Teddy Bear Wool Fabric

This project is destined to become Teddy bears.  All eight grandchildren have gone home, so I had a little weaving time tonight. The overdyed brown wool is on the loom, all threaded with the help of granddaughter Hailee, and the samples are woven.  The brown wool is sett at 16 epi.

The twill variations are from Davison's book, pg. 13 and 14.  It is threaded 1-2-3-4-3-2 and repeated.  The burgundy and brown sample is version V on pg. 13.  The selvedges weren't to my liking, but I realized we hadn't doubled the last 4 warp threads in the reed, so I fixed that, and the edges looked a little better.  I don't really have to worry about having good edges, since this is just fabric that will be cut, but I usually try to improve my skills while weaving, so I am trying to make them look decent.  The burgundy yarn is size 9/2 wool with 10% nylon. 

The second sample is woven with 100% wool, which has slubs of dark throughout.  It is another yarn I picked up at an estate sale.  This sample is from pg. 14, version VIII.  It is easy to treadle and memorize the sequence.  This one seems to be a bit firmer fabric, and the edges looked better.

After weaving about 6", I ended the sample with some plain weave, and coated the inch with glue.  I'm letting it dry overnight, and then I will slip a rod in the shed, cut off my samples before the glued area, and then reattach the glued area and the rod to my apron rod with texsolv cord.  I like this method for cutting samples, or completed projects off the loom without much loom waste.

I am going to cut my samples in half, keep one half unwashed as a reference, and wash the other half until the fabric feels stable.  It should be felted enough to keep me from poking a fingernail through the weave.  Once I check for shrinkage, I will be able to figure out how much to weave for each bear.