You may have heard that Mother’s Day is nearly upon us. It’s kind of hard not to know, as commercialized as this holiday has become over the years. But mothers do need to be celebrated so truly I’m glad for the reminder as the day approaches.
Over the years I’ve given a wide variety of gifts to my mom for this special day. I usually try to give her something handmade, because she’s my mom, and I know she appreciates the thought behind it. At this point in her life, I can think of all kinds of things she doesn’t really need. She doesn’t need a scarf or a hat or a sweater. She doesn’t need knick-knacks or other little trifles, though I’m sure I could find something that would amuse her. What she does treasure are memories.
I decided to make her a little something to hold these memories, and settled on a small woven pouch. My life is so busy it’s tough to find a spare moment. Weaving goes so quickly, especially on a rigid heddle, so this made it easy to decide how I would make the pouch.
For anyone wanting to duplicate this, here are the specs for my piece of woven fabric:
- Sett: 10 epi/10 dent reed
- Weaving width: 14″ (though I didn’t end up using the full width of my fabric in the pouch. You could easily get away with less width, depending on your desired finished pouch size)
- Warp length: 1 1/2 yds
- Warp Yarn: Unity Beyond # 205 Coral Wash, 1 skein
- Weft YARN: Unity #107 Purple Fog & #109 Natural, 1 skein each
- Weave structure: plain weave
- Loom: 15″ Schacht cricket rigid heddle
I warped with Unity Beyond, using the direct method.
I then wove about 3 inches of plain weave with #109 Natural, switched to #107 Purple Fog until the last bit of warp, and then finished out with 3 inches of #109 Natural.
I cut my fabric from the loom, finished the ends with a machine zig-zag, and then washed and pressed my fabric.
For the pouch pattern, I roughly followed this very simple tutorial: (link). If you’re not super comfortable sewing, this would be a great project for you. And if you’re more experienced, this will be a total breeze.
Before getting to the sewing part, I had decided that I wanted to add a little personal touch. I had a little ball of Cotton Supreme in my stash that coordinated well, and decided on a little heart. My embroidery skills are quite rudimentary, so use your imagination to come up with something better than this!
One thing to keep in mind with handwoven fabric, is that your weaving will likely want to come apart if you cut into it. Handwoven fabric, especially using handknitting yarns, does not have as high a thread count as commercial fabric on a bolt. Before cutting into my fabric, I used a fusible interfacing which I just ironed onto the back side of the fabric. The interfacing has an adhesive which helps to secure the fibers in the yarn.
After doing this, I cut out two pieces from my woven fabric 7″ x 9″. I also cut two lining pieces from some stash fabric (an old pillowcase, actually!) also 7″ x 9″.
At this point, I followed the tutorial that I mentioned above (here it is again: (link) And voila, just a short time later, I had a pouch:
In the papercrafting section at my local store, I found some pretty watercolor looking paper in a cardstock weight that coordinated with the colors of my yarn. I cut some pieces that were about 3″ x 4″. I spent some time one evening writing down positive memories about my mom, one memory per card. It was fun and quite therapeutic.
I think my mom will enjoy reading through these, perhaps being reminded of things she’s forgotten or things she never thought I noticed.
Whether you’re a parent or a child, I hope this Mother’s Day is a good one for you!