…another tablet woven band finished!

Wooohooo! I finished another tablet woven band! And this time I even added black glass beads to it while I was weaving it! *happydance*

Well, it seems like I made enough tablet woven bands during the last months that I finally gave up on counting them. However, if I had to make an educated guess, I would say this band is number 10(+something). 😀

But the number of tablet woven bands I made is actually not really important to me. What really counts is that I am still using the frame my dear friend Martina from Vienna/Austria gave to me before I started my life here in the states. And every time I put it to good use and create another tablet woven band, I remember all the great time I spent together with my friends in Vienna. However, I don’t dread remembering the past as it adds a sweet memory of the past to each band I weave for the future. 🙂

…and on the picture underneath you can see how my little stash of tablet woven bands is slowly filling up:

…so many colors and possibilities for future sewing projects:

…though a crafty girl like me can never have enough tablet woven trim, I’d call this selection a really nice stash:

I have to say that the picture above makes me really proud! I went from doing no weaving at all to making all these tablet woven bands myself! I even tried my hand on slightly more difficult patterns than the simple “all forward and all backward at the same time” patterns. And though some swear words might have been involved from time to time – especially while trying the more difficult patterns – I am very satisfied with the result. Yes, weaving doesn’t come as easily to me as embroidery but I still consider it a lot of fun. 😀

…and here a closer look at my most recent tablet woven band with black glass beads which I just finished:

Adding the black glass beads was not difficult at all. However, it slowed down the weaving process by quite a bit. But let’s start at the beginning – once I decided to add the glass beads, I had to work out the easiest and best way to do it and this is the solution I came up with – enjoy! 😀

As you can see on the picture underneath, I decided to use an extra spool of sewing thread for the glass beads. On this thread I threaded a good amount of beads. Before you ask – I simply estimated the amount of beads I might need.

Having all the glass beads on a separate thread and spool made working with them easier than having to deal with them on my weaving shuttle. Furthermore the sides of the spool allowed me to easily restrict the thread movement whenever I wasn’t using the glass beads for the weaving. This way I could keep the thread at a desirable length – shortening or enlarging it when needed – while it also made its control so much easier and kept the beads out of my way while they weren’t needed. 

At the beginning I secured the thread on which I threaded the glass beads by running it through the normal weave which gave it a firm beginning within the band. Then I decided to only secure the extra thread in between the use of the glass beads by using the border threads of my weave. Therefore – after about every 2 or 3 turns – I simply took the whole spool and put it through the two bottom strands of my border weave – left or right side, depending on which side my spool was situated at the moment. This way most of the thread, on which the glass beads were threaded, was firmly secured within the border weave. This minimizes the risk of the thread catching on to something and ripping in the future.

…and then, every time I got to the section where I wanted to insert the glass beads, I put my spool with the glass beads through the weaving pocket of my tablets, opened up the thread on my spool, took 2 beads from the spool to the free hanging thread and with a pointed stick I managed to reposition the beads in their designated pockets:

Well, needless to say, sometimes this task was easier and sometimes it took some time to get the beads where I wanted them to be. At the picture above you can see the glass beads in their small “pockets”, peeking through the threads. 🙂

One of the comments I got on my facebook page asked for instructions of how to finish a tablet woven band. Therefore the picture underneath shows you how I finish my tablet woven bands. Regardless if this is the end of a band I just wove or a band which I just cut to put it on a tunic, I always use the same simple technique:

I usually take the thread I was weaving with (or some extra, firm sewing thread, if the thread used for the weaving is too thick) as well as a very thin sewing needle and then I “sew” the weaving thread back into the weaving. Just about 3 or 4 times going through the weave is normally more than enough and gives it a very good end which doesn’t unravel.  Btw. it’s important to stay within the weave to give it a good firm ending. However, you might like to alter the height or the weaving pocket a little so you don’t go through the same weaving pocket all the time.

You might like to have some pliers at hand when you do the above described technique because sometimes it can be quite difficult to pull the needle through the weave. Therefore: Carefully and gently push from the back and pull from the front without too much bending to the sides. Otherwise your sewing needles might break! Believe me – I lost far too many needles this way! *lol* 

…and now I just need to start a new sewing project so I can use up some of my new tablet woven bands… *giggle*