Weaving pillowcases

Ever since seeing some pillowcases in Handwoven magazine several years ago I have wanted to design a set. I decided to use 10/2 mercerized cotton for the warp as I had quite a bit in white and that is what was used in a sample I really liked. I should get 3 sets of pillowcases.

The pattern is a summer and winter adaptation that was published in Warp and Weft (May 1958). In their sample they used 10/2 mercerized cotton for the warp and a silk and textured yarn for their weft and the suggested use was table linens. The treadling was as drawn in. When I did my sample at the beginning of the warp, I decided I liked the look of reversing my pattern when I reached the end instead of using the as drawn in treadling. To speed up the weaving I used just one weft.

For the first set, I chose a 1 ply organic cotton I purchased off eBay last winter. The 1 ply organic cotton had to be wound on to the pirns carefully as it had a tendency to ply itself when there was any slack at all. Of course any pull and the yarn would break. I love my end feed shuttles as you can get so much more yarn on the pirn and it comes off so nicely. To maintain the tension I set the coned yarn under my tension box and wound at a consistent speed. The p icture on the left is the organic fabric on the loom. The weft is actually a light beige colour.

I am currently now weaving the second sett and this time I chose white bamboo for the weft. The fabric has a lacey block and a textured block. It was hard to get a really good picture as I could see shadows of myself in the picture and I will take another picture once the fabric is off the loom and the pillowcases are sewn.