Woven V-Neck - All Fiber Arts

V-Neck Shaping on a Loom

Cotton V-Neck Top at the British Museum
During an afternoon stroll through the British Museum, in London, I noticed this handwoven cotton top. On closer examination, it looked like the V-neck had no sewn selvages, so I think it must have been shaped on the loom.

To test my theory of the shaping of this garment, I tried the technique on the remaining yardage of a hemp warp that I had on my loom.

I had previously woven a couple of hemp shawls on this warp and had about a yard of warp left to weave.

Warp:

3 ply white and natural hemp, random warp dyed with Cochineal, Madder
Sett: 10 epi
No. Ends: 200

Armhole Shaping:

Starting at one of the outside selvages (left side), I cut one warp thread at the selvage (at the back of the warp) and wove it as weft to the opposite edge (right side). I changed sheds and wove it back across 3 ends, to make a clean edge finish.

Working from the right side this time, I cut one warp thread on the right selvage edge at the back of the loom, and wove it across to the left selvage. I changed sheds and wove this back 3 warp threads.

I continued on in this fashion for about 1 -2 inches, cutting 1 warp thread at a time and weaving it across and tucking it back into the edge. The weft ends can be cut after the warp is removed from the loom. Sometimes I find it easier to trim them as I am weaving.

V-Neck Shaping

To start the beginning of the V-neck, I cut 1 warp thread from each side of the warp and using it as a weft yarn, wove it to the centre of the warp. I changed sheds and then wove the warp thread back to the outside edge, tucking it in as before.

Then I cut 2 warp threads from the centre of the warp (at the back of the loom)

Treating them as a weft yarn, I wove them to the outside edge, changed sheds and wove them back to the centre.

I then continued on weaving, alternating with cutting the 2 outside edge warp threads and the next 2 centre threads.

The weft threads can be trimmed as you are weaving, or can be left and trimmed after the fabric is off the loom. I have trimmed the weft threads on the right side of this but left them on the left side.

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Cotton V-Neck Top at the British Museum

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V-Neck Shaping - All Fiber Arts

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V-Neck Shaping on a Loom

Warp:

Armhole Shaping:

V-Neck Shaping

More About Weaving:

	V-Neck Shaping - All Fiber Arts
	Shaping a V-Neckline on the loom.