started with a large cranberry juice bottle in the center and several water bottles around it. I secured them in place with duct tape.

The bottom of the PETs are the seat  (top) of ottoman.



To fill out the shape, I used bubble wrap and then covered it with cloth (I happened to have pieces of a terry sheet). A circle was cut for the top and bottom and then pieces wrapped around and roughly whip stitched into place. This is my base for weaving.

Now I will add my warps to the top and begin twining.

 I used a stitch to hold the warp spokes in place and just started twining as usual. I went counter-clockwise for no reason except it was convenient for me.



As I moved away from the center, I needed to add more spokes to the warp, so I took a double long piece, looped it through the previous row and created two new warps. I did this somewhat evenly around the wheel as needed, to keep my twining stitches fairly even.



As I got to the sides, I needed to slip in a couple extra warps
as well.


I didn't want to waste good kimono cloth on the bottom and so I just trimmed the warps and wove the bits in and out in a plain weave just to secure them all and keep it fairly flat. 


Detail of twined ottoman sides.