Category: Clothing

  • Living Cloth…and unexpected joys

    Living Cloth…and unexpected joys

    I’ve been with my husband, Dave, for over 45 years. Yes, a long time. A bit of luck superior planning. As the years move on, and I’m a slow learner, I realise that we loose friends, family, health, jobs and things over and over again. I’m not too good at losing things. Loss is the one…

  • No rest for weave mad people

    No rest for weave mad people

    Ok, it’s supposed to be a pause in the year with Christmas and New year but weave mad people just keep on going! Anyway weaving should not be a chore. Not something that has to be done like a production line filled with deadlines, even self imposed ones. I think weaving is part of the…

  • Mad about the Squid

    Mad about the Squid

    I’ve gone a little mad on the Squid vest design. I’m probably the last person in Saori world to make one after seeing it on American sites for years. (Thanks to Terri from Saori Salt Spring for the encouragement). The design is very versatile having a bias side and a horizontal side.  It is put…

  • Winter weaves and pre-wounds in wool

    Winter weaves and pre-wounds in wool

    I’ve been weaving a few jackets for winter and started with a pre-wound green wool. The wool pre-wounds are very nice because they save time and also provide a good array of different yarns.  The weft was all wool and some silk.  The green wool sets , that came through in the northern winter, worked really…

  • Seaming up to wear

    Seaming up to wear

    For those of you who have been weaving in the Saori way for a while, you may have quite a bit of fabric ready to turn into a wearable. You may even get to the ‘another scarf and I’ll scream’ situation.  Please, I’m not rebelling against scarves! I love them and I think they are…

  • Make a Huipil inspired Maya top

    Make a Huipil inspired Maya top

    I think I take my sewing skills for granted. And I image everyone else has the same skills.  But increasingly, because we haven’t had to make our own clothes, we don’t need those skills.  I understand that others have more valuable skills to earn money. But to make your own clothes…that’s a freedom. To weave…

  • Saori pattern cutting

    Saori pattern cutting

    I’ve just finished the garment that Masako designed with my fabric in Japan.  There were a couple of moments with it. For one, a double row of fast machine stitching which had to be unpicked on the open weave piece of the garment without cutting the warp or weft threads.  Unpicking can be difficult but…

  • No end to weaving

    No end to weaving

    There seems to be no end in sight to weaving and making clothes at the moment. This one was made with my 85cm w i d e width cloth. I still prefer the dynamic feel of narrower textiles but the up side is a very short sewing timeframe because there is far less stitching. This…

  • Ragging out in Saori clothing

    Ragging out in Saori clothing

    Decisions decisions. This is something that I’m not so good with. Any decision is a difficulty and when you get a heap thrown at you when you are sewing a garment from your handwoven cloth it’s not easy. With the six metres of green wool and silk that I wove last winter it suddenly came…