Linen Pouch with Tablet Woven Edges

Introduction:

This is a linen pouch sewn together with tablet woven edges. Cloth pouches were popular in the 13th and 14th centuries, and several have been found with tablet woven edges. (Egan & Pritchard 348-350) This piece was an experiment trying the technique of tablet weaving the seams together. The weft is attached to a needle, which is passed between the shed of the weaving and then sewn on to the fabric. This is repeated in a circular manner, resulting in a seam of a tablet woven edge.

The design:

I decided to use linen cloth since linen was readily available in the 13th and 14th centuries when these pouches were made. The piece is made from a piece of rectangular linen, folded over. The size of the pouch is 9 x 11 cm. Pouches in Egan range from 8 x 7 cm, to 4 x 9 cm. (Egan et al 348) I used 4 cards of cotton string for the weaving. (Cotton was used instead of linen because of price.) I used a plain weave for the design of the weaving. The basic idea of the tablet-woven edge is to join the seams together forming a tubular woven edge, which gives a stronger edge than just sewing alone. (Crowfoot et al 161) I started the weaving on an inkle loom, but had to move it to a post loom soon after I began the weaving. The weaving went up one side seam, and then was split into two cards for each side of the top of the pouch. At this point, I had three posts of the loom, two of which were perpendicular to each other to accommodate the splitting of the cards. The two cards were then brought back together into the 4 cards to go down the other side seam. (Egan & Pritchard 348) The extra string was then made into tassels, as was a characteristic of the period pouches.

I plan to do this project again, but with linen thread and 8 cards. (And possibly with silk materials.) The most difficult part of the project was the tension issue, but unfortunately with splitting the cards at the top I'm not sure how to solve this problem completely. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and this was an interesting way to add tablet woven items to my garb.

Bibliography:

Crowfoot, Elisabeth, Frances Pritchard & Kay Staniland. Textiles and Clothing 1150- 1450. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. 2001.

Egan, Geoff & Frances Pritchard Dress Accessories 1150-1450. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. 2002