Place Mats

Spent most of the day Tuesday out of the stuido running errands, then pressing the placemats woven on the red warp. Only got some of the towels done, but they are now ready to be hemmed, and then given their final pressing.

After years of not making place mats and table runners, (we used to wholesale mats/table runners in the 80's throughout western Canada) I now find myself back to making place mats. :) The local consignment shop has had requests, and since I've still got stash to reduce.....

So this warp on the Fanny is for mats for the shop. Since they will most reasonably sell before Christmas, there's a deadline looming!

I tried the rayon/linen (it is, indeed linen) textured weft singly, but wasn't happy with the results for a place mat. So my first try was woven 34" long for a table runner. For the place mats, I've doubled the weft and am much happier with the weight.

With a hemming and fringe twisting pile beginning to resemble the Rocky Mountains, I decided to hem stitch these on the loom so that once cut off all I have to do is wet finish and trim them and deliver to the store. Hopefully sometime later this week or early next.

Since the body of the mat is woven with a very thick and highly textured yarn, I begin and end each mat with some of the same yarn as the warp but only a single strand, and hemstitch after 3 picks. About 4 inches has been left between for the fringes which will get trimmed to about an inch and a half after wet finishing.

Today I'll deliver the place mats and some towels that were pressed yesterday. All that's left is to tag and inventory them.