Great Variety of Material.—Endless combinations will occur to any one who becomes interested in this captivating art. The field for colour design is almost without limit. No material is so old and useless as to be despised by the clever rug maker. Old bed ticking with its blue and white stripes cut on the bias makes a very desirable combination when woven on a blue warp with a plain blue border. A charming mottled effect in one instance was produced by a yarn which was ravelled from an old raw silk portière of a mahogany shade and wound into balls with finely cut strips of tan cloth, the balls being rewound several times. This was used as the woof for the centre of the rug. The border was made of a weaving thread of the unravelled mahogany yarn, doubled several times to give thread of a size equal to that of the tan cloth. Discarded clothing in which the prevailing colours are red, when made up into woof threads and woven on a white warp, gives a charming effect which may be strengthened or toned down by a border combination as desired. Dyes may, of course, be used if the colours of the weaving threads made up from old cloths and discarded clothing are not suited to the design that is to be worked out.
Weaving the Rug.—When the design for the rug has been thoroughly worked out, determining the colours, materials to be used, and the method of procedure, the warp and the woof threads should be prepared and the warp attached to the loom, as already explained in the discussion of the general process of weaving. Further details of procedure are not needed here. The thing to do is to weave a rug as designed. The next thing to do is to design and weave another rug, and then another and so on. As in most crafts so in weaving, experience is the great teacher—a teacher who demands faithful work, who finds lessons of value in every failure and abundant satisfaction in every success. Some of these successes were found in the rugs illustrated opposite [page 252].
Rug weaving is probably the simplest of all weaving and therefore a good problem with which to begin. After serving a satisfactory apprenticeship in this field the amateur will have acquired sufficient knowledge of design and sufficient skill in the art to pass to more difficult problems. This will take her out into a large field of opportunity. Portières, window draperies, table scarfs, bedspreads, and covers for pillows and cushions in endless variety will suggest themselves to the ambitious worker. In all these, as has been seen in the case of rug making, design is all important. The management of the loom is much the same in all plain weaving. What differences there are will be found, for the most part, in the weaving designs. In the following problems are described some of the special features involved in the other forms of weaving.
PROBLEM: PORTIÈRES AND COUCH COVERS
Suggestions for the Design.—If the loom is wide enough these may be woven in one piece; but usually it is necessary to weave them in sections or breadths. In this case, of course, they must be afterward neatly joined. The possibilities in colour design are naturally varied. They may be woven with a woof of plain colour contrasting with the colour of the warp, in stripes, or with plain centres with striped ends. Harmony of colour effects is always to be sought. Depth and richness may sometimes be obtained to a highly satisfactory degree by a generous use of black. Materials may be yarns, bits of silk or velvet, or pieces of fine, soft woollen goods. The warp may be silk or linen or mercerized cotton. Beautiful portières have been woven by leaving out two threads of warp at regular intervals, giving a loose and fluffy effect. Silk and wool pieces may be used in the woof, alternating with one or more threads of wool yarn of any desired shade; and, if of the same colour as the warp used, they will impart a very decided tone to the whole product. In portières, the general appearance is much improved if the woof is not beaten up hard into the warp. The soft beating gives a resulting texture that is more pliable and more suitable for hanging in easy folds such as is demanded in portières. Couch covers, however, which will have to resist more wear and tear, should be beaten up harder. In preparing the silk and wool pieces the cloth should be cut into very fine strips, joined by carefully lapping the ends, and, by cutting away a part of the cloth, making the joint uniform in size. If the material is cloth of ordinary thickness 1⁄2 an inch is quite wide enough for strips. The length of the pieces used may vary greatly, though they may be somewhat different in colour. They may vary all the way from a few inches to a length long enough to weave an inch in the portière or cover. This makes it very easy to secure a source of supply for the material in saving old garments and short pieces of cloth for the specific purpose of making up the woof threads for these products of the loom. Almost any household will be able to save enough in a short time to furnish the material for a beautiful pair of portières or a couch cover which will be durable in quality, easy to clean, attractive in colour, and satisfactory from every point of view.
PROBLEM: WINDOW DRAPERIES AND CURTAINS
The Design.—Curtains of one colour or of several are woven on the simple loom with two harnesses. They may be of the soft cream tint, the material for which is easily obtained and the effect of which, in softening the light passing through them, leaves little to be desired. But if a little colour be required, the weaving design may be easily changed to secure this result. One may, for example, weave at first 7 inches of the plain cream. This will give woven material enough for a 2-inch hem at the bottom of the curtain and 5 inches before the beginning of a coloured border. The border may consist of two threads of colour alternating with two threads of the cream, thus making a stripe of about 7 inches in width. Following this may come 8 to 10 inches of the plain cream, followed in turn by a narrow stripe of the same colour as the border, 3 inches wide, in turn followed by another 10 inches of the plain cream and another narrow stripe, and so on, alternately, until the required length of the curtain has been woven. If desired, a top border may be woven in, though it is well to make it somewhat narrower than the one at the bottom—say about 5 inches—and it must be added so that it will show below the hem. In any case the top of the curtain should be woven plain, allowing for hemming, and also for shirring if a rod is to be inserted for hanging the curtain. Vertical stripes are often desirable in curtains, especially if the room is so low studded as to invite the employment of every possible means for making it seem higher. Such stripes may be made by using two colours for the warp—as, for example, blue and white or green and white—with one of these colours as woof.
