Weave-Along 3: Finishing The Tapestry Eyeglass Case

I decided to finish the eyeglass case (or it could be an iPod case if you make it a tad wider). Those of you who are working on the original purse, just keep on weaving and we will post finishing for that next weekend. I am going to post the finishing for the smaller piece.

I have to tell you, it was really fun to finish. I was sort of hoping I could get away with not using any beads simply so it would be more “manly” but there were stitches I needed to cover up and the beads were the only option. I love the way the beads look. I don’t know if my brother-in-law will like the beads as much. I might have to try a second one where I am really careful with my sewing so that it doesn’t require beads. But being a lover of beads and especially the way they can cover things up so beautifully . . . . it’s hard to not use them.

Last weekend we ended with the piece off the loom and the warps tied off, weft ends trimmed.

The next step is to back the piece with silk. Silk makes everything just that much more beautiful! These stitches will only show at the opening of the eyeglass case, so be careful if you are not going to finish with beads to make those top stitches as neat and invisible as possible.

My stitches below. I’d give them about a C plus, maybe.

The next step is to sew the bottom and one side together. The other side, obviously, is where you fold the case. This is where you want those neat little stitches again if you are not going to fall back on the beads to make it look good.

You could be done now. I wasn’t. I used about three seed beads for each pass.

Then I sewed beads on the side and bottom. Sometimes I used three, sometimes four or five. I also used a combination of size 11/0 and 8/0 beads just for fun.