At Long Last!

Normally, I do not dither.

I usually have no problem making decisions and executing them. 

In fact, customarily, the thing is done immediately.

By now, I should know when there is any hesitation, I have made an error in judgment. 

Period. 

Since I began weaving, there was a single pattern I fell in love with.

It became my inspiration, and I felt if I could ever weave it successfully, I would be a real weaver. 

In June 2017, I began planning to weave fabric for a duvet cover. 

In April 2018, I sampled the pattern in a run of tea towels. 

While they turned out great, I did not get the Beast warped for the duvet fabric until May 2019. 

These are my project details:

The draft is in a discontinued book called Warp and Weft. It’s called Rose Garland diamond twill on 8 shafts. However, there is a picture of the draft floating around Pinterest...

I used the 8/2 Cottolin in Marine for the warp and 3/2 cotton in Natural for the weft. Sett of 22.

For two panels with finished dimensions of 50” x 100” (the second panel will be cut down the middle into two for the side panels) and fabric for shams 50” x 36”, I will need a 10 yard warp. 

Length to weave under tension is 120” for the panels and 45” for the shams. 

1102 warp ends. 

The weaving was challenging because a) I did not want to mess it up, and b) I had to pull enough 3/2 weft from the shuttle to cover the width before I threw it, every.single.time. to get nice edges. I think it was a combination of the sticky cottolin and the heaviness of the 3/2.

However, once I dedicated myself to it, I ended up weaving 90% of it in about four days.

I pulled the fabric off the loom in July 2019.

And basically did nothing more with it.

I did overlock the edges and cut one panel in half. 

As one of my two sleeping companions, CoalBear approved.

I added piping to join the panels. I had made no attempt to match the pattern in the fabric, this was a large enough undertaking without adding significantly more stress and a higher bar to the project. 

As the fabric was very heavy, I decided to use muslin on the backside and join the front to the back with double fold quilt bias tape.

Unfortunately, the only bias tape I could find was in a Navy blue and not the deep marine blue I had used for the warp and for the piping. 

However, I just could not bring myself to make a duvet with this fabric, so it sat folded from July until yesterday. 

When I pulled it out again, I had every intention of making it into a duvet; however, the second I picked it up, I knew it was just too heavy for duvet fabric and we would suffocate if I used it with a comforter.

So, I switched gears and decided it wanted to be a coverlet and used the bias tape to finish out the edges. An hour and a half later...BOOM!

It was done.

I actually do not mind the different blue on the edges. I like it.

I LOVE how it looks on the bed and in our room.

We slept under it last night, and it was so comfortable. Just the right weight for our South Texas high of 80s and lows of 44 degrees.

However, I still do not have handwoven fabric for a duvet...