Mitering Corners on Handwoven Lace

A weaver recently asked me how I miter corners.  Photos are so much better than words, or really help the words, and anyone that has read my blog knows that is what I do best.  It is a long post, but here is the end result, all ready for tea.

When I first started to weave, I took a nine month long class called Weaver's Boot Camp.  This particular class assignment was to design a two-block lace pattern and weave 4 place-mats. Woven lace is a loom generated fabric that has holes in it. I chose Swedish Lace with lattice hem-stitching and made table napkins, instead of place-mats because my yarn was pretty fine. I have included my finishing technique for mitering corners with these step-by-step instructions and photos.  Feel free to borrow, but please include a link back to this post.  Thank you.

Wet finish the piece and steam press before starting so the weaving yarn is set.  Turn edge in 1/4" and press.

A chalk line is marked diagonally on the corner from hem crease line to crease line.  

If you are trying this without the hem-stitching, you will need to determine how deep your hem will be.  From the finished photo above, you can see that mine is a fairly deep hem, folding up to the first edge of the first hem-stitching row.  You may want to chalk mark that also.

Fold corner, hems and right sides together. Stitch on chalk line, from hem fold (not the edge) to diagonal fold. Use a fairly small stitch. Back stitch both ends.

Note that the stitching only goes to the hem fold, not the edge.  Trim the seam to 1/4". The hem is not turned down while trimming.

At this point, if your fabric ravels easily, you could carefully treat the cut edge with Dritz Fray Check.  It is a permanent treatment, and is a bit stiff, so make sure it doesn't  soak through to any area that will be on the outside.

Turn the pressed 1/4" edge hem on both sides.

Dampen corner and finger press diagonal seam open.  Raveling can be a problem, so use care.

Carefully turn the corner, gently working the point out with a blunt object.  I used a medium sized crochet hook.  

Fold hem and pin in place. Repeat for the other 3 corners.

Hand or machine stitch hem. I like to finish mine on the sewing machine. I set the zigzag so it will catch one thread of the hem...

and then one stitch into the hemstitching space.  Adjust the stitch length to try and avoid hitting the hem-stitching threads.  If your thread matches the fabric, you will be unable to tell that it is machine stitched unless you examine it very closely.

If you are doing mitered hems without the hemstitching, the machine stitching can be a straight stitch.

Done and ready for pressing!

Atwater-Bronson Lace Pick-up

Along with finishing weaving the rag rug last night, I also finished the hems (by machine) on the Atwater-Bronson lace towel I was working on.  This towel is a sampler of designs I drew on graph paper, when I was playing around with the possibilities for this lace pick-up technique.  There are twelve squares, each with a different design.  Each square consists of 10 x 10 lace blocks.  Each lace block consists of eight warp threads and eight weft picks.

I divided the designs into groups depending on how many blocks each required.  I just kept drawing until I had enough designs for what I wanted to do.  Since my squares were 10 x 10 blocks, I needed to use an even number design, or the design wouldn't be centered.  If I used the designs that are 7 or 9 blocks wide, I would thread an uneven number of lace blocks.  The x part of the design turns out as plain weave when woven.

This is one half of the towel.  The designs from my graph are:
Top row: 8-G, 6-E, 8-F
Bottom row: 6-I, 8-E, 6-B

This is the other end of the towel.  The patterns are:   Top row:  6-A, 8-H, 6-B (minus 4 x's).  Bottom row:  8-L (minus 4 x's), 6-C, 8-I

This is a very easy weave structure, and the treadling sequence is very easy to memorize.  My grandson Davey (age 8) was over last weekend, and he was able to weave some of it, and understood the pickup on this simple pattern, which is only 4 blocks wide by 3 blocks high:

As I mentioned in a previous post, this pickup idea came from an article by Bob Owen in the March/April 1992 issue of Handwoven, pg. 56-57.

If I was going to change anything the next time, I would have more lace, and less plain weave divisions.  But then, the possibilities are just about endless.  Unfortunately, I will probably not have enough time to ever weave all my ideas.

I'm going out to get that rag rug off the loom now.  

Ladder Hemstitching with Photos

I was looking for instructions for ladder hemstitching a couple days ago, because I can't seem to remember which side I should start the stitching. I did the first end of the towel without instructions, starting from the left, and it felt awkward, especially the second row. I could find directions for the first half of the two rows in some of my books, but not the second row.
I decided to try it again, from the right side (I'm right handed), and snap some photos as I did the steps. Now I can refer to my own directions in the future.
My towel started with a plain weave hem.  I wanted a hem about one inch wide, so I wove about 2 1/2" before starting the hemstitching.  I cut a tail from the weft, about 3-4 widths long. Thread a tapestry needle (which has a blunt tip) with the tail.

Starting at the right side, take the thread under the first bundle and up between the first and second group of threads. (Wrapping the first group is not shown, but is done like this photo.) 

Holding the thread taut, put the needle under the bundle again, and bring it up between the first and second bundle, two threads below the edge.  Tighten thread. 

Holding thread taut, the needle goes under the next bundle, up between bundles, and around bundle.  The needle exits two threads below. Repeat, as in the two photos, across the row.

Some of the first row. The spacing will look neat and even, if the thread is kept taut while stitching.

This shows two spacer rows woven in with a smooth, heavier yarn.  Make sure the heavy yarn is in the correct shed if it matters which direction your plain weave needs to be woven. Leave four widths of yarn at the right side, and weave several picks of plain weave.

Start the second hemstitching like the first, threading a tapestry needle with the tail.  Start with the needle under the first bundle, up and around the bundle, coming up between the bundles, two threads above the row.

Hold the thread taut, needle under the next bundle,

around the bundle, exiting two threads above.  Repeat across the towel.  

Finished ladder hemstitching.  The spacer yarn is pulled out after wet-finishing the piece.  Turn the hem.  Finish by hand, or as I did, by using matching thread and the zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine.  Adjust the stitch length, so each zig goes into a hole, and each zag catches the hem.

Zig-zag hemstitching can also be done using the same directions, with one difference in the second row.  Instead of using the whole first bundle, wrap around half of it.  Each successive group will be half of two groups from row one.

Although I was doing ladder hemstitching for these instructions, a single row can also be used to anchor the warp threads in bundles for fringe, instead of tying them in a knot.  It looks nicer, and doesn't take much more time, and your piece doesn't have hard lumps from knots.