Well, I’m almost halfway done threading, having finished 11 of 23 sections. Since my sewing pattern pieces have not yet arrived (though they should get here tomorrow or Monday), I can’t do any sewing – so I plan to focus on weaving with a few hours out for chocolate carnage cleanup this weekend. With luck I should be able to finish threading, sleying, and tying on by Saturday night, and start weaving in earnest on Sunday!
Plans for this warp are to start with a 2 yard sample, which will become my backup fabric in case I make a mistake later. In theory I should only need about 15 yards total, but I’m taking no chances: I plan to weave up a full 18 yards plus the 2 yard sample, so I know I’ll have enough. If I have time (ha!) I’ll weave off the entire warp, which would probably be about 2-3 additional yards. After that, I’ll warp up and weave off the double-happiness ribbon, which should be pretty quick by comparison.
I will, however, be keeping one eye on the clock. At 2-3 hours/yard, 20 yards will take (pessimistically) about 60 hours to weave. I want to finish all the fabrics by January 15 so I have one month to focus on sewing, and I’m out of town visiting family Dec 24-Jan 3. A little math says that gives me 31 days (8 weekend days) to put in the remaining warping time plus 60 hours of weaving + however long it takes to wet-finish the fabric. Call it 70-80 hours, total. That’s do-able (barely), but it does mean I need to get my butt in gear and focus on weaving.
I did briefly consider working on completing the dress first, then working on the coat, thus guaranteeing that I would have ONE finished garment for the Fashion Show mail-in deadline. After thinking it through, though, I think the better route is to do all the weaving upfront. The reasoning is pretty simple: if I start running out of time, I can get several seamstresses I know to help me on the sewing, but I’m the only one who can weave the yardage. So it makes sense to finish the bottleneck task first. (Yeah, that’s my project manager hat showing – can you tell I plan things for a living?) So, while I will work a little bit on the muslins, I’m going to concentrate on weaving for the next six weeks.
I’m looking forward to weaving on the “forever warp”! I think the eternity-knot pattern is the prettiest of the three patterns in the ensemble, and am breathlessly awaiting the moment when I can see how it looks draped against my body. I do hope it will look good! I’d hate to have to do things over, and I don’t think I have time to do much fiddling, at least if I plan to enter it in for the Convergence Fashion Show.
So there is my plan for the next few weeks…looking forward to starting the weaving!
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