Painted Warp Monk's Belt Trim

Painted Warp Monk's Belt Trim

By Betty Paepke

This week's Inkle Loom Challenge project comes from our shipping clerk Betty Paepke. The drape of the resulting fabric is luxurious.

Betty shares her process below:

The pattern for this trim comes from The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory, page 96 - Monk's Belt - Alternating Blocks 1. The inspiration for this project came from a jacket fabric I've envisioned in Boulevard weave, inspired by a Boulder Handweaver's Guild juried show, entitled "Ice". My color palette would reflect glacial colors of  indigo, turquoise, blue, aqua, grey, and pink.

For this challenge, I returned to the "Ice" theme for a band that would trim my imagined jacket fabric and would echo the Boulevard weave structure of the jacket fabric.

I used 10/2 bamboo which gives this band a silky sheen and texture. The background is a solid blue and the pattern threads are a painted warp I painted with fiber reactive dyes. Though I find this band lovely, both the painted warp colors and the background color ended up being more pale than I anticipated. I will try for darker, richer colors for my final project. That said, I find the resulting trim interesting and this sample has allowed me to get a visual feel for the trim I would like to use for the jacket. Although I did not deviate from the 2 block vs 3 block form of the weave, the pattern thread blocks could be manipulated to allow 1, 2 or 3 blocks of color. The placement of those blocks would be another pattern element.

close-up of band

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