My 4th tablet woven band & a great book about tablet weaving… :)

And here a sneak peek at my 4th tablet woven band.

Ok, I admit it, this tablet woven band is not the best looking one I have created till now but I think that it still looks good enough to use it as an embellishment for one of my future hand-sewing projects. Looking back at my very last tablet woven band for which I used some good quality silk threads, I guess that the not so appealing look of my new tablet woven band has more to do with the thread I used for the weaving (some Polyester “wool” thread) rather than my actual skill.

Nevertheless I don’t really mind the outcome as it is just my 4th try to make a tablet woven band till now. It gave me the great possibility to execute the tablet weaving technique again and I was able to try out some things I had on my mind. Though some of my ideas didn’t work out the way I anticipated, I can still say that it was worth it as I definitely learned from trying them…

If you would like to try this great and very old technique yourself, I highly recommend my favorite book about “Finnish tablet woven bands”:

Applesies and Fox Noses – Finnish Tabletwoven Bands

Authors: Maikki Karisto & Mervi Pasanen
Photography: Riikka Sundqvist
ISBN 978-952-5774-49-8
96 pages, softcover
Available here: Salakirjat

This is a really great book about tablet weaving which gives all necessary information to enable everyone to try this technique successfully. It furthermore contains enough different patterns to keep one busy for quite some time. I really love this book! 😀

Btw. the authors mention the technique “tabular selvage” on page 79 which is supposed to “strengthen the edge of the band” and “also hides the weft thread”. This definitely got my full attention as I always was a little bit unhappy about how much the weft thread is showing on the sides. And well, it is always a good idea to strengthen the edge of a trim if you want to use it for future sewing-projects… 🙂

At first I was not really sure how to execute the given directions for this technique and a search via google didn’t come up with much more useful information about it either. But I wasn’t ready to  give up yet. Fortunately I know Mervi – one of the authors – from my time in Drachenwald (SCA Europe). Therefore I contacted her and she kindly explained the “tabular selvage” technique to me. Well, as I am a quite visual person, her explanation didn’t really help me to understand the technique better but when she directed me to one of her videos on youtube which shows this technique, it suddenly made perfect sense to me:

Tablet weaving
“Tubular selvages and half turns.
Special finnish weaving techniques.”

Well, I never thought that the solution would be actually that easy – instead of going “through the pocket” created by the tablets, I had to simply bypass the first border threads by going underneath them to create a stronger edge and to furthermore also hide the weft thread. It is really amazing how simple some solutions can be – I’ll definitely try this the next time I make a tablet woven band! *lol*

And she also made another video which some of you might find interesting:

Tablet weaving: how to make continuous warp
“Making a warp to tablet weaving, this is called continuous warp…”

I hope that my personal journey into the world of tablet weaving inspires some of you to try this interesting technique yourself and to make your very own tablet woven band. It is a great and very old technique which creates beautiful trim – trim which can easily be used as a great embellishment for your future sewing projects And tablet weaving is another great technique which could keep you busy for quite some time… Just sayin’… 😀