Making a rag tapestry purse

I was in the mood to play with something new.  Reached into my warp stash and came up with lovely rose colored (they are slightly different in color) very high-quality cotton warp.  Rolled the two colors into a ball so I could use a double warp.  Without three hands trying to manage those two tubes would have been difficult at best.  Warped the loom.  Put on shedding device.  Used a ten dent coil every other dent.  A twelve (six dent in other words) dent coil would have worked just fine.  Make it as wide as you’d like.

I have a lovely stash of already stripped “rags.”  It’s actually beautiful first quality fabric but you can use rags.  What a great way to use up cotton shirts, etc. that you don’t wear anymore.  Or you can go to the fabric store and buy something you love.  Stripping the fabric is a bit of pain and should probably done outdoors because it coughs up a lot of little cotton fibers you don’t necessarily want floating around your house or studio.  I did this stripping twenty years ago.  I had to dig into that closet to find this stuff.  So glad I saved it.  In the past I’ve used these “rags” for table runners that last and last and last.  The deal is:  if you use high-quality warp and high-quality cotton rags your piece will last for a very long time.  I’ve also made a couple of rugs that unlike commercial rag rugs I’ve purchased have lasted for twenty years after dozens and dozens of washings.

It took me about four hours to:  warp loom, weave and finish purse.  Not bad for a whim.

Front of finished purse.