Production weaving necessitates putting on enough warp for multiple garments on the loom. Valley Vogue Collections takes great care to weave each garment differently whether it be in design, color or embellishments. Designing garments takes several hours in drafting, crunching numbers and planning. Great effort is taken to allow enough width and length to produce the right amount of finished cloth.

Once the drafting is completed, the fiber needs to be wound according to the proper yardage. If the pattern is multicolored, the thread count takes much more time and care so as not tot make mistakes. Stripes are nice if they land where the plan is intended; but in the wrong place, they can be quite unattractive. Once the threads are wound, they become the "warp" for the loom. Depending on yardage, this can take a few hours.

Now, the loom needs to be "dressed" with the warp. Each thread is separately threaded through a heddle according to the draft design. Once all the threads are threaded through the heddles, the warp is pulled at an even tension and wrapped around the back beam. The ends are attached at the front of the loom to create a tightly tensioned warp.This is time consuming and challenging. One mistake could be costly. The time is dictated by the pattern complexity and the number of threads. Our bamboo shawls take three to four hours to thread..

With the loom dressed, the pattern threading corrected (if needed) and the bobbins wound, weaving can begin. Our turned twill scarves take over 2 1/2 hours each to weave. A bamboo shawl can take more if it is beaded and hand picked. A carpet bag takes about an hour but more hours lay ahead to complete the sewing. A shrug takes less time to weave but more finishing work is required.



Last updated on February 23, 2010 by [Your Name Here]