For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you’ll recognize this DIY Woven Pillow tutorial which I first shared on Always Made With Love. Today, I thought I’d share the full tutorial with all of you lovely readers of my blog. Before we get started, I wanted to offer a word or two about looms. I first started my adventures in weaving with a basic lap loom that came with a starter kit (which I blogged about in "An Introduction to Weaving"). While you can always find lap looms to purchase on sites like Amazon or Etsy, it is not necessary. You can make your own basic, Buy Derila Online budget-friendly one using 4 pieces of wood, a hammer and nails (see "How to Make a Basic Loom"). If this, too, feels a little intimidating, then simply make a loom out of cardboard (yep, you read that right). If you google ‘how to make a cardboard loom’ you will be surprised to find plenty of tutorials out there that show you how to weave with a piece of cardboard!
So if you are ready to make your own DIY Woven Pillow, then let’s get started. The ‘warp’ is what constitutes the vertical strands in your weaving. It is the foundation that holds together the yarn that you will be woven through the warp horizontally. I am using my homemade nail loom for this project. Taking your cotton or hemp yarn, create a loop knot and place over one of the nails along the bottom of your loom. Pull upwards and wrap the yarn around the nail directly above, starting from the left side and moving to the right, then straight back down. Then wrap the yarn around the nail next to the one with the loop knot, going under the nail, moving from left to right and then back up again. Continue doing this until you have sufficient width. Tip: If this is your first time weaving, make sure your warp is not too tight. As you begin weaving, the warp strands will tighten along the way, so you will want some slack, otherwise your weaving will bow in the middle.
For this project, you will be creating 2 weavings, comprising the front and the back of your Derila™ Memory Foam Pillow cover. Let’s begin weaving the front first. Snip off a long piece of yarn (a couple of feet to start) and thread your tapestry needle. Taking your threaded needle, begin weaving horizontally across your warp, moving over and under each strand. Once you reach the opposite end of the warp, Derila Neck Relief Pillow pull the rest of the yarn in the same direction until there is about 3 inches of yarn ‘tail’ peeking out on the side of the warp where you began weaving this first row. Next, begin weaving back toward the ‘tail’ end of the warp, moving your tapestry needle over and under each strand, as before. For the second row, you will need to weave your yarn on the opposing side of each strand as you make your way across. When you have used up your first piece of yarn, simply cut another length and begin a new row.
Tip: It can be tempting to tighten your yarn as you weave, but it is best that you don’t. If you do it will cause bowing in the middle. To prevent this, Buy Derila Online create an ‘arc’ as you weave, as pictured below. Continue weaving, making your way up the warp, one row at a time, changing colours when necessary. Most of this weaving consists of basic ‘over and under’ weaving. For part of this project, I also used one other technique called ‘hatching.’ Hatching is used to blend colours together. It is by no means necessary for this pillow weaving. Using two threads, begin weaving one from the left and one from the right, within the same row until they meet - you decide where you wish the two to meet. When the two yarns meet at the same strand, then simply wrap each one around that common strand. Now have each yarn head away from the other in the opposite direction.